Real$ense Prosperity Campaign, Jacksonville, FL

March, 2008

Just before Christmas in 2003, the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida announced the birth of the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign, a coalition of companies, agencies, and other organizations, and led by United Way of Northeast Florida. The campaign’s focus is to bring a portion of the approximately $10 million in unclaimed Earned Income Tax Credits to Northeast Florida and the people who have earned them and need them.

The organization began its work with modest goals, and more than exceeded those goals during its first year. With 100 volunteers, they prepared 2,457 tax returns at 10 tax sites. 819 of those returns were EITC returns, which netted $1,576,651 of EITC money back into the community. 37 clients also completed financial education classes during that first year.

In the last five years, Real$ense Prosperity Campaign has seen enormous growth. They now have 350 volunteers, who prepared 9,929 returns last year at 43 tax sites. 2,198 of those returns were EITC returns, and $3,212,754 of EITC money was brought back to the community. 450 clients completed financial education classes last year. In addition, Real$ense partner organizations NE Florida Community Action Agency and Family Foundations now offer an IDA program, and the Duval County Extension Service offers additional financial classes that help clients open financial accounts. 78 clients opened IDAs last year, and an additional 118 opened financial accounts.

This enormous growth is thanks, in part, to the comprehensive list of services offered by the partners in the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign. In addition to free tax preparation and year-round outreach, Real$ense partners offer free financial classes, and enrollment in matched savings accounts that include financial counseling. They also have a tax site dedicated to people with disabilities and they provide several days of sign language interpretation during tax season. Real$ense is also beginning to get involved in advocacy, and is focusing on issues related to predatory lending.

The Real$ense Prosperity Campaign reaches out to their clients in many ways, including presentations through their Speakers Bureau, which currently numbers around 50 speakers. This method allows them to reach 12,000 to 15,000 people per year. In addition they engage in corporate recruitment through HR departments with information about tax site locations and/or offers to bring mobile tax teams to them. They also perform outreach via phone banks through their local CBS and FOX affiliates, direct mail, media articles, paid advertising on TV and radio, including an advertisement this year featuring a Jacksonville Jaguar player, ads in public bus interiors, and talking to people whenever they can.

Through their outreach efforts, the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign has reached thousands of clients, including Khristine Gray, and helped them to turn their finances around. Khristine worked in the 2-1-1 call center at United Way of Northeast Florida, which serves as a referral center for the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign. Khristine was a low-income, single mother, and she consistently used refund anticipation loans during tax time to get her refund quickly, but paid huge fees she couldn’t afford in the process. She heard about Real$ense when she began referring 2-1-1 callers to them, and eventually decided to investigate their services for herself.

Khristine Gray, a Real$ense client who now volunteers her time to help others

 

Khristine began to get her taxes done for free at a Real$ense tax site, the St. Mathews Community Care Center, where she avoided the trap of refund anticipation loans.  She enrolled in and completed financial education classes offered by one of the Real$ense partners, the Jacksonville Urban League.  She then enrolled in a matched savings program and began to save money to go back to school.  Khristine has since earned an AA degree—with honors, and is now going on to get her BA degree in accounting.  Khristine is so enthusiastic about the work that Real$ense does, and the way that the program can change lives, that she is now a Real$ense volunteer helping others to get their finances in order and turn their lives around. 

Khristine is only one of the thousands of lives touched by the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign.  The work that they are doing in Northeast Florida is making a real difference for working families.  Rather than just offering one service for clients, their comprehensive array of services reaches clients at many points of need.  This encourages clients to think about their relationship with money and to be proactive about improving all of their financial practices.  Through their programs, the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign is making a real and dramatic impact on the lives of low-income workers in Northeast Florida.