Equitable Growth 2015-2019 Budget and Staffing Plan
Overview
The mission of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth is to accelerate cuttingedge analysis into whether and how structural changes in the U.S. economy,
particularly related to economic inequality, affect economic growth. We employ
three specific institutional strategies to achieve this mission.
One is to cultivate academics, support new research, and bring scholars together to
investigate whether and how economic inequality affects economic growth and
stability. To achieve this end we believe by 2019 we need to expand our grantgiving
capacity to $2,402,000 a year, fund $150,000 in commissioned papers, and hire
seven additional research staff ($434,000).
Second, we build a bridge between academics and policymakers in order to raise
policy-relevant questions about whether and now economic inequality affects
economic growth. This strategy enables Equitable Growth to move beyond just
funding research that investigates the efficacy of equitable growth compared to
current economic arguments that posit a trade off between reducing inequality and
encouraging economic growth. To make these critical connections between our
academic network and policymakers, we believe by 2019 we need to spend
$1,308,204 on our research and policy analysis aimed at Capitol Hill, the Executive
Branch, and select statehouses around the country while adding six new staff
($326,000).
Third, we help shape a more robust discussion about inequality and growth. By
communicating the importance of our funded research and policy outreach to elite
media and other thought leaders on economic policy, we amplify our findings
beyond across academia and the policy realm. We believe by 2019 we need to spend
$1,233,640 on communications and policy outreach products and services and add
three new staff ($166,000) to our organization in order to broadcast the importance
of our academic research and policy deliberations to a key set of influential
audiences engaged in these broader economic debates.
This snapshot of on our spending to meet our strategic vision would elevate
Equitable Growth’s academic grantgiving by 2019 to levels now met only by the
Russell Sage Foundation among our peers. Such spending on policy outreach would
carry us into the ranks of Washington policy-focused organizations such as the
Economic Policy Institute and the American Enterprise Institute among our peers.
And our spending on communications would carry our academic and policy work to
levels of influence now enjoyed by Brookings and CAP. Yet of all this spending over
five years by Equitable Growth is in pursuit of a strategic vision unique to
Washington—one capable of changing the way economics is thought about and
discussed across a wide array of forums.
In the pages that follow, we detail the requirements for Equitable Growth to become
independent while doubling the budget over the next five years to achieve our
overarching mission. We first present the programmatic breakdown of our fiveyear budget. Everything we plan to do flows out of growing our academic
grantmaking and therefore our growing stock of intellectual capital, in terms of both
individuals and potential research products and ideas.
We then present the staffing details extended out to 2019, timed to reflect a
measured pace of growth that also accounts for promotions. The timing of specific
hires also reflects the ability of existing Equitable Growth staff to achieve their
2015-2016 goals while handling a possible move.
Program explanations by category
Academic grantmaking
By gradually ramping up our grantmaking capacity each year, with an initial push on
making more grants to doctoral students, we identify next-generation talent,and
aggressively building a cohort of researchers whose early work is informed by our
framework. We’re investing in the pipeline here! Academic grantmaking (to
professors) grows steadily over time. The budget for each year depends on the size
grants that we want to offer, but by 2019 we think we need to reach the $2 million
level, with the capacity to offer at least two sizable multiyear grants.
Annual conference
In 2015, 2016, and 2019 we will want the capacity to do a big, glossy, high-profile
event in conjunction with campaign (2015, 2019) and election (2016) seasons. The
budget for 2017 and 2018 is more modest given that we will likely have less
appetite for such an event.
Other public events
These are book events, and, potentially, public keynotes or debates featuring highprofile individuals. These are important as a way of opening up our brand to the
broader policymaking public and establishing ourselves as a player on the DC scene.
But, given our strategy and target audiences we keep them limited. In 2015, our
book release event for Gabriel Zucman is the key feature. In 2016, we’ve got Branko
Milanovic. We plan to stay steady at 2 per year through 2018 given that it’s hard to
imagine more than 2 major book releases/year. In 2019, bump up capacity here
given the upcoming election season and our expanded capacity.
Policy advisory group dinners
We plan three dinners with soon-to-be formed Policy Advisory Group in 2015. We
move to a quarterly schedule over the next four years.
Academic and policymaker convenings
This category encompasses day-long workshops akin to the planned Briefing Book
tax convening and other Briefing Book workshops. Because they are timeconsuming, expensive, and make a serious demand on participants’ time as well as
the organizers, we do not ramp up capacity substantially in this area. 8 excellent
convenings that generate exceptional follow-up in the way of product and the
organizing of research agendas and ideas is an excellent outcome to aim to achieve
annually. The one exception to this is for 2019, when we will be ramping up for
another election, and will have the capacity to go bigger than we are currently
aiming for with the 2015 policy framing work. This is why I’ve suggested 10 events
of this type for 2019.
Academic and policymaker roundtables
These are invite-only events along the lines of our Ostry lunch and Cherlin breakfast,
and the Minimum Wage roundtable we held for the advocates and policy staff. In our
current budget, these are referred to as Policymaker Briefings. We assume four
breakfast-type private events in 2016, reflecting additional capacity based on our
growing network and the completion a sizeable crop of grantees’ funded work.,
growing gradually over time and topping out a one per month.
Equitable growth staff caucus
This newly-launched program is currently folded into Policymaker Briefings in our
2015 budget. We assume a goal of 8 meetings per year, which seems reasonable
given policymakers’ staff schedules. We should not be looking to expand this in
capacity, but rather we should be looking to grow membership with the right highquality people over time.
Equitable Growth economics staff training
This is a second Equitable Growth intervention on the Hill. The staff training would
be a formal 9-week course for Hill staff, with an emphasis on getting representation
from as many Hill offices as possible (quantity over quality). The course would be
mainly lecture-style, and represents a chance to pass along our research, resources,
and way of framing economic policy issues to as broad an audience of policy staff as
possible. Past examples of this sort of “course” for staff include the Truman Project’s
successful course on national security, an immigration policy course, and a
workplace flexibility policy course run by Georgetown Law. We would build on the
success of the EG Staff Caucus, which is invite-only and focused on quality
membership over sheer numbers, and use that to sell the idea of an all-call training
course beginning when the new Congress starts in January 2017. We would add one
module per year, so in 2018, we repeat the course twice over the course of the year,
allowing additional participants. In 2019, we repeat the course 3 times over the
course of the year.
University-based convenings
In 2015, this includes Yale and the Harvard University Press Piketty project. We
plan to hold steady at two university-based convenings per year for 2016, mainly
because an election year seems like the wrong time to ramp up our outside-of-DC
activities. Beginning in 2017, our academic network will have grown to the extent
that we can aim for three university-based convenings, and by 2019 we can aim for
four.
Commissioned work
We plan to steadily commissioning 8 papers a year until 2019, when we go up to 10
a year to prepare for the 2020 elections—another critical policy juncture for us.
Commissioned papers are an important way for us to continue to engage with and
shape connections between academics and policymakers, and a key avenue for
generating the kinds of products that we want to use for communicating across
multiple audiences. Note that this is also a fairly flexible category, so we can
commission a lot of different kinds of academic-related work.
In-house fellowships
We plan to add an additional senior fellow starting in 2018 to demonstrate we are
established and seen as a desirable place to spend a sabbatical year.
Early career programs
We don’t currently have an Early Career Programs in 2015 but beginning in 2016
we plan for an annual convening of our past and present doctoral grantees. This is a
good way of creating a cohort of young up-and-coming scholars who know each
others’ work, who understand what we do and feel connected to us beyond simply
receiving a check, and it allows us the opportunity to do media training, writing
workshops, etc. with these folks as well. This is about pipeline building, creating the
next generation of leading scholars who are both changing the economics profession
and changing economic policy.
Reviewer stipends
Compensation for peer-reviewers for full proposals and all in-house research
products are necessary to ensure our academic credibility. We assume we will
review approximately 8 more proposals than we expect to fund per year, and ramp
up accordingly over the next five years.
Honoraria
Our academic workshops will feature approximately 10 participants in each
academic-policymaker writing a 2-to-5 page contribution along the lines of what we
are doing for the Yale Politics convening and the Briefing Book Tax convening. At 8
workshops per year, this is 80 honoraria. As we ramp up the number of this flavor of
convening to 10 in 2019, in anticipation of the 2020 election, this goes up to 100
honoraria.
Staffing details by function
The staffing details below break out the positions by existing titles, new-hire titles,
existing salaries and new salaries, and explanations (in italics) of any special
considerations. The memo then totals up the existing staff at the end of the next
three years alongside total salaries. The memo then closes with a staff budget
narrative explaining in more details the reasons for the new hires and the timing of
the hires as well as a preview of possible contract hires.
Executive Team
Executive Director—HB
Managing Director—EP
Senior Director, Policy and Academics Programs—EJ
Research Director—JS
Research Associate—OM
Special Projects Coordinator—ES (transitions to Office Manager in 2016)
Special Assistant to the Executive Director—hiring in process
Executive team salaries will constitute 42 percent of budget in 2015 and falling
to 25 percent of the budget by 2019.
Operations
Finance Manager—new hire in 2015—$90,000
(presuming we contract out payroll and accounting)
Office Manager—internal promotion of Eryn Sepp in 2016—$55,000
(presuming we contract out Tech and HR functions such as medical and retirement)
Operations team salaries will constitute 4 percent of the budget by the end of
2015 and rising to 5 percent by 2019.
Development
Development Manager—in hiring process—$70,000
Development Director—new hire in 2017—$120,000
Development Associate—new position in 2018—$55,000
Development salaries will constitute 2 percent of the salary budget by the end of
2015 and rising to 8 percent by 2019.
Communications
Communications Director – CS—$76,160
Design and Multimedia Director—DE—$102,000
Editorial Director—New hire in 2015—$70,000
Assistant Editor for Publications and Development—BA—$37,740
Data and Visualization Producer—AC—$83,000
Senior Blogger—Brad—$76,000
Social Media Associate—new hire in 2016—$48,000
Communications Associate—new hire in 2018—$48,000
Communications salaries will constitute 21 percent of the salary budget in 2015
and fall to 20 percent in 2019
Policy & Academic Outreach
Academic Programs
Academic Programs Manager—KD—$68,000
Academic Programs Director—internal promotion of KD in 2016—$75,000
Grants Manager—new position in 2016—$55,000
Academic Programs salaries will account for 4 percent of the salaries budget in
2015 and rising to 7 percent by 2019.
Policy Programs
(To ensure our policy analysis is tethered to our outreach, we have put both staff on
the same team, so this category includes our staff who do government affairs and
advocacy outreach as well as those who do the policy analysis and writing.)
Policy Outreach Manager—JF— $61,000
Policy Analyst—NB—$48,719
Special Assistant for Policy & Academic Programs—new hire in 2015—$38,000
Policy Analyst—new hire in 2015—$45,000
Policy Outreach Director—new hire in 2016—$75,000
Policy Analyst Director—internal promotion of NB in 2016—$55,000
Policy Outreach Assistant—new hire in 2018—$38,000
State Policy Outreach Coordinator—new hire in 2018—$68,000
Policy Analyst—new hire in 2018—$45,000
Policy Programs salaries will account for 8 percent of the salaries budget by the
end of 2015 and will rise to 16 percent by 2019.
In-House Research Team
Research Economist—BZ—$95,900
Research Economist—MS—$91,800
Research Assistant—KV— $36,000
Research Associate—internal promotion of KV in 2016—$42,000
Data Research Assistant—new hire in 2016—$36,000
Research Economist—new hire in 2017—$95,000
Research Assistant—new hire in 2017—$36,000
Data Manager—new hire in 2018—$95,000
In-house research team salaries will constitute 19 percent of the salaries budget
at the end of 2015 and remain at 19 percent in 2019.
Staffing narrative 2015-2019
This narrative presumes that Equitable Growth will become independent by the end
of 2015, with the move to new offices and the setting up of new tech, finance, and
HR functions occurring in the 4th quarter of 2015. The five new hires in 2015 reflect
the needs of this move as well as the needs of our ramped up 2016 goals that need
attention in 2015. The new hires are:
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Finance Manager—the new hire would handle all Equitable Growth
budgeting and would oversee outside contracting for accounting and payroll.
This new hire would come on board in the 4th quarter to handle the
contracting and separation details.
Office Manager—this new hire would handle all Equitable Growth issues
involving building relations, office technology, staff expenses, and HR
functions such as medical and retirement savings working with the Managing
Director and Finance Manager and with outside contractors for medical and
retirement savings.
Special Assistant for Policy & Academic Programs—this new hire would
come on board in the 3rd quarter to handle the various outreach needs of the
policy & academic outreach team, such as event planning and coordination
and other support functions.
Editorial Director—this new hire will be needed to help the Managing
Director and the Art Director handle the inflow of grantee research, which
begins in earnest in the second half of 2015, as well as the expanded social
media writing and editing in coordination with the Communications Director.
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Policy Analyst—this new hire will enable us to build out our policy outreach
in all four academic areas of focus, building a beat-based approach to
academic and policy products on the website matched to our four grantgiving
categories.
In 2016 we anticipate the hiring of an additional seven positions, though the exact
number and timing may change based on some factors explained below in the new
job descriptions. The new hires in 2016 are:
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Academic Programs Director—this new hire will be needed to help the Grant
Manager handle multiyear grantgiving and tracking beginning in 2015
Policy Outreach Director—this new hire will be needed to ramp up our policy
outreach in an election year.
Policy Analyst Director—this new hire will be needed to manage the
expanding group of policy analysts/bloggers.
Academic Grants Manager—this new hire will be needed to track all the
multiyear grants and co-fundings as we grow our grantgiving.
Data Research Assistant—this new hire will help the Research team and the
Data Science and Visualization Manager and the Art Director handle the
archiving and presentation of our grantee data and links to other publically
available data. This new hire should happen in the 1st quarter of 2016 as the
new 2015 grantee data begins to land.
Research Assistant—this new hire we ensure our in-house economics team
has one RA for every two economists
Social Media Associate—this new hire will handle all the social metrics
tracking and placement of content on social media.
In 2017 we anticipate three new hires:
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Research Associate—this new hire will round out our in-house research
team and enable us to handle the grant reviews in the 2018 grantgiving cycle
and additional research in 2017 and beyond.
Development Director—this new hire will be needed to handle multiple
funders, renew these funders, and further expand our list of funders
Research Economist—this new hire will come on board to build out our inhouse research capacities and help with the 2017 grantgiving review
process. This new hire should happen in the 1st quarter of 2016.
In 2018, we anticipate hiring six new hires:
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State Policy Outreach Coordinator—this new hire will enable us to turn
toward the state election cycles to bring to good state policies to the
attention of Washington policymakers.
Development Associate—this new hire will assist the development director.
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Policy Outreach Assistant—this new hire will enable us to handle the move
toward targeted state and national policy outreach.
State Policy Outreach Coordinator—this new hire will enable Equitable
Growth to prepare for targeted state-level outreach in prelude to the next
national election cycle.
Communications Associate—this new hire will enable us to handle the
expansion of our communications work in targeted state and national
markets.
Policy Analyst—this new hire will enable us to build out our policy outreach
in all four academic areas of focus, building a beat-based approach to
academic and policy products on the website matched to our four grantgiving
categories.
Data Manager—this new hire we ensure our in-house economics team has
the capacity to handle the expanding sets of data from grantess destined for
our website.