Dating App Founder Donates $400,000 to Economic Policy Center

Sam Yagan donated $400,000 to the Yale Budget Lab through the Yagan Family Foundation in 2023 and 2024, according to ProPublica. Yagan is a co-founder of the online dating service OkCupid and former CEO of Match Group. His brother Danny Yagan is the Budget Lab's co-founder and chief economist.

Background on the donor Yagan faced a 2014 sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Tinder executive Whitney Wolfe while serving as Match Group CEO. The suit alleged that another Tinder executive subjected Wolfe to sexually charged abuse and that Yagan looked the other way, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

Wolfe later stated that Yagan did not feel compelled to do anything in response to her claims, NBC reported.

Portfolio company issues Yagan also co-founded the venture capital firm Corazon Capital. One portfolio company, SafeGraph, faced criticism in 2022 for selling location data of individuals who visited Planned Parenthood clinics, Vice reported. Another portfolio company, Clarifai, reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in April over data privacy violations, Reuters reported.

The company obtained three million OkCupid user photos to train its artificial intelligence technology.

Policy center activities The Budget Lab analyzes how government policies affect the U.S. economy and states it is a non-partisan center. Its work has examined artificial intelligence impacts on labor markets, tariff effects, and early childhood education models.

The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and The Associated Press have cited the center, according to its website.