The mission of AECF is to improve the lives of low-income children, youth, and families. The work of economic opportunity and equity fits squarely into this. We also have a strong racial equity lens and focus on the significant ways economic policy creates barriers and obstacles to achieving this, and how properly designed policy can support it. Over the years, the target has shifted a little—in the last year or so we added a focus on youth and young adults, Thrive by 25, with at least half the Foundation’s invest­ments over the next decade dedicated to improv­ing the well-being and prospects of youth and young adults ages 14–24.

I joined the Foundation about a year ago. Formerly, I was a grantee of the foundation, running The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. What has been most exciting for me is the work on the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—the significant increase in funding through the American Rescue Plan and the campaign to extend the improvements and make them permanent.

When we look at the issues in economic opportunity, there’s much to be done at all levels to close the gaps. The work at the Federal level relies on State and local action and implementation. If we take the push to make the CTC permanent, we didn’t get across the finish line, I know, but I’m immensely proud of it. Everyone, at every level, did what they could. In the end it all hinged on a single person beyond our reach (Joe Manchin), but we can’t beat ourselves up.

As advocates on the ground, we were nimble and responsive. It was a collaborative, energized, and coordinated space. Funders were meeting and talking. Investments were aligned. We had regular calls to share proposals, ideas, and strategies, to share who was funding where. We were smart and strategic.

Failure can lead to second guessing and introspection is important. But even in this space, we need to be forgiving of ourselves. That the CTC became central in the whole package is enormous. It’s such a huge part of the Rescue Plan and awareness at the national level has shot up. The CTC was transformed through the Rescue Plan—it’s now monthly, refundable. Advocates were creative and responsive as they pivoted on how to talk about it in a shifting terrain.

This work was driven by super brilliant advocates taking on inequitable structures with strategic vision, creativity, and nimbleness. What they do truly excites me as a funder. How to connect these advocates to resources and then get out of the way and have them thrive. Anytime I need a shot in the arm, I talk to them.

There are two buckets here. The first is challenges within AECF. How to continue to secure the level of funding that the work requires. Foundations go through shifts and reprioritizations, Thrive by 25, for example. There’s more focus now to show how our existing work connects to that population. In addition, the funding of networks is about more than maintenance. In the past there was longstanding interest in building capacity. Now there’s increasing interest in issue campaign efforts, so we conceptualize our work in a different way.

The next challenge lays in the EOF work, getting a sense of the priorities of other funders. There’s an everyday churning of funders in and out of the work and part of my job is keeping on top of that—maintaining collaboration, building trust, convening, and connecting to keep the honest exchange of ideas alive so we can advance the work and leverage resources. All this has been hampered by the virtual context.

For AECF, EOF is a tool for addressing challenges across philanthropy. It’s a force multiplier. It provides a space for collaborating and aligning with other funders. It leverages impact. It extends capacity with EOF staff taking on tasks and projects.

It’s also strategically valuable. We’re able to put money aside in the EOF pot and divvy it up later with partners. This makes the funding more nimble. We don’t need to decide how its spent as part of our summer/ fall budget process.

I’d like to engage around the blowback on issues of equity and racial equity. The explosion of opposition to critical race theory—using it as a bludgeon. This is our current challenge in the political environment, and I’m sure it will get worse. How do other funders see meeting this challenge? How do we change the conversation when the ground has shifted beneath us? Our work involves a never-ending series of progress and blowbacks. How are people engaging with this? Are they getting cold feet or is there a broad understanding of staying the course?

I’m a big believer in us all having a role to play. Mike Laracy, my predecessor, was inspiring to me in the way he did grantmaking. After G. W. Bush became president, Mike pulled together a funder dinner to look at GW’s campaign support for CTC. He recognized that leveraging resources could potentially pull eligibility down the income scale. He seized the moment, collaborated with others, funded research and advocacy, and more low-income families were able to access the CTC for the first time.

My other example is Judy Solomon, Health Policy Senior Fellow at CBPP. The period after 2010 midterms was risky. The main fruits of the new ACA law were not yet ripe and there was a risk of undermining it before it was realized. Judy convened us to talk about strategies for protecting ACA. She used the metaphor of a basketball team—how you don’t bring in a different team to play defence. It’s the same team who plays defence as offense. She was an inspiring voice of confidence for us.