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For more about RuFES

Annie E. Casey Foundation—this link will take you directly to the RuFES Section of the Casey website, but please check out the publications section too.

Recommended resources

Broaden Your Rural EITC Scope — RuFES Webinar Mini-Series

The EITC continues to serve as a critical support for low-and moderate-income families trying to get ahead, by providing them with a much needed a financial infusion. This support assists families in a number of ways, including to help pay off critical bills, get an IDA, purchase U.S. Savings Bonds, and much more.

When rural families do better — so do rural communities! Therefore, community leaders have every reason to launch or expand local EITC efforts — especially when, according to national estimates, 20 to 25 percent of eligible workers do not claim their well-earned EITC benefits!

The following resources can help you develop, expand and sustain an EITC program in your rural community:

1. It's Open Season on Taxes!, a video recording of the three-part RuFES ReFresher webinar mini-series from November 17, 2011. Session 1 runs 0-49:30, Session 2 runs 50:00-1:47, and Session 3 runs 1:47-2:53.
2. Three accompanying presentations (one from each webinar session):
   • Session 1 Presentation: Developing an Excellent EITC Program — An introduction to the EITC and CTC, the basics of how to start a rural EITC program, and a profile of the resources available on EITCPlatform.
   • Session 2 Presentation: What's New This Tax Season? — An overview of updates, 2011 policy and resources opportunities, and a IRS SPEC perspective.
   • Session 3 Presentation: Rural EITC Success Stories — Profiles of three innovative rural EITC programs.

Fortify your financial toolbox with AssetPlatform.org

For many members in the RuFES Action Network, the ability to access appropriate and useful financial tools can help them do what they do better and at a greater scale. Effective financial training, tools and resources assist organizations in achieving Keep It and Grow It goals in their communities.

AssetPlatform is a relatively new resource for staff members of nonprofit organizations that provide financial education, coaching and asset development services. The AssetPlatform makes a variety of products and services easily accessible, including training, assessment tools, consumer-friendly financial products and more.

As a “platform,” AssetPlatform.org allows multiple organizations—including community-based organizations, workforce development programs, credit unions, EITC campaigns and other non-profits—to collectively build and share tools and resources in a cost-effective way.

1. Register to become a member of AssetPlatform.org so you can check out new, up-to-date tools and resources.
2. Check out the PowerPoint presentation on the AssetPlatform and its relationship to RuFES (used in the June 22, 2011 RuFES ReFresher webinar).

Car repair and car donation programs as an Earn It strategy

Access to reliable transportation is an essential part of holding a good job or getting to a job-training program. Yet for some low- and moderate-income families, this basic Earn It component can be a challenge.

The ideal option for any rural working family is to own a new or late-model car. These vehicles are the most reliable—but for many rural families they are financially out of reach. Public transit service, a low-cost alternative, is an inefficient and unrealistic option in most rural communities. The most realistic option for many low- and moderate-income families, therefore, is to repair a car the family already owns or obtain a donated or low-cost used car.

These are resources that can help you bring effective and sustainable car repair and car donation programs to your community:

1. Gotta Get ’em to Work, a video recording of the November 16, 2010 RuFEs Refresher webinar.
2. An accompanying PowerPoint presentation on rural transport (used in the webinar).
3. A page that lists some of the most informative resources for organizations seeking to establish car repair and car donation programs.

Prepare to run a first-rate rural EITC campaign!

Since its enactment in 1975, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has provided low-income Americans with a financial boost—as of the 2009 tax year, up to a maximum of $5,657 per family. This reward for work can make all the difference for low-income working families trying to get ahead.

Indeed, the EITC also offers a boost to local economies, as local EITC filers are likely to spend almost all of the cash the federal government returns to them close to home. Thus, in these tough economic times, community leaders have many reasons to launch or expand a local EITC program.

Updates on changes to EITC policy, the basics of operating a strong EITC program, a couple of innovative models of effective rural tax prep programs that leverage the EITC for an even greater family Earn It, Keep It, Grow It benefit are all addressed here:

1. October is Tax Time: Time to Ramp Up for EITC is a video recording of the October 21, 2010 RuFEs Refresher webinar. You can also separately download the slides from that webinar.
2. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) resources provides descriptions and contact information for a number of organizations that offer additional EITC resources.

Roll Your Change Week

Roll Your Change Week (RYCW) is an event designed to encourage individuals and families to start saving. Community members gather the coins they have saved and found in their homes and carry them to a central event location-where volunteers roll the coins for them. People are encouraged to deposit their rolled coins into existing accounts or to open new accounts. Participants are often offered incentives to save, and provided with financial education information.

Roll Your Change Week can be replicated in your rural community or really just about anywhere. Successful RYCW programs take a basic idea and create significant community impact-helping savers convert the pennies in their pockets and the quarters from their couches into tens of thousands of dollars of savings per year in smaller communities. Organizers have found that many RYCW savers not only save the change that is rolled during the event, but also begin to save more consistently over the long term.

1. A recording of the Roll Your Change Week webinar presented on August 17, 2010.
   Note: Due to a technological problem with our webinar provider, there are 27-second sections of silence every ten minutes of the webinar recording. Please continue watching and listening. The slides are very detailed and the sound will return. We are working with our provider to make sure this glitch does not recur in the future.
2. The accompanying PowerPoint presentation on Roll Your Change Week (used in the webinar).
3. A series of informative handouts:
   • Public relations poster from the Cleveland Roll Your Change Campaign
   • Roll Your Change Week marketing toolkit from the Cleveland Roll Your Change Week Campaign
   • Statistical results comparison from the Cleveland Roll Your Change Week Campaign
   • Roll Your Change Week summary from the Cleveland Roll Your Change Week Campaign
   • Event timeline for New Hampshire Roll Your Change Week Campaign
   • Public relations bag stuffer from New Hampshire Roll Your Change Week Campaign
   • Invitation letter to financial institutions to join New Hampshire Roll Your Change Week Campaign
   • Public relations poster from New Hampshire Roll Your Change Week Campaign
   • Procedure guide from New Hampshire Roll Your Change Week Campaign
   • Letter from U.S. Representative Paul Hodes for New Hampshire Roll Your Change Week Campaign

Rural IDAs

Earning It isn't enough to lift families out of poverty—they have to Keep It and Grow It too. Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are one of the most successful and tested ways to help families Keep It and Grow It. But there are special challenges and opportunities when you start and run an IDA program in a rural place. The basics of IDA program management and some of the key issues that rural community organizations face when starting and running an IDA program are addressed here:

1. A recording of the Rural IDAs webinar presented on February 26, 2010.
2. An accompanying PowerPoint presentation on rural IDAs (used in the webinar).
3. A page that lists some of the most informative resources for organizations seeking to operate IDA programs.

StimuRuFES...
RuFES: Meet the federal stimulus package!

What does the 2009 economic stimulus package (AKA: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) got to do with—and for—RuFES? What are the top two or three opportunities in the stimulus package that might help RuFES action teams Earn It? And Keep It? And Grow It? How can your community access and influence stimulus funds? What general opportunities in the package might help your entire RuFES effort?

Get some answers in the following materials:

1. A recording of the StimuRuFES webinar presented on May 14, 2009.
2. A PowerPoint presentation on StimuRuFES (used in the webinar). (Select “View” and then “Full screen mode” if you want to project the PowerPoint from this PDF. If you need help, please contact Elsa Noterman.)
3. An eight-page handout on ARRA resources to help you track and learn about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
4. An one-page handout on ARRA tax credit programs, and how they can help low-income working families.

The Nasty Nine:
Helping rural families avoid predatory lending practices:

Do the rural families you encounter turn to predatory lenders and products when they need money—and end up in worse financial straits? Here are some resources you can use to guide them to better lending products that can help them stay afloat and get ahead in this economy:

1. A recording of the RuFES webinar on the Nasty Nine presented on March 26, 2009. (Clicking on the link will bring up the video in .wmv format and the audio will play over your computer's speakers. Right-clicking on the preceding link will enable you to download the .wmv file to your computer to play offline. A Flash version of the video is also available, which is a smaller file but considerably lower-quality video that can only be viewed online.)
2. A PowerPoint presentation on the Nasty Nine (used in the webinar). (See instructions in #2 for StimuRuFES, above.)
3. A two-page summary handout on the Nasty Nine to use this with colleagues, customers, partners… and the media!
4. A handout on the RuFES Family-Focused Goals—to underline family Earn It, Keep It, Grow It objectives
5. Avoiding the Money Trap, a 2006 documentary by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, highlights the financial problems that often trap rural working families, including payday loans, high-interest car loans, high debt, poor credit, and more.
6. The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has a lot of information on predatory lending practices and policy solutions.
7. The Better Choice Program is an effort by Pennsylvania Credit Unions to offer an alterative to payday loans.
8. Financial education resources:
   • The Beehive is a great place for individuals and families to access online financial education. You could use it with your customers, or refer them to it.
   • The Pennsylvania Office of Financial Education provides individuals with online learning and information on a wide range of financial topics—and has links to financial education curricula.
   • MoneyWise is the money management course Alternatives Federal Credit Union uses to provide its low-income customers with tools they need to confront the financial issues in their lives.
9. Also, feel free to contact either of the two presenters from the RuFES webinar:
   • John Molinaro, Associate Director, Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group, 202-736-5856
   • Brendan Wilbur, IDA Coordinator/Financial Counselor, Alternatives Federal Credit Union, 607-273-4611 Ext 445

Contact Elsa Noterman, Program Associate, Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group, if you have other questions or need assistance finding materials or information on the Nasty Nine.

The Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group (CSG) | One Dupont Circle, NW | Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20036