Joseph N. Sanberg, from California, is an American entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder of CalEITC4Me, a statewide outreach program in California that helps low-income families claim the state and federal earned income tax credits. He is co-founder of Aspiration, Inc., an online banking and investing firm that provides socially conscious products with a "Pay What Is Fair" business model.
After attending Harvard on scholarship, Sanberg went to Wall Street and earned enough to feel monetarily secure. He was uneasy working in an industry that he said “totally divorced service from profit,” and shifted to investing in start-ups, including the meal delivery outfit Blue Apron and Aspiration.com. Sanberg co-founded Aspiration, Inc., an online financial company, with Andrei Cherny in 2013. Aspiration enables customers to choose their own fee levels on checking and investment accounts, and offers managed funds that are 100% fossil-fuel free. Sanberg is a founding investor in Blue Apron, a home meal delivery service and IVY.com, a "social university". Sanberg holds positions at multiple public service organizations including serving on the Board of Governors at the Jefferson Awards Foundation, an organization that engages over a million youth in volunteer programs and public service annually. Sanberg was called "the spark" for his leadership in 2015 toward California launching an Earned Income Tax Credit. To support the California EITC, he founded a statewide outreach program called CalEITC4Me that is administered by Golden State Opportunity Foundation, which conducts research, analysis, public information and education programs with the aim of creating economic security for Californians. CalEITC4Me helps working families claim the state and federal earned income tax credits and helps families get free tax preparation services.
Potential 2020 candidacy
and the San Francisco Chronicle have both reported that people are urging Sanberg to run for president in 2020 on an anti-poverty platform. Sanberg has said that he will support whoever the Democratic nominee is if he doesn't. However, in early April 2019 Sanberg began traveling to Ohio to test the possibility of a presidential run. Ultimately, on June 1, 2019 at the California Democrats State Convention, Sanberg announced that he would not campaign for the presidency.
