Baltimore CASH Campaign: Leveraging a Diverse Coalition

November, 2006

The Baltimore CASH (Creating Assets, Savings and Hope) Campaign came alive in 2000. With the Maryland EITC Outreach Campaign (a project of Maryland Committee for Children) already in place, the founding members of Baltimore CASH created a coalition to build on the statewide work to provide local EITC outreach, free tax preparation services, and connections to asset building activities.

Throughout its growth the Baltimore CASH Campaign has leveraged the diverse interests and strengths of its member organizations. The Campaign partners build capacity for CASH through non-tax season work including: providing IDA programs, two IRS Low Income Tax Clinics, teaching financial literacy classes, and helping to recruit clients for those services. Tax preparation clients are referred to the sites for specific program offerings both during the tax season and through communications outside of tax season.

Photo: A retired healthcare worker and SEIU 1199 member speaks on behalf of the Baltimore CASH campaign as SEIU 1199 overall president Dennis Rivera (left) and Mayor Martin O’Malley (right) listen in support.

In addition to providing services through partner organizations, the CASH Campaign hosts an annual financial fitness fair called Money Power Day. Over the last six years, the CASH Campaign has prepared over 15,000 tax returns, but was continually struggling to make durable connections to asset building services and products. Money Power Day is designed to expose families and workers to the range of programs available, provide on-site, tangible financial services, and help them build confidence and hope in their financial futures. Low and moderate income families are finding themselves increasing stretched for time, money, and access to the supports they need. Money Power Day seeks to tear down these barriers and provide services that are often only available to wealthy individuals. “We had clients that had already gotten their taxes done prior to [the event] and they were thrilled that someone had taken the time to take care of taxes and credit with them. No one had ever sat down and explained all those aspects of savings and credit reports to them,” said Joanna Smith-Ramani, Director of the Baltimore CASH Campaign.

Photo: Kids Corner at Money Power Day.

At Money Power Day, participants are able to access a host of free services on-site (credit report & counseling, financial planning, tax preparation, legal consultation, public benefits screening, job readiness & resume assistance), attend workshops on budgeting, credit/debt management, and small business development and investment, and have one on one access to 30 vendors representing the best in financial services, money management, housing & homeownership, legal services, and workforce development.

Another aspect of CASH’s agenda is to increase general awareness about issues impacting working families, including the positive impacts of the EITC. “General awareness is important because we’ve been doing [our line of work] for awhile, but most of us haven’t had enough resources to let everyone else know about what we’re doing and why it’s important and how if fits into this whole theme of empowering working families,” said Smith-Ramani.

In order to broaden general awareness, the campaign will continue to partner with the Job Opportunity Task Force (JOTF) to hold monthly forums on issues impacting low income workers in the city. The CASH Campaign is helping to get the word out by targeting municipal employees, policy analysts, work providers, foundations, city leaders, business leaders, state legislatures and other non-profits. Some topics covered in these forums will include RALS and other predatory tax loan products, check cashing and fringe financial services. The partnership hopes to get nearby D.C. leaders to the forums to add a national perspective to the issues affecting the city.

Photo: Joanna Smith-Ramani, Director of Baltimore CASH speaks at the Kick Off event.

Policy and advocacy work is a growing component of Baltimore CASH’s work. Working with the Maryland EITC Outreach Campaign, Baltimore CASH co-convened a group called Maryland CASH, a coalition of tax and asset-building groups from around the state. They hope to harness their cumulative leadership to affect state and federal policy on behalf of low-income workers. In addition, Baltimore CASH serves as the state contact for NCTC’s advocacy network.

Story by By Flora Lerenman
Photos from Baltimore CASH Coalition