A Thriving Outreach Campaign or Two
Confronted with a brand-new need for outreach, Carter Elliott and the Atlanta Prosperity Campaign launched a brand-new campaign to handle it.
The Opportunity
Just as the Atlanta Prosperity Campaign (APC) was preparing to celebrate the end of its first season providing free tax preparation assistance in 2008, Campaign Manager Carter Elliott learned about the need for outreach efforts to help eligible seniors and veterans with disabilities claim their Economic Stimulus Payments (ESP). Carter didn’t want to wear down his existing volunteer tax preparers. But he was determined to help eligible residents receive their ESP.
APC VITA volunteer helping a client.
The Opportunity Fulfilled
“Since the IRS didn’t require volunteers completing tax returns only for stimulus payments to be certified, we recruited 50 new volunteers to continue ESP outreach through October 15, 2008. We were very successful in recruiting college students and accountants. Because this was a short-term project and the volunteers did not need to be certified to prepare the simple ESP returns, it was easy to find volunteers. I was able to provide just a script for the volunteers and asked them to participate in a short training session,” recalls Carter, a participant in the Center’s 2005 Tax Credit Outreach Train-the-Trainer Seminar. With this team of new volunteers, APC — a project of the Atlanta Community Food Bank — conducted 25 ESP tax preparation events during the summer of 2008 and collaborated with the IRS, AARP, and Georgia Rural Legal Services to conduct a three-day tax return blitz across the state in mid-September. In total, APC filed 1,100 tax returns for stimulus payments, primarily for seniors and veterans with disabilities. To reach this population, the APC arranged visits to senior complexes and community centers. This is in addition to the 8,317 tax returns completed at 44 free tax preparation sites, including 4 mobile sites during the regular tax season.
In 2009, APC expanded the number of its VITA sites to 56 including 10 mobile sites and added asset-building opportunities to help tax filers maximize their refunds. APC worked with four financial institutions to help residents open bank accounts; screened residents for eligibility for public benefits at VITA sites using online programs such as “EarnBenefits”; and partnered with a credit union to pilot a low-cost refund anticipation loan service at two VITA sites. This service provided an alternative to the high-interest loans marketed by paid tax preparers to receive a tax refund quickly.
Carter credits APC’s success in its ESP outreach and first two years of free tax preparation to the Campaign’s strategic approach to outreach.
Click here to see Carter’s 10 Key Elements for Successful Tax Credit Outreach. Then let us know what you think!
Carter Elliott is the Campaign Manager for the Atlanta Prosperity Campaign, a project of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. He is a 2005 Tax Credit Outreach Train-the-Trainer participant.
Share with us:
Which of Carter Elliott’s key elements are part of your current approach? What would you add to the list?
In Anson County, North Carolina, we have conducted successfully our first tax credit outreach seminar. Carter Elliott’s 4th Key Element for Successful Tax Credit Outreach — Strategic Partnerships — is something that we are using as part of our approach. Included on the agenda were representatives from IRS SPEC and VITA. Why else do we think we were successful?
Our recruitment was as follows: We sent a letter to specific individuals with local agencies/organizations/professional and civic groups/faith-based organizations/politicans and concerned citizens. We followed up with phone calls. Three different groups were sending out emails as well as the chamber. We appeared on several local web sites. Because breakfast was being provided an RSVP was required. That let us know who to call as a reminder and who to call in recruitment.
In preparation for the event, we hired a caterer, selected the menu, booked space with ample parking and a venue both accessible and well known, purchased four door prizes, and reviewed our agenda. We notified the Washington staff to be on standby for difficult questions.
On the day of the event, we registered the participants through the local community college, offering them CEUs if so desired, thus collecting the required information. We conducted the seminar, answered the questions, gave out the door prizes. We began and concluded on schedule. By days end, we recruited several VITA volunteers and had an enthusiastic commitment of support from those in attendance.
Calls from agencies continue to be received. The VITA outreach coordinator has given numerous presentations to small groups. The excitement continues to accelerate.
We have begun the planning for our second seminar.
WOW another tax filing year is here and I am reeling from last year. We had many successes and some barriers during our filing season last year. Although our agency has been filing returns since the 2004 tax filing season last year was the first year of our expansion in three specific locations due to funding that was provided by a local foundation. We opened nine sites with a limited amount of very dedicated volunteers. By that being our first year with the creation of our new coalition (BEST = Building Economic Success Together) we were optimistic, but realistic as to how many families we would be able to assist. We did that then some.
My volunteers were great and I also implemented Carter Elliott’s 4th Key Element for Successful Tax Credit Outreach — Strategic Partnerships. We partnered with a local bank, local Head Start, the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism centers, local United Way and our local Center for Voluntarism and the 211 Consumer Information Hotline. Following the 3rd Key Element — Familiar VITA Site Locations — our sites were located as close to the neighborhoods of low-income families as we got possibly get. Because all of our volunteers were new we had some errors in filing that happened initially, but once they got rolling we had a very good year. We have over half of our volunteers returning and have about sixteen additional this year for a total of about 30 volunteers. One of our biggest challenges was data collection and gathering all of the information for all of our community stakeholders. We have made some significant changes in the training of volunteers in that regard and the implementation of a new form to be completed during the Quality Review Process.