D.C. EITC Campaign

June, 2007

Successful in lobbying for a “state” EITC, a coalition of three D.C. nonprofits progressed from EITC outreach to running tax sites. With experience under their belts, they are utilizing the special skills of each constituent organization and calling upon a fourth.

Created in 2000 to support enactment of a D.C. Earned Income Tax Credit, the D.C. EITC Campaign is a coalition of nonprofit, business, community, labor, immigrant, and religious organizations that was The efforts of the campaign were successful in leading to the establishment of a D.C. EITC equal to 10 percent of the federal EITC. Since then, it has risen to 35 percent, making it the largest refundable EITC in the nation.

With that success in their pockets, the D.C. EITC Campaign began working on outreach to ensure that all eligible families know about the EITC and how to claim it. The D.C. EITC Campaign also encourages eligible families and individuals to seek free tax preparation assistance to ensure they are claiming the EITC. Outreach fliers developed by the Campaign list all of the free tax preparation sites in the District of Columbia. In addition, they connect residents to year round services available through the three organizations which make up the D.C. EITC Campaign: D.C. CASH, Community Tax Aid, and Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) of Washington, D.C..

Specialization
The three separate organizations focus on different aspects of the tax season work. D.C. CASH runs tax sites in D.C.’s East of the River communities, Community Tax Aid provides training for all the volunteers of the D.C. EITC Campaign and runs its own tax sites in D.C. and the close-in suburbs, and the Children’s Defense Fund runs tax sites in D.C. that typically provide faith-based partnerships.  Capital Area Asset Building Corporation (CAAB) manages central Campaign activities (including marketing, evaluation, fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and volunteer management), but does not run tax sites. As well as providing some of the asset-building and financial literacy resources that are used at tax sites, CAAB acts as fiscal agent for the D.C. EITC Campaign.

Hinze, Executive Director of Community Tax Aid, notes that the collaboration of the three organizations benefits everyone.  The organizations provide expanded and better services by focusing on their expertise and sharing it city-wide. By analyzing site density and site locations, they can increase efficiencies and offer more services for clients. Volunteers find it easier when they only have to go to a single free tax Campaign.

Training
In 2007, Community Tax Aid, Inc. began providing the bulk of training for all volunteers in the D.C. EITC Campaign. To help shape the training, they hired Millwheel Consulting (J.C. Craig), and adapted a PowerPoint-based training from Nehemiah Gateway Corporation of Delaware. Because many of their clients receive federal government pensions, it had to create some of their own training materials from scratch.

Trainers are long-time volunteers. Their eight-hour Tax Law training is taught by tax professionals, but some of the 4-hour TaxWise training is performed by volunteers who may not have credentials but are nonetheless good instructors and very experienced with TaxWise.  For returning volunteers, they offered a 4-hour refresher course on computers. Certification of both trainers and volunteers is done through the IRS certification test. While most training is done during January, they also provide classes in early February when college students are returning.

Hinze hopes to enhance the train-the-trainer curriculum next year to provide more support for trainers. With increased demand for trainers, she plans to develop evaluation tools to identify the qualities that make a good trainer, so they can select people who are likely to become their best trainers. At present, training facilities are scattered, and Hinze hopes they can centralize them to reduce time spent setting up and breaking down. She appreciates being able to conduct all TaxWise training at the University of the District of Columbia computer labs, a connection made by her SPEC relationship manager.

Collaborating with faith-based organizations
The CDF in Washington is part of the national CDF tax preparation services. Because their sites are co-located with community faith based organizations they have effective outreach capabilities. Matt Rosen, Religious Action Coordinator with CDF, says that not only do faith communities have the motivation to combat poverty, but they are also large natural groupings of people who meet on regular basis who can reach out to their own networks for both volunteers and clients. With support from CDF, helping working poor families in a structured way like free tax preparation is an easy first step for faith communities who have been talking about “helping the poor”.

Adding financial services
In 2003, D.C. CASH Campaign (Creating Assets, Savings and Hope for D.C. Families)
started in one community organization, providing free tax preparation only. Next year, it included at one of its tax sites a community organization that had a Homebuyers Club as part of its mission.  Gradually D.C. CASH began offering other financial services to tax filers. Each site has a banking partner, and some offer credit repair, and extended credit counseling follow up. Volunteers have been trained to talk to taxpayer clients in the waiting room and explain the wide range of other services available to them.

While they are serving taxpayers, all the sites encourage clients to sign up for additional services during the off-season. These services include Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), money management classes, and financial counseling. Last year its mailing list grew to 2,500, but it has provided difficult to track how many people availed of these off-season services.

Rather than try to follow up tax clients with financial services post-season, D.C. CASH this year used Super Saturdays to provide full-service sites during the tax filing season. They offered individual counseling and group workshops for people uncomfortable in one-on-one settings, a credit repair clinic, templates for writing dispute letters to the IRS, credit counselors and on-site financial partners. Linda Eatmon-Jones, Program Manage for D.C. CASH, says that this model was popular with clients who felt there were more things going on during their time waiting to have their taxes processed.

Another targeted innovation was a mobile site at a high school for the parents of seniors who were filling out financial aid forms and required their parents’ tax returns to be completed.

Outsourcing technology support
For the second year in a row, D.C. CASH engaged the local NPower team to provide technology support for the six sites across D.C.. As a result, every site had a stable network when it opened for business. NPower provided on-call service and conducted weekly maintenance visits as needed. An on-line ticketing system allowed the administrators at each site to report any problems in a timely way. 

Centralized management services
The Capital Area Asset Building Corporation believes that anyone can become a college graduate, homeowner or successful business owner. Through its financial education programs, matched savings accounts, consumer education programs, and research and advocacy, CAAB is working to ensure that all District residents have opportunities to save and invest in their dreams.

Two years ago, CAAB took on central management of the D.C. EITC Campaign. Among other actions, it has invested in customizing the Salesforce.com database into customer tracking software. It proved very useful for volunteer management this year. Volunteers could signup online, then register for training classes once staff had contacted them.  CAAB will be able to track volunteer hours, what training individuals have received, and who is eligible for continuing professional education credits.  While some volunteers come from colleges, law schools, and law firms, many repeat volunteers have no financial training but keep coming back because they like to do something good in the community. They increased volunteer recruitment and placement by 20 percent, with about 500 of the almost 800 volunteers who registered online actually working at sites.

Tax sites
D.C. EITC Campaign ran 19 tax sites for the full 2007 season, mostly in the city, but with some also in nearby suburbs of Northern Virginia and Maryland.

Besides these full-season sites, a couple of other sites run by D.C. CASH were co-located in a housing development. They also experimented with one mobile tax site at a Latino community fair. They were disappointed that they did not see many people during the day, but they did file 4 or 5 ITINS. They conduct monthly ITIN workshops with a partner at a tax site, focusing on Latinos.

To accommodate the diversity of residents, outreach materials are in English and Spanish. Their Largest tax site at a public library has special day dedicated to Chinese-speaking (Mandarin and Cantonese) clients. Some suburban sites also utilize Chinese as well as Spanish speaking preparers.

Success with public funding
A huge step towards sustainability came from a FY2007 $150,000 earmark from D.C. government for EITC outreach, which they hope will be a yearly line item. Now they can plan ahead during the off-season, with the luxury of knowing the level of resources they have to work with during the filing season. Smaller amounts of funding of D.C. EITC Campaign come from foundations and corporations, and other funders contribute to individual sites.

Looking ahead
What were some of the challenges this year? Donna Ortega, Director of Development & Communications with CAAB, names issues with growth as a result of trying to centralize more activities. However, centralized volunteer management resulted in volunteers feeling more satisfied.  ITINS were new this year, and staff will assess why they didn’t receive a good response.

Ortega enjoys hearing back from volunteers that they enjoyed their service. Volunteers quickly feel good about the work they do when they realize that the tax refund a family receives could be 20 percent of its annual income.

 

Story by Don Wedd