The Yale Budget Lab received $400,000 from a family foundation tied to OkCupid co-founder Sam Yagan, whose brother is the policy center’s co-founder and chief economist, according to public filings and the center’s website.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A Yale economic policy center cited by major national news outlets has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a foundation tied to the brother of one of its founders, raising questions about funding behind a group that presents itself as a nonpartisan source of federal policy analysis.
The Yale Budget Lab lists Danny Yagan as its co-founder and chief economist, according to the center’s website. His younger brother, Sam Yagan, co-founder of the online dating service OkCupid, and Sam’s wife, Jessica, started the Yagan Family Foundation, which donated $200,000 to the Budget Lab in both 2023 and 2024, according to ProPublica filings.
The donations totaled $400,000.
The Budget Lab describes itself as a nonpartisan policy research center that analyzes how federal policies affect the American economy. The center says its work is designed to provide in-depth analysis of government proposals and help policymakers make better decisions.
“Our goal is to bring fresh ideas and new methods so policymakers can make better choices. To that end, we have been building tools to analyze the fiscal and social impacts of government policies,” the center says on its website.
The Yale Daily News reported that the Budget Lab was founded by three former Biden administration officials, including Danny Yagan, and “aims to address gaps in current economic analysis,” according to the campus newspaper.
The center has produced research on artificial intelligence’s effects on labor markets, the economic impact of tariffs and models related to early childhood education and care.
Its work has been cited by several major media and business outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review and The Associated Press, according to the Budget Lab’s media listing.
Sam Yagan previously served as CEO of Match Group, the internet and technology company behind dating platforms including OkCupid and Tinder.
In 2014, Yagan faced scrutiny after Whitney Wolfe, then an executive at Tinder, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit alleging that another Tinder executive subjected her to “sexually charged abuse and threats.” The lawsuit alleged Yagan “looked the other way,” according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
Wolfe later founded Bumble. She said Yagan was unmoved by her claims and “didn’t feel compelled to do anything in response,” according to NBC.
Yagan is also co-founder of Corazon Capital, a venture capital firm whose portfolio has included companies that later faced controversy, lawsuits or regulatory action.
SafeGraph, one Corazon portfolio company, faced criticism in 2022 for selling location data involving people who visited Planned Parenthood abortion clinics, according to Vice. The outlet reported that the company tracked how often people visited, how long they stayed, where they came from and where they went afterward.
Another Corazon portfolio company, Clarifai, reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in April over data privacy violations, according to Reuters. The company reportedly obtained three million OkCupid user photos to train artificial intelligence recognition technology.
SpotHero, another Corazon portfolio company, has been sued in California over pricing practices, according to Open Class Action.
The Budget Lab’s website also lists support for Danny Yagan’s work from organizations including the Arnold Foundation and the Sloan Foundation. The Arnold Foundation has previously drawn conservative scrutiny, including in a Daily Caller report. Arnold Ventures describes itself as a philanthropic organization focused on evidence-based solutions, according to its website.
The Sloan Foundation describes itself as a nonprofit grant-making institution, according to its website.
The funding details place renewed attention on the financial backing of policy research centers whose findings are used by journalists, lawmakers and other public officials in debates over federal economic policy.
The Yale Budget Lab states that it is nonpartisan and focused on policy analysis. The donations from the Yagan Family Foundation, combined with Danny Yagan’s leadership role and Sam Yagan’s business history, are likely to draw scrutiny from critics examining the center’s donors, institutional ties and public influence.
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