Giving and receiving care is deeply personal. It also is foundational for healthy communities and a vibrant economy. 

Yet our public and corporate policies and our society’s devaluing of care make this fundamental act of love and humanity a challenge that families are expected to figure out on their own. The absence of robust care policies exacerbates current inequalities across the lifecycle, and most perniciously, across generations. For example, the lack of universal paid sick days and paid family leave laws in the United States hinders economic mobility for today’s workers and perpetuates intergenerational poverty.  

It shouldn’t be this hard. That is why a diverse and growing group of funders have been joining forces through the Care for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund, to build the cohesion, capacity, and power of the care movement.

The CARE Fund is investing $50 million over five years in movement building for a universal publicly supported care infrastructure that will fuel economies, improve the wellbeing of kids and families, create millions of good jobs, promote equity, advance democracy, and enable people with disabilities and older adults to live independently with safety and dignity.  

We are well on our way toward our goal. Since 2021, we have supported large-scale nationwide initiatives and seeded new innovations with $25.4M in grants. We have been excited to see care–including long-term care, family caregiving, paid leave, and child care–featured prominently in the national discourse, particularly during this election season. In spite of the transformative impact of policies at the state and federal levels, however, much work still needs to be done to build an equitable and comprehensive care system. 

We will never solve our care crisis without massive public investment. We all know that the math just does not add up: families struggle to afford child care and long-term care, yet early educators and home care workers do not make enough to support themselves and their families. The way to fill that gap so that families and our economy can thrive is by public investment. To generate the funds required to support these investments, we need to enact progressive tax policies that promote gender and racial justice.

The CARE Fund has seeded an effort to ensure that the care movement is mobilized to fight for tax equity and that the tax equity movement prioritizes investments in care. With our unique cross-movement vantage point, we are proud to support a collaborative effort among groups working across paid leave, early care and education, aging and disability care and care workers rights. Together these groups (Family Values at Work, National Women’s Law Center, National Domestic Workers Alliance, MomsRising and Caring Across Generations) are mobilizing grassroots support for the revenue we need to fund the care we all need. 

But more funder support is needed to keep the pressure on through 2025. Right now we are at an extremely strategic moment to lead on public financing for the care systems we need. Many provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act–commonly known as the Trump Tax Cuts–expire in 2025. Making these tax cuts permanent could potentially impact trillions in revenue, undermining our ability to invest in care infrastructure for years to come. No matter the political scenario, the expiration of these tax cuts means that there will be historic negotiations at the federal level in 2025 about how our country’s tax and budget policies reflect our values and the priorities of the American people. 

The good news is that we are already winning the narrative. A recent poll CARE Fund grantees conducted shows that approximately 80 percent of voters favor increasing taxes on wealthy corporations and the wealthiest individuals in order to pay for the care agenda. Through the CARE Fund’s support, our grantees are continuing to train grassroots care advocates to speak with confidence about tax-related topics and to make the connections about how tax policy directly impacts funding for programs crucial to their constituents’ lives.  

A core belief of the CARE Fund is that we will only win transformative change in our care systems if we build power together. As long as we are divided, we will be conquered. As long as we allow children to be pitted against older people and care consumers to be pitted against care workers, we will never build the powerful energized base to win the public resources at scale for transformative change. This is where the CARE Fund comes in, offering foundations and individuals funding care issues across the lifecycle a vehicle to build power together. 

We are very encouraged that politicians across the political spectrum are talking about care in this election cycle. In order to make sure that rhetoric turns into reality, philanthropy will need to double down to support the care movement. Whatever the political scenario in 2025, the movement will need to amplify its power to create opportunities for transformative change, assess the impact of bi-partisan efforts on equity goals, and ensure that the significant wins of the past four years are not rolled back.

I have the privilege of serving on the Steering Committee of EOF, and for the last two decades, I have been attending EOF’s Annual Budget and Tax meeting. In all those years, my portfolio was never “tax and budget.” However, I’ve always understood that an active role for government and public investment was crucial for whatever goals I was trying to achieve. What I have learned through EOF has prepared me and my organization for this moment, as the CARE Fund supports the care movement to fight for a tax system where everyone pays their fair share and where spending meets the needs of families and communities. Whether we are focused on care, housing, children, jobs or democracy – this discussion is crucial if we want to build an economy that works for all.

How do we use the 2025 tax fight not only to support families through the tax code, but also to raise the revenue we need for direct public investment in equitable care programs and systems?