The year 2020 has been a doozy, particularly for low- and moderate-income communities. As it comes to a close, one bright spot in Prosperity Now’s portfolio has been our work with the Taxpayer Opportunity Network on pivoting tax-time service delivery, creating virtual service delivery at a time it is needed the most.

COVID-19 has eviscerated the health and financial stability of millions of Americans, making it harder to recover from its impacts. As a result, too many are struggling to meet their family’s basic needs. They’re having a tough time paying bills while trying not to rely on debt to weather this crisis.

In early 2020, foreseeing that the pandemic was about to strike the most vulnerable families and communities harshly, Prosperity Now, with several funders and national partners, formed a unique alliance to support them.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is a program that helps low- and moderate-income households file their taxes and obtain access to funds which can be used to purchase groceries, pay bills and build emergency savings. During a national health and economic crisis, a tax refund or a federal stimulus payment can be a lifeline, helping families survive one day to another.  

There are more than 3,700 VITA sites. Most were forced to close their physical offices in March because of the pandemic, leaving almost half of the 1.5 million clients typically served during a tax filing season without the help they needed to get tax credits and federal stimulus payments. Prosperity Now leveraged a combined investment from three funders—Citi Foundation, Blue Meridian Partners and Rockefeller Foundation--to rapidly disburse $800,000 in grants to 63 VITA organizations situated in underserved communities, ensuring that VITA sites could upgrade their infrastructure and capacity to serve clients virtually or in a safe but accessible manner. Rapidly deploying funds allowed VITA sites to buy laptops, upgrade their software, develop a slate of virtual or semi-virtual services, recruit and train volunteers to provide services and reach out to the most vulnerable clients, ensuring continuity of services even during the pandemic.

Additionally, more than 20 organizations received personalized technical assistance (TA), guidance and peer support to quickly launch virtual services and programs. These best practices have been compiled into a toolkit, designed to help VITA providers navigate and expand virtual service delivery during the 2021 tax season.

As Suzanne Yeomans, a Financial Stability Program Officer at the United Way of Wine Country (CA),  said at the start of this initiative: “I cannot  wait for my laptops to show up, thanks to my Prosperity Now grant of $20,000! To be offered the opportunity to receive [TA] help, on top of that, is invaluable, especially given our smallish VITA staff and amazing volunteers who have stepped up to [launch] our VITA season and beat our goals.”

Sub-grants helped Suzanne and her team support their clients through the twin crises of the pandemic and seasonal fires that affected northern California. But we also want to recognize the hundreds of community-based organizations that have tirelessly provided VITA services during an uncertain time, ensuring that the most vulnerable can access tax credits and stimulus payments to which they are entitled, offering them some financial relief.   

Prosperity Now convened a roundtable of national partners (including Code for America, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Commonwealth, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, United Way Worldwide and the IRS) to leverage additional tools, national expertise and network outreach. The organizations identified challenges and created solutions, building infrastructure and outreach mechanisms that the VITA field can rely on to serve its clients more effectively.

We anticipate that many of the challenges that plagued the 2020 filing season will remain in the 2021 filing season, which begins at the start of the new year. While there is promising news about a COVID-19 vaccine, the reality is that much of next year will be marked by social distancing and virtual service delivery until we are able to successfully navigate this public health crisis and return to a semblance of normalcy.

As a result, we need continued support for the VITA field to help practitioners extend the reach and impact of their services. To do this effectively, we need continued partnership from the philanthropic community, as well as our national partners, in scaling up virtual service delivery and supports, especially in underserved communities.

As states continue to deal with balancing their already-strained budgets in 2021, VITA sites and the clients they serve will need additional resources to get through the tax season and the hard months ahead. Fortunately, Congress seems to be moving toward providing a big boost to VITA funding—potentially up to $30 million. And, though negotiations have stalled on another round of stimulus, we remain hopeful that the impasse will be broken since many in Congress are actively working on a bipartisan basis to provide families and businesses with additional supports to weather the pandemic over these next few months.

With just a few days left until government funding runs out, and four weeks until existing federal pandemic supports expire, now is the time to call on your senators and representatives to provide families and programs like VITA with the resources they need to navigate this crisis.