A Note from the Coordinator |
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Dear EITC Funders Network, |
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What a busy and hopeful Summer we have all had as we work to maximize the impact of the expanded tax credit made possible by the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act!! Our network partners have been working hard to support implementation through advocacy, communications, infrastructure development and outreach. We are not done yet, but there is already much to be proud of in the field.
With two payments out of the door and another on the way soon, we are beginning to learn about the real-time impacts of getting "cash into people's pockets" all across the country. This tax relief is having a real impact on the lives of America’s children. According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey data released last month, "parents reported having less trouble covering the costs of food and other household expenses after receiving their first CTC payment." The share of families reporting that they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past week also dropped to the lowest percentage since the pandemic began. Parents are using their CTC payments to pay for basics for their kids. Roughly half of those who received a July CTC payment reported using it to pay for food and 1 in 4 spent some of their CTC on clothing. These successes are the result of the hard work and advocacy done by many of you and our field partners doing this work on the ground everyday.
We always knew this would be a marathon effort. In the short-term, our partners were focused on spreading awareness, standing up a portal and signing up as many non-filers as possible. As we wrap up the Summer, our focus is expanding to include medium and longer term efforts. In the medium term, we will need to support communications and narrative change work that underscores the importance of flexible resources for families. In the long term, we will be supporting advocacy and policy efforts that are centered on state expansions and making these tax credits permanent. Visit the ARPA page on our website to learn about these strategies and others you can support that will help us to maximize and keep permanent these poverty-reducing tax credits for families.
Finally, we are very excited to announce the newest page on our website dedicated to providing strategies, resources and information to Community Foundations. The work of Community Foundations is crucial to finding and connecting the hardest to reach families to the opportunity presented by the ARPA's Advanced Child Tax Credit. We hope this page will help to synthesize and share helpful information related to the important work you do each day.
Thank you all for your continued commitment to expanding access to the EITC across the country and for your membership in the EITC Funders Network. We look forward to continued partnership with you.
Sincerely,
Ami & Deneisha
EITC Funders Network
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Join Our ARPA Google Group!
We have started a Google Group for funders interested in sharing news, strategies and resources related to implementation of the ARPA. You can send a request to join the group by your information to this form.
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Interview with a Field Leader |
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The Niskanen Center, which launched operations in January 2015, is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) think tank that works to promote an open society through active engagement in the war of ideas and direct engagement in the policymaking process.
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Samuel Hammond
Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy
The Niskanen Foundation has been working on research related to the impact of tax credits on low-income families. We are very excited that Sam Hammond has agreed to share more about their latest research in this edition of Interview with a Funder.
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Question #1
Can you share the key takeaways from your research on the community and economic impacts of the CTC expansion? Are there any important nuances or variations in the overall findings that are important to call forward?
There has been much written about the impact of the Child Tax Credit expansion on rates of child poverty, including in our own work. And indeed, a 40% reduction in child poverty is nothing to sneeze at. Nevertheless, child benefits like the CTC also have broader economic and community impacts that a narrow focus on poverty alleviation can risk neglecting. Our research aimed to put numbers to that broader impact by estimating the amount of CTC dollars now flowing to each state, and what that implies for local economic activity. After all, households with children have greater expenses, suggesting benefits like the CTC get spent back into the economy, particularly within lower-income households living pay-check to pay-check. That spending fuels job and business creation, and indeed the international evidence suggests child benefits are a particular potent form of economic stimulus. When Canada expanded its child benefit in 2016, for example, the Bank of Canada reported that it was driving unexpectedly strong employment growth. Coming out of the Covid recession, we therefore see the potential for the CTC expansion to do the same in the US.
We thus modeled the CTC expansion to account for the greater consumption rate of lower-income households and households with children. Our top-line findings confirmed our initial suspicion. We found that -- at the national level -- the CTC expansion will drive at least $27.6 billion in new consumer spending across the fiscal year, leading to $1.9 billion in new state and local sales tax revenues, and supporting the equivalent of 500,000 full-time jobs at the median wage.
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Permanently Expand the CTC- A new report by the Bipartisan Policy Center "recommends 13 changes to the CTC and EITC that would create a more secure safety net, reward work, ensure fiscal sustainability, reduce payments made in error, and strengthen the foundation of bipartisan support for these two programs."
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Talking to Non-filers
Talking to Non-filers- Many of the most vulnerable people still do not know about the Advanced CTC, don't understand what it means for their families or don't know how to claim the credit. Non-filers are a special population that need outreach and engagement that are specific to their needs. New America has published research on outreach to non-filers with quotes from eligible individuals about the CTC.
Read the research article here
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Non-filer Learnings and Recommendations |
Learnings & Recommendations- The IRS has limited data about families who do not file taxes. We are continuing to learn more and more about about them through the efforts of our partners on the ground. Code for America has published a report with Non-filer Learnings and Recommendations with helpful information for organizations working to engage and connect with non-filers.
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Outreach Needed to Help Lift Hardest-to-Reach Children Out of Poverty |
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Robust community outreach will make a huge difference in the number of families who are able to access the Advanced CTC. Each month, millions of additional families are signing up for payments through the portal. Our partners at the CBPP have released a report on tax credit outreach that helps to explains the important of outreach and how to use it to maximize the impact of this moment we find ourselves in.
Read the full report here
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New Data on the Impact of the Advanced CTC |
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The Household Pulse Survey has published a new report that measures how people are using the Advanced CTC and the impact it is having on families. The advocates are right!! Less families reported being food insecure during the survey period.
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The CTC Heat Map is Here!
Find Out Where The Most Help is Needed- The Tax Policy Center's Heat Map is now available. The heat map answers the question... "Where Are Families Most at Risk of Missing Out on the Expanded Child Tax Credit?"
This interactive map provides helpful data disaggregated by zip codes across the United States. To get started, click on this link and then click anywhere in the map to get information about that location. The map is a wonderful tool. Please share it with your network.
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The Get It Back Campaign has developed two wonderful guides that are designed to assist both non-filers who need to sign-up and families who need to update their information in the portal. Click on the links below to view these helpful guides.
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Advanced CTC Messaging- Relatable messaging that resonates with various audiences has been one of the focuses of groups doing outreach related to the CTC. Click on this link to find an AWESOME collection of gifs curated by Parents Together Action. They will make your day!!
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Our friends at MomsRising have created some great CTC resources. Please share them with your network.
MomsRising's CTC Website- This website is a one stop shop for all things CTC. It includes a FAQ page, links to the IRS non-filer portal, action links, and a link to their story collection page. The page is updated often so check back regularly.
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Tax Credits: The Anti-poverty Tool of the 21st Century
September 22 | 2-3:30pm ET
Historic improvements have been made to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) with the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). If we are successful in getting these credits into the hands of the lowest-income families, we can reduce child poverty by almost half. Philanthropy has an important role to play to ensure that the hardest to reach families can access the benefits and continue to explore improvements and modernizations to these fundamental government programs.
Join us for a discussion with field leaders on how we arrived at this once in a generation moment, whether these improvements are sufficient, and how this fits into the broader movement for building a just and inclusive economy. Funders will have the opportunity to reflect on the discussion and share strategies for moving forward in small breakouts at the end of the program. This event is co-sponsored by the EITC FN & the Economic Opportunity Funders Network.
Speakers:
Danielle Goonan- Rockefeller Foundation (Moderator)
Ellen Nissenbaum- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Solana Rice- Liberation in a Generation
Samuel Hammond- Niskanen Center
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This event is one of a three-part series.
EOF 2021 Fall Funder Learning Series:
Building Systems of Economic Support for an Equitable Recovery
Building a More Robust and Equitable Unemployment Insurance System for a 21st Century Economy
October 8 | 1-2:15pm ET
Emergency Cash Benefits: Lessons From Innovation and Rapid Response
October 20, 2021 (Time TBA)
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Connecting Policy Advocacy & Grassroots Organizing to Improve Economic Security: A Conversation for Florida Funders
September 29 | 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET
How do we build long-lasting movements to improve economic security in the states? Join EOF, the EITC Funders Network and Florida Philanthropic Network for an important conversation with Florida funder colleagues to explore strategies to connect policy advocacy and grassroots engagement to create ecosystems of change. In this session, we will begin to connect the dots across our philanthropic work to improve economic security through advancing tax credits for workers and discuss strategies for building more impactful partnerships.
Speakers:
Ashley Dietz, Florida Philanthropic Network
Danielle Goonan, Rockefeller Foundation
Holly Bullard & Sadaf Knight, Florida Policy Institute
Zelalem Adefris, Catalyst Miami
This webinar is open to staff of philanthropic organizations and philanthropic advisors.
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The Impact of the EITC on Health Outcomes Roadshow
The EITC Funders Network is hosting our Roadshows all over the country to share information about the CTC & EITC with funders interested in work related to tax credits. We are happy to put together state-specific information for any organization or funder network who would like more information about how tax credits intersect with their grant-making priorities.
You can now request an EITC FN Roadshow. Invite your guests and let us put together a presentation for you! For more information, contact Ami Nagle at ami@eitcfunders.org.
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About the EITC Funders Network
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The EITC Funders Network brings together funders interested in the Earned Income Tax Credit, free- and low-cost tax preparation, and asset building. The Network seeks to increase awareness of EITC-related projects, foster collaboration, share information about the current status of EITC-related work, and help shape the future of the field.
The EITC Funders Network is generously funded by:
The Piton Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Anonymous
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