Cosponsored Virtual Funder Gathering: What do Taxes have to do With it? Connecting Policy and Grassroots Strategies to Advance Race, Gender and Immigrant Equity through Tax Policy

In a time when our communities are grappling with the multiple challenges of the pandemic, economic insecurity, and growing unrest over structural racism, charitable foundations are looking for strategies to work cross-sectionally to address root causes and build toward a better future. A critically important, but often overlooked, element of how racism, sexism and xenophobia manifest is found in federal and state tax policies.

Please join Economic Opportunity Funders, EITC Funders Network, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, and Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap for an interactive, virtual discussion of how charitable foundations are supporting policy and grassroots organizing strategies to increase equity in the tax code and explore learnings from concrete examples–especially for immigrant workers, education funding, and families with children–nationally and in states.

Part 1: A Funders Perspective on Advancing Equity Through Tax Policy: Hear from funder colleagues about how their foundations are advancing race, immigrant, and gender equity strategies by funding tax policy change and organizing efforts, and their lessons learned.

Panel Speakers:

• Cassandra McKee, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund
• Danielle Goonan, Rockefeller Foundation
• Dr. Carmen Rojas, Marguerite Casey Foundation

Click here to view the recording.

Part II: Lessons from the Field and Opportunity for Advancement: A panel of policy and community engagement leaders will provide brief overviews of efforts underway to advance immigrant, racial and gender equity by making changes to the tax code. Then participants will break into small groups to dig more deeply on these strategies, identify key learnings, and opportunities for advancement

Panel and Breakout Speakers:

• Immigrant Equity and the Tax Code — learning from Colorado ITIN expansion: Carol Hedges, Colorado Fiscal Institute and Lizeth Chacon, Colorado People’s Alliance
• Racial Equity and the Tax Code — learning from California efforts to create equity through the school funding formula: Michael Russo, ​Advancement Project California
• Gender Equity and the Tax Code — learning from federal efforts to advance gender equity through expanding and modernizing tax credits: Elyssa Koidin Schmier, MomsRising

Click here to view the recording.

Speakers:

Lizeth Chacon, Colorado People’s Alliance	Danielle Goonan, Rockefeller Foundation	Carol Hedges, Colorado Fiscal Institute	Cassandra McKee, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund
Dr. Carmen Rojas, Marguerite Casey Foundation	Michael Russo, ​Advancement Project California	Elyssa Koidin Schmier, MomsRising

Recent publications and resources:

• Washington Post: On the Margins: Economic Security for Women of Color through the Coronavirus Crisis and Beyond (September 2020)
• TimesUpFoundation: Gender and Racial Inequality During Crisis: The Pay Gap (July 2020)
• Prosperity Now: From Upside Down to Right-Side Up: Turning the Tax Code Into an Engine for Economic and Racial Equality (July 2020)
• Institute for Policy Studies: White Supremacy is the Preexisting Condition: Eight Solutions to Ensure Economic Recovery Reduces the Racial Wealth Divide (Dedrick Asante-Muhammed, Chuck Collins, and Omar Ocampo, July 2020)
• ITEP: Beyond SCOTUS: States Recognize Need for More Inclusive Immigrant Policy (Marco Guzman, June 26, 2020)
• PolicyLink: Fighting Anti-Blackness Through Budget Justice (Marc Philpart and Chione L. Flegal, June 10, 2020)
• Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity: Working Toward Economic and Racial Justice: A Conversation with Darrick Hamilton (June 2020)
• CBPP: 3 Principles for an Anti-Racist, Equitable State Response to COVID-19 – and a Stronger Recovery (Erica Williams and Cortney Sanders, May 2020)
• CBPP: How the Federal Tax Code Can Better Advance Racial Equity (Chye-Ching Huang and Roderick Taylor, July 2019)
• Highlighting gender impact of refundable tax credits in the context of the COVID 19 recession. NWLC factsheet: NWLC testimony (April 2020)
• ITEP: The Illusion of Race-Neutral Tax Policy (Misha Hill, Jenice Robinson, Alan Essig, Meg Wiehe, Steve Wamhoff, and Carl Davis, February 2019)
• Prosperity Now and ITEP: Race, Wealth, and Taxes: How the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Supercharges the Racial Wealth Divide (Meg Wiehe, Emanuel Nieves, Jeremie Greer, and David Newville, October 2018)