U.S. Poverty Weekly Update December 1, 2015
U.S. Poverty CampaignsWeekly Update | December 1, 2015
In This Week’s Update:
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Quick Action: Send a Letter to the Editor about Poverty and the EITC/CTC
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Got Two Minutes? Submit an Online EITC/CTC Letter to the Editor Before It’s Too LateAccording to media reports, negotiators will decide whether key provisions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) in the next few days. We want Congress to make these expiring provisions permanent now so families don’t have to live with the threat of losing their EITC and CTC for the next two years. Do your part by submitting a letter to the editor to your local paper about protecting working families. Your letters will remind lawmakers in these final days of negotiation that any bill that makes business tax credits permanent MUST include a permanent extension of the EITC and CTC provisions. We’ve already had success just in the last week with new media. RESULTS volunteers Diana Tyree-Eddy (Bremerton, WA), Susan Rack (Bernardsville, NJ), Stephen Blobaum (Des Moines, IA), Annamarie Morehead (Melba, ID), and Sylvia Lewis (Detroit) have all gotten letters to the editor published in the last week about the EITC and CTC. In addition, RESULTS Houston volunteers met with editors from the Houston Chronicle and inspired an editorial this past Friday and an op-ed yesterday. Congratulations to you all! This is what we need to get this issue over the finish line. TAKE ACTION: Use the RESULTS tax credit letter to the editor alert to send a letter today about saving key provisions of the EITC and CTC. You can find contact information for media outlets in your area in the RESULTS Media Guide. If and when you get published, please send your published pieces to your members of Congress! (see more below) If you have a few extra minutes, personalize your letter to increase your chances of getting published. Refer to a recent article in the paper and link it to the EITC and CTC. “Hook” your letter to the holidays (e.g. during this charitable season, give your voice for working families) or holiday shopping (e.g. many of us are buying gifts for family and friends, but what about the families who don’t have enough to make ends meet) or congressional budget negotiations (e.g. once again, Congress is waiting until the last minute to do the people’s work, but here’s one they can do now before it’s too late). Contact Jos Linn ([email protected]) if you have questions or need coaching for writing your letters. Good luck! |
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Got Ten Minutes? Give to RESULTS on This Giving Tuesday!Did you know that Tuesday, December 1, is #GivingTuesday! On #Giving Tuesday, “charities, families, businesses, community centers, and students around the world come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give.” It is the perfect time to ask friends and family to donate to RESULTS, or to simply make a donation yourself to RESULTS. Every dollar you raise or donate is used to leverage the resources needed to make poverty history. Help us take another step closer to a world free of poverty – donate to RESULTS or RESULTS Educational Fund today! TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to give on #GivingTuesday. If you have a friend or group you know currently hosting a RESULTS fundraising campaign, use the links below to search for the group name (under “Team”) or person’s name (under “Registrants”) to donate directly to their campaign. Or simply make a general donation to RESULTS or RESULTS Educational Fund through the Donate Now page on the RESULTS website. Thank you for your support in advance! Also, thank you to everyone who raised and gave during our November Matching Challenge! In review, RESULTS volunteer Peter Fiekowsky offered a challenge that if RESULTS raised $25,000 through Friends & Family campaigns in November, he would donate another $10,000 to RESULTS. We reached the goal yesterday and have achieved the match. Thank you all and congratulations! |
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Got Twenty Minutes? Send Your 2015 Tax Credit Media to Your Tax Aide This WeekThe time is now for families receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit (CTC)! Congress is working on a deal on business tax extenders. Because some members of Congress want to make some of these business tax credits permanent, RESULTS and our allies are pushing hard to make sure that the EITC and CTC provisions are made permanent too. According to Politico, “some aides were saying Monday the next couple of days would be crucial if a permanent [tax] deal was actually going to get across the finish line.” Let’s make sure the fate of working families is front and center in the final negotiations. Congress must not leave these families behind. If you have not reconnected with your Senate and House tax aides recently, contact them this week to remind them that working families in their states and districts are counting on them to do the right thing – make the expiring provisions permanent in the tax extenders legislation. Also remind them that as a constituent, you know how to generate support for this issue through the media. Do this by sending them copies or links to all the media pieces you and your group have gotten published this year about the EITC and CTC (RESULTS volunteers have generated 79 media pieces on the tax credits in 2015). Let your members of Congress know that you and your local RESULTS group are powerful advocates for low-income Americans. TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to follow up with your Senate and Tax aides about saving the expiring provisions of the EITC and CTC. Have the point person for each member of Congress call the tax aide for senators and representatives to urge their bosses to tell tax negotiators to make the expiring EITC and CTC provisions permanent. You can find aide names and contact information on our Elected Officials page. In addition, send them links to your 2015 published media regarding the tax credits, demonstrating your effectiveness in creating political will on this issue. Here’s what your e-mail to the aide might look like (please fill in blank information and data where noted before sending): Dear [tax aide’s name]: I enjoyed meeting you/talking with you earlier this year. Now I’m hearing that Congress may be close to finalizing a tax extenders package that makes certain business tax credits permanent. I want you and your boss to see this media coverage about the importance of pro-work tax credits back home: [List links to media you’ve generated this year about the EITC/CTC] As you know, here in __________________, we are concerned that working families are getting left behind. We want to make sure that any such tax bill includes a permanent extension of the expiring Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit provisions As you know, the EITC and CTC are our most effective tools at lifting children and families out of poverty – these credits lifted nearly 10 million people out of poverty in 2014, half of them children. If these provisions expire, 16 million Americans, including 8 million children, will fall into or deeper into poverty – including ___ in our state. (find these local numbers at: http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/state-fact-sheets-the-earned-income-and-child-tax-credits ) I would hope that Sen./Rep._________________ would not want that to happen. Will you urge Sen./Rep._________________ to weigh in with tax negotiators this week, urging them to save these vital provisions in the tax extenders bill? In addition to the letters to the editor our group has gotten published this year about this issue, I know that RESULTS volunteers alone have generated 79 media pieces in newspapers across the country – there is a real groundswell and this is our chance to do the right thing for working families. I hope the Representative/Senator will use this media coverage with leadership to demonstrate the importance of these provisions to his constituents. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you about this request If you have questions or need help identifying all the media you’ve had published this year, please contact Jos Linn ([email protected]) for assistance. |
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Quick NewsBread for the World Releases New Hunger Report. Last week, our friends at Bread for the World released their 2016 Hunger Report. The report highlights the current state of hunger in the U.S. and the world and strategies to end it. This is a great resource in highlighting the importance of anti-poverty programs such as SNAP, the EITC, and the Child Tax Credit. You can also use data and stories from the report to push candidates to outline their own plans to end hunger and poverty via the Vote to End Hunger Campaign. Listen to Recording of RESULTS Expert on Poverty on Radio Show. Last week, RESULTS Expert on Poverty Tianna Gaines-Turner and RESULTS Director of U.S. Poverty Campaigns Meredith Dodson appeared on the monthly “We Get RESULTS” talk radio show with RESULTS volunteer Mary Albertson. Listen to the recording of the show at here. In addition, on Monday, December 14 at 8:30 pm ET, RESULTS will host “Powerful Speaking: Telling Your Story to Create Change”. This webinar will feature our RESULTS Experts on Poverty. Learn from the real experts how they’ve developed their own stories, why these stories truly matter, and how you can draw from your own experiences to speak powerfully about poverty. We’ll have more details in next week’s Update and on the December 12 National Webinar. |
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Upcoming EventsGo to the RESULTS Events Calendar to see a full list of RESULTS events. Also, find a list of the RESULTS U.S. Poverty staff with contact information on the RESULTS website. Congressional Recesses: House and Senate: Target adjournment for 2015 is December 18. Request face-to-face meetings. RESULTS/Vote to End Hunger Advocacy Training, December 7, at 4:00 pm ET. Go to http://votetoendhunger.org/december-vote-to-end-hunger-webinar-registration/ to register today. See more details above. RESULTS Introductory Call, December 9, at 9:00 pm ET. If you want to learn more about RESULTS, register for an upcoming Intro Call on the RESULTS website. RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, December 12 at 12:30 pm ET. Join the meeting online at http://fuze.me/28130766 or dial in by phone at (201) 479-4595, meeting ID: 28130766#. Listen to previous conference calls and meetings on our National Webinars page. RESULTS Powerful Speaking: Telling Your Story to Create Change webinar, December 14 at 8:30 pm ET. More details next week. RESULTS Holiday Break. All RESULTS offices are closed from December 24 through January 3. Happy Holidays! 2016 RESULTS International Conference, June 25-28, 2016 in Washington, DC. Save the dates! If you have a question, comment or suggestion for the RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund Board, please e-mail them to RESULTS Grassroots Board Member Lydia Pendley at [email protected]. You can download RESULTS’ most recent Annual Report at: https://results.org/about/annual_report/. |