EITC Pooled Fund

After thirteen incredible years, the EITC Pooled Fund closed at the end of 2025.

Launched in 2012 by Economic Opportunity Funders and the Tax Equity Funders Network, the EITC Pooled Fund has awarded more than $9 million to organizations in 36 states and 11 national networks to advance economic opportunity for low-income workers and their families across the country to support public education and awareness efforts to defend, create, and expand state and federal tax credits. This intiative supported four specialized Funds:

1. State EITC Rapid Response Fund: Established in 2012, this Fund focused on quick infusions of support to help an existing effort overcome a coalition-building or communications challenge or opportunity. Awards were made on a rolling basis and ranged from $15,000-$50,000.
2. State EITC Policy Development Fund: Established in 2015, this Fund provided multi-year support to state-based policy groups laying the groundwork to create opportunities to improve state EITCs. Awards ranged from $75,000-$125,00 a year for two years.
3. State EITC Campaign Fund: Established in 2017, this Fund focused on supporting year-long education and engagement efforts where a window of opportunity to promote or defend a state EITC seemed urgent. Awards ranged from $30,000-$125,000.
4. Federal EITC Campaign Fund: Established in 2020, this Fund focused on supporting public education and awareness of the federal EITC and CTC, including work on tax-based benefits in the context of federal stimulus and relief packages. Awards ranged from $25,000-$250,000.

Awardees have been among the first to build awareness of the value of expanding the EITC to younger and older workers as well as to immigrant workers or those who file with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). In addition, the Fund helped raise awareness of efforts to create at least twelve new tax credits in states across the country. Thanks to these efforts, hundreds of thousands of low-income families will get more money back at tax time to help purchase food and school supplies, pay for rent, child care, and health care, enroll in school, and afford other essentials.

We express deep appreciation to the charitable foundations that have contributed to the Pooled Fund over the years:

We’d also like to thank the Pooled Fund Technical Assistance partners, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and The Hatcher Group, for their leadership, guidance, and support of the field.

The Fund has not closed due to a lack of support in the philanthropic sector, but rather because of the successful growth of the field it helped build. When the Fund launched in 2012, there were very few philanthropic resources dedicated to public awareness, policy analysis, coalition-building, and communications work on state tax credits. Multiple individual philanthropic efforts and pooled funds now actively prioritize and resource state and federal tax credit work.

We step away with deep gratitude and immense pride that a thriving field of tax credit advocacy now exists for this vital work and will continue to deliver economic security for low-income workers and families.

EITC Pooled Fund 10-Year Summary

A 10-year summary highlighting the EITC Pooled Fund’s history, structure, impact, lessons learned, and the work ahead is available upon request. Email [email protected] to request a copy.

EITC Pooled Fund 10-Year Timeline

View our 10-year timeline of activities to advance tax fairness and economic opportunity for low-income workers and families through the promotion, protection and expansion of the federal and state EITC, CTC, and other tax credits.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

Additional Work Supported by The Fund

Polling and Message Testing

The Fund has supported several messaging research efforts to support awardees and the field.

In 2012, The Fund contracted with a national polling firm (Hart Research) to support new research on EITC messaging through focus groups and national polling. Findings from this research are available upon request.

In 2015, building on the polling and focus group findings, The Fund contracted a messaging firm (Topos Partnership) to explore the set of messages that might shift how people think about the EITC. This research, using deep “talk-back” message testing in several locations across the country, explored how people think about the EITC as a mechanism to reduce poverty and their reactions to messages regarding fraud and abuse of funds and other key message points.

In 2022 The Fund contracted with SKDK to help support the creation of a centralized communications hub focused on raising awareness of the Child Tax Credit.

Evaluation

The Fund supported a retrospective evaluation of the Rapid Response and Policy Development Fund. Evaluation activities began in Summer 2016 and concluded in March 2018. Evaluation activities included document reviews, awardee surveys and interviews, group data collection at convening(s), funder and leadership team interviews, awardee coaching on data collection, awardee capacity assessments, surveys of a subset of awardees’ peers/partners, funding landscape analysis, and in-depth case studies.

Evaluation reports available upon request. Email [email protected] to request a copy.

Program Participation Data Dashboard

With support by the EITC Pooled Fund, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities launched a new Program Participation Data Dashboard, which provides interactive state-by-state data and links on participation in key programs for people with low incomes, including the EITC, SNAP, Medicaid and CHIP, and SSI.

The dashboard is a valuable resource for funders and grantees seeking to better understand the reach and impact of these programs in communities across the country.

Connecting Economic Security Policy and Grassroots Funders

Too often the foundations providing support to organizations engaging the community and the foundations providing support to groups working to improve economic security are not in the same room, sharing analyses and strategies.

With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, The Fund worked to connect economic policy and community engagement funders in Florida and Missouri.

Florida: The Fund worked in partnership with the Florida Philanthropic Network to support the following activities:

A conversation for Florida funders to begin to connect the dots across their work to improve economic security and discuss strategies for building more impactful partnerships; and
The commission of two case studies on successful EITC campaigns in New Mexico and Washington and an infographic on how policy and grassroots funders can come together to build ecosystems that advance economic opportunity.

Missouri: The Fund worked in partnership with Philanthropy Missouri to support the following activities:

A conversation for Missouri funders to begin to connect the dots across their work to improve economic security and discuss strategies for building more impactful partnerships; and
A funder learning and action group, focused on the care economy. The group made a $100,000 award to Missouri Jobs with Justice to develop a story bank on the impact of the care economy for use by the broader nonprofit community.