Action-Learning for the Rural Family Economic Success (RuFES) Alumni Network
Sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation
Coordinated by the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group
RuFES Alumni in Action: EITC Innovations Rural IOWA: Tax assistance—“It’s in the mail”
The program encourages families to bring their tax records to a local partner site. The local partner photocopies all the necessary documents and then ships them to a central processing site in Des Moines. Volunteers contact the taxpayer by phone to confirm information and explain the completed tax return. ISED Ventures then provides a copy of the return to the taxpayer and transmits the return to the Internal Revenue Service and the Iowa Department of Revenue. The model proved very successful in its 2006 pilot program, serving 14 families in five rural communities. They will be expanding the service to more sites and more families in 2007. For more information, contact Jay Kerrigan at ISED Ventures. Southwest IOWA: Calling all low-cost computers! Suitable computer equipment can be hard for any tax site to find, but in rural areas where smaller communities are often served by mobile tax clinics, technology can be a real headache. An EITC Coalition in southwest Iowa (RuFES Alumni 2005) was struggling to find enough computers to run its tax sites, especially those served by mobile tax clinics. It learned about a nearby private college that supplies all of its students with laptop computers and sells them off when they are three years old at very reasonable prices. The coalition contacted ISED Ventures, which found money to purchase up to 20 of the machines. They configured the laptops with tax preparation software and supplied them to all of the Southwest Iowa tax preparation sites and mobile tax clinics as well as other sites across Iowa. The laptops were much easier to take on the road to operate mobile clinics in smaller communities, and also worked well at their larger sites that are open throughout the tax season. The coalition has now used the laptops successfully for three years—more than justifying the modest investment. For more information, contact Mary Beth Kaufman at Iowa State University Extension. Boyer Valley, IOWA: Teacher energizes accounting students with EITC Like many consolidated rural school districts, the Boyer Valley Middle/High School (BVM/HS) struggles to find appropriate curriculum that can be effectively offered to small groups of students interested in taking advanced classes. Serving Dunlap, Dow City and Arion, Iowa, the district’s middle/high school had an enrollment of just 347 in grades 6-12, and only three students were interested in taking an Advanced (fourth year) Accounting. The accounting instructor, looking for suitable curriculum, settled on the IRS’s VITA training program and used online-IRS training materials, self-study, and face-to-face training with Tax-Wise software. When the students completed the training, they provided free tax assistance to fellow students using a secure school computer. In the end, one student decided that accounting and tax preparation might be a good career choice. The other two students decided taxes were not for them, but are better prepared to understand and complete their own taxes, whatever career choices they ultimately make! For more information, contact Mary Beth Kaufman at Iowa State University Extension. HAWAI’I: Video vanquishes distance
Aloha United Way (RuFES Alumni 2004) makes innovative use of technology to reduce their travel costs and increase the delivery of tax preparation training throughout the islands. They started by identifying their most effective trainer, and developed video training sessions, which they distributed broadly throughout the islands. They followed up by borrowing the video-teleconferencing capacity of another local nonprofit organization to deliver live training to the Neighbor Islands. While the video conferencing has not replaced the need for face-to-face training, the training videos have been wildly successful, especially for state tax procedures where fewer training resources are available. More than 90 copies of the training videos have been distributed so far throughout the islands, laying the groundwork for a major push to increase tax assistance on three of the Neighbor Islands in 2007. For more information, contact Program Coordinator Susan Tamanaha. HAWAI’I: You’re speaking my language! Hawai’i shares a common challenge with rural areas throughout America: they struggle with how to communicate effectively across a polyglot of languages and cultures that accompany immigration. In Hawai’i these cultures range from indigenous peoples, to long-term residents who have maintained their distinct language and cultural identity, to recent refugees and immigrants. Aloha United Way (AUW)(RuFES Alumni 2004) has addressed diversity in their work to expand EITC uptake in one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse parts of America. AUW has created EITC outreach materials in seven languages—Japanese, Samoan, Tongan, Chuukese, Ilocano, Spanish and English. Most of these materials focus on new immigrant populations who are among their hardest to reach groups, and several were chosen because there were no existing translations that could be borrowed from others. The new materials have been well received by their intended cultural audiences. In addition, AUW has boosted their value by using ethnic gathering places and media to spread the word about the EITC. Outreach through the churches attended by diverse ethnic groups has been particularly effective, and ethnic radio and TV stations have also been helpful. One trick that has extended the usefulness of their materials has been to avoid any dated references so left-over materials don’t become obsolete at the end of the tax year. For more information, contact Program Coordinator Susan Tamanaha. ARKANSAS: You can take it to the bank
Southern Good Faith Fund (SGFF) (RuFES Alumni, 2004, 2006) in rural Arkansas helps families hang onto more of their refunds by operating its tax preparation sites in bank lobbies. When a taxpayer doesn’t have a bank account, tax site staff can walk the family across the lobby and get them set up with a low- or no-cost checking or savings account right on the spot. This can save the family several hundred dollars in tax preparation and loan fees. Getting families “banked” also gives them an alternative to using high-cost check cashing services. SGFF also operates its Individual Development Account (IDA) program and several other services from the same bank lobbies. This allows a closer connection between tax assistance and opportunities to save for homeownership, entrepreneurship, or education. For more information, contact Ramona McKinney at SGFF. NEW HAMPSHIRE: EITC coalitions—Round-up your pard’ners!
In New Hampshire, two unusual partners participate in the statewide EITC Coalition (RuFES Alumni 2005). The Legal Aid and Referral Center (LARC) has been part of the EITC coalition since its inception, and has provided tax materials in several languages. LARC finds that EITC sites provide an excellent venue to reach families. This year LARC will offer eviction prevention workshops at tax preparation sites—providing one more way to attract customers to the site, and a handy way for LARC to reach new audiences for its services. A new member of the coalition is Concord Area Trust for Community Housing (CATCH). CATCH is an Individual Development Account (IDA) provider, and therefore has access to the past tax returns of its IDA savers. Recognizing that its IDA savers may not all know about the EITC, and that it could make a big difference in their savings, CATCH is reviewing IDA savers’ past returns to identify those who may have been eligible but failed to claim the EITC. Those who qualified but didn’t file are offered the chance to amend their previous returns to claim the credit for up to three years. CATCH also provided a very successful First-Time Homebuyer Workshop to the EITC Coalition’s customers last summer. Fifteen families completed the program, and were offered the chance to become IDA program participants—using their EITC to jumpstart year-round asset building! These are just two ways that unusual partners can add value to an EITC coalition’s work while benefiting the families the partners exist to serve. For more information, contact Cary Gladstone at Casey Family Services. Burlington/Winooski, VERMONT: Ropin’ them in with free credit reports
The coalition convinced Northfield Savings Bank to pay for the credit reports for the first 50 interested tax preparation customers. The bank also provided the technical staff to hook-up computers to run the reports and bank employees to explain them and offer advice on how to improve credit. Participants were given a letter to send to credit reporting agencies so the credit check wouldn’t negatively affect their credit scores. Many customers were relieved to discover that their credit reports were in better shape than predicted. Three actually pre-qualified for a home mortgage and one went forward and bought a home. Others, whose credit was not so good, left with an action plan for how to improve their credit scores. Initially the credit reports were offered to customers at tax preparation sites during the tax season as an inducement for people to come in. Last fall they were offered again, this time to the broader community, and used to both market the upcoming 2007 tax assistance program, and encourage families to consider investing a part of their tax refund in credit repair and asset accumulation opportunities. For more information, contact Margaret Bozik or Robyn Wainner. Burlington/Winooski, VERMONT: Volunteers are great for many things, but it’s hard to run an EITC program without a paid coordinator. In Burlington-Winooski, Vermont (RuFES Alumni 2005, 2006), the local EITC coalition has convinced local banks to underwrite the cost of coordinating EITC sites by making a strong economic case. The coalition uses their program statistics to show local banks that supporting an EITC coordinator is a wise investment. Using past performance data, they show the banks that a gift of $2,000 to support a site supervisor (for 80 hours) yields $32,500 in savings on tax preparation and instant refund fees, and accesses $100,000 in refunds. Many banks are looking for good opportunities to meet their obligations to give back to the community under the Community Reinvestment Act. So, when banks are approached with this compelling economic case, their responses have been “Yes, of course we will do that!”. For more information, contact Margaret Bozik or Robyn Wainner. NEW MEXICO: Breaking the law …of supply and demand
Now entering its 33rd year of service in Albuquerque and 4th year operating statewide, Tax Help New Mexico prepared more than 26,000 returns for low-income and elderly taxpayers in 2006. None of this would be possible without the ingenuity and passion of Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute (TVI) accounting instructor Fred Gordon (RuFES Alumni 2004, now retired), who came up with the idea of giving students college credit for providing tax assistance. The program now operates from 35 sites in 21 cities across New Mexico, and involves students from many campuses around the state. The program has been so successful that many former graduates come back year after year to help. Tax help New Mexico is a WIN-WIN-WIN program. Families receive help with their taxes, students receive a resume builder, course credit and a valuable skill, and communities receive the benefits of millions in additional tax-refund dollars flowing through their local economies. For more information, contact program director Diana Matier.
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Many rural EITC programs struggle with how to serve communities too small or too remote to host a tax preparation site. In rural Iowa, the ISED Ventures (RuFES Alumni 2005, 2006) created the Barnabas EITC Batch Tax Processing Program to address this need. Operated in conjunction with a local partner such as a church or a nonprofit organization, the program provides tax assistance through a mail-in service.
Distance can make training volunteers into a challenge for any rural tax preparation program, but if you live in Hawai’i the challenges can be even greater—you can’t just jump in your car and drive to the Neighbor Islands! 
When hard-working low-income families walk into a tax preparation site they want their refunds now. If they don’t have a banking relationship and have to wait for a paper check, there is a good chance that they will go to a tax preparation chain and take out a high-cost Refund Anticipation Loan. But, if a family has a bank account, or a tax site has a convenient way of setting one up, many families will wait a few days for a direct deposit refund.
Because rural organizations tend to be relatively small, running rural EITC programs often requires cobbling together a coalition of organizations to get things done. Keeping coalitions together requires that partners see benefits for their organizations—or for the families they exist to serve.
Rural areas where predatory tax preparation chains flourish can face a challenge attracting families to tax assistance sites. To address this and boost participation, the EITC coalition in Burlington-Winooski, Vermont (RuFES Alumni 2005, 2006), offered free credit reports and interpretation to interested tax preparation customers. 
Successful EITC programs almost always run up against their own version of the law of supply and demand: the demand for tax assistance is constrained buy the supply of volunteers. In the very rural state of New Mexico, connections between colleges across the state and tax help programs are taking tax assistance to a scale seen in few other places.