Reimagining Revenue Systems & Public Benefits Access

In 2025, Economic Opportunity Funders and the Tax Equity Funders Network invited forward-looking ideas for creating more equitable, effective, and sustainable revenue systems and transforming how people access public benefits.

Through an open Call for Innovations, we received 45 submissions from organizations working across the country.

Twelve innovations—six focused on public benefits access and six on revenue systems—were featured in an Ideas Showcase at our 2026 Budget and Tax Briefing.

Explore the featured innovations, Showcase materials, and six-month updates below.

Where Are They Now? Six-Month Updates

Six months after the Ideas Showcase, we checked back with the featured organizations to learn what has changed, what they are learning, and what comes next.

Reimagining Public Benefits Access: Six-Month Update

Reimagining Revenue Systems: Six-Month Update

2026 Ideas Showcase

Explore the ideas featured in the 2026 Showcase, along with presentation highlights, key takeaways, and related resources below.

Reimagining Public Benefits Access Ideas Showcase

Public benefits help millions of families and households afford daily life—covering food, child care, rent, and healthcare. Yet each year, an estimated $140 billion in public benefits go unclaimed. Fragmented and complex systems, daunting paperwork, outdated technology, and other burdensome administrative requirements like restrictive eligibility rules and disincentives for recipients to increase their earnings make it harder for eligible people to access and maintain critical benefits and challenge the government’s ability to deliver these benefits efficiently and effectively. Solving access and delivery problems in the public benefits system is one of the most direct, immediate routes to reduce poverty in the United States and support economic security.

What would it take to create a more equitable and efficient system of public benefits that streamlined and expanded equitable access and uptake of public benefits, reduced administrative burdens, targeted resources to those most in need, and supported a smoother transition to economic security?

Reimagining Public Benefits Access Ideas Showcase Group Shot
Speakers from the Reimagining Public Benefits Access Ideas Showcase

Ideas Showcase Innovations:

  • Center for Taxpayer Rights: Exploring automatic enrollment for tax and other public benefits.
  • Digital Public Works: DiCIT: Software that increases access to benefits by minimizing applicant burden.
  • Mirza: The Common App for public benefits: Transforming how families access safety net benefits.
  • MyFriendBen: Unlocking the Next Generation of Benefits Access for Long-Term Care Support Services
  • Public Policy Lab: GovPay: A unified, privacy-first benefits payment platform.
  • Rx Kids: A prescription for health, hope, and opportunity.

Explore the Materials

Reimagining Revenue Systems Ideas Showcase

The tax code touches nearly every aspect of American life and impacts the well-being of our families, communities, and our democracy. Tax policy, if designed well, can be a critical lever to create a more inclusive economy in which all people can achieve economic security, mobility, and well-being. Our present tax system disproportionately benefits a powerful and wealthy minority, which exacerbates racial inequalities and deprives the public of essential resources for our common good.

What would a robust and equitable revenue system look like, where everyone pays their fair share, no one pays more than they can afford, and the government raises enough money to fund public goods that benefit us all, like childcare, education, housing, transportation, and health care?

Reimagining Revenue Systems Showcase Panel Group Photo
Caption: Speakers from the Reimagining Revenue Systems Showcase

Ideas Showcase Innovations:

  • FACT Coalition: Using transparency to deter multinational corporate tax evasion and avoidance.
  • Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: Enacting state wealth proceeds taxes.
  • Niskanen Center: Reviving America’s contributory tradition by expanding payroll taxes as a foundation for public benefits.
  • New Practice Lab at New America: Automatically returning money owed to families missing out on tax credits.
  • The Tax Law Center at NYU Law: Remaking federal tax administration.
  • Washington Center for Equitable Growth: Reclassifying large passthrough businesses to strengthen equitable revenue systems.

Explore the Materials