U.S. Poverty Campaigns

Weekly Update | October 20, 2015

“I worked with families in high stress situations that all too frequently resulted in abuse. One major stress factor for families that we can alleviate is lack of resources, which can cause an inability to move upward on the social-economic ladder.”

– RESULTS Montana volunteer Janice McCaffrey in a October 10 letter to the editor in the Flathead Beacon

“Many of us are unaware of the silent struggles in our midst. The Earned Income Tax Credit, a refundable federal income tax credit for low-income working individuals and their families, is indeed a life-saver.”

– RESULTS Bremerton (WA) volunteer Donna Munro in an October 13 letter to the editor in the Snohomish Tribune (WA)

“One would think preserving, and even expanding, these credits would be a top priority for Republican politicians.”

– October 14 Des Moines Register editorial generated by RESULTS Des Moines (IA) volunteers

In This Week’s Update:

• Got Two Minutes? Tell Congress to Save the EITC and CTC Provisions (October Action)
• Got Ten Minutes? Contact Tax Aides to Save the EITC and CTC Provisions (October Action)
• Got Twenty Minutes? Help RESULTS with Your Critical Grassroots Fundraising
• RESULTS Helps Launch Vote to End Hunger
• RESULTS Outreach – Welcome North Carolina! Help Us in , KS, KC, and Chicago
• Quick News
• Upcoming Events

Quick Action: Send a Letter to the Editor about Poverty and the EITC/CTC

Got Two Minutes? Tell Congress to Save the EITC and CTC Provisions (October Action)

The House and Senate are back in DC this week. Remind them that working families are counting on them to do what’s right for working families. Key provisions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) will expire in 2017. It’s imperative that Congress make these improvements permanent now, rather than later. Some in Congress have signaled that they will try to make some or all business tax breaks (including the so-called “tax extenders”) permanent, without offsetting the cost. Congress must show they support working families by making the EITC and CTC provisions for modest-income working families permanent as well. This is good policy and hard-working Americans shouldn’t have the threat of deeper poverty hanging over them for months or years on end. It’s the right thing to do.

TAKE ACTION: To two minutes to send a message to your representatives and senators urging them to save the EITC and CTC provisions now. Use our online action alert to send your message today.

Got Ten Minutes? Contact Tax Aides to Save the EITC and CTC Provisions (October Action)

This week, Congress returns to Washington after a week-long recess. Thank you to everyone who requested meetings or attended town halls last week (if you had a meeting or attended a town hall, please be sure to fill out the RESULTS Lobby Report: www.tinyurl.com/RESLRF). However, even if you didn’t have a face-to-face encounter, you can still make a difference about protecting low-income working families who receive the EITC and Child Tax Credit.

Tax aides are a key asset to members of Congress. They help bring the issues constituents care about to the attention of their bosses. Therefore, talking to them about the EITC and CTC is critical in generating support for making the expiring provisions permanent. Talking with Senate tax aides this month is especially critical, particularly Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans. First, this group holds the power to insist that the EITC and CTC provisions be made permanent in any bill that makes business tax credits permanent. Second, we cannot assume anyone is safely behind us on this issue. Remember that last year it was the Democratic leadership in the Senate who were willing to dismiss the EITC and CTC provisions in a proposed business tax extenders bill (fortunately, President Obama’s veto threat killed that proposal). Therefore, all your members of Congress need to hear from you!

TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to contact your Senate and House tax aides about saving the 2009 provisions of the EITC and CTC. You can find aide names on the RESULTS Elected Officials page. The October Action has all the information you need to have an effective conversations with them. In addition, the Brookings Institution has new local EITC data you can provide the aide (this data is a good excuse to check in, e.g. “In case you haven’t seen this new data…”). You can also find helpful information in the new Census poverty data and our National Webinar resources. Each Senate and House tax aide should get a call from someone in your group. Start with senators and then move to your House members. You can also contact Jos Linn to practice with ([email protected]). If you’re not tasked with calling a tax aide, reinforce the message today by sending an e-mail to your members of Congress about saving the EITC and CTC provisions.

Got Twenty Minutes? Help RESULTS with Your Critical Grassroots Fundraising

RESULTS has an ambitious goal of raising $100,000 from our grassroots volunteers by the end of the year. The funds raised through our events and Friends & Family Campaigns are unrestricted funds that allow RESULTS to support us as advocates, as well as maintain its independence to work on the issues and strategic projects where we will have the most impact. 

We want to thank all the groups and individuals who have raised funds – or are planning to in the next two months – for RESULTS this year. If you have not yet taken the opportunity to participate in a fundraising campaign in 2015, we invite you to join other grassroots volunteers in committing to help RESULTS meet our fundraising goal.

One of the easiest ways to participate in our Fall Fundraising Campaign is to do your own Friends & Family Fundraiser. This is an online fundraising tool that lets you tailor your fundraising outreach to your liking. Here are the options available:

• Friends and Family: A page for general fundraising outreach
• Celebrations: In honor of a birthday, milestone, holiday, etc.
• 35th Anniversary: Celebrating RESULTS 35th Anniversary
• Virtual Thanksgiving Page: Using the Thanksgiving holiday to fundraise
• Race to End Poverty: Use a physical challenge such as a walk or run to fundraise

Of course, if you prefer to do an old-fashioned letter campaign or an event, we can help you do that too.

TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to help us meet our $100,000 goal through our simple Friends & Family Campaigns! Here are the three easy steps to get you started:

1. Set a goal for the amount you want to raise. 
2. Create your own Friends and Family Fundraising page. Online resources can be found on the website to help make your planning of your friends and family fundraising page easier to manage.
3. Invite your friends and family to donate to your page.

If you have questions, please contact Jen DeFranco ([email protected]) or Jerusa Contee ([email protected]) for assistance.

RESULTS Helps Launch Vote to End Hunger

Last week in Iowa, RESULTS helped launch a new effort to raise the issues of hunger and poverty in the presidential election. The Vote to End Hunger Campaign (VTEH) was announced at the Iowa Hunger Summit in front of several hundred people in Des Moines. Representatives of Bread for the World, Feeding America, the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, and RESULTS were part of the launch. RESULTS Des Moines volunteer and Expert on Poverty Jamy Rentschler shared her story of receiving food stamp benefits (now called SNAP) as a child and the importance of these resources for her and her family.

The VTEH Campaign will be actively working to engage candidates over the next year to urge them to make ending hunger and poverty a top national priority when the new president and Congress are sworn in in 2017. We urge you to visit www.votetoendhunger.org to learn more about the campaign. The site has resources and tools to help you raise awareness of poverty in the presidential campaign. If a candidate is speaking near you, plan to attend the event and urge them to explain their plan to end hunger and poverty in America.

RESULTS Outreach – Welcome North Carolina! Help Us in KS, KC and Chicago

RESULTS Expert on Poverty, Ruth Innocent and RESULTS U.S. Poverty Grassroots Organizer, Kristy Martino held an exciting group start event last week in Raleigh, NC. The event was hosted by NC Justice Center and featured a screening of Every Fourth Child…Still – a sobering look at child poverty in North Carolina. The event was well attended and fostered a great conversation. In the end, nine people decided to step up and take action in a new RESULTS group! Their next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 29 at 6:30 pm ET. If you are in Raleigh, and would like to get involved, contact Kristy at [email protected] to join. Welcome, RESULTS Raleigh!

We also have other events coming up. If you know people in the following areas, please invite them to attend. First, on November 2, RESULTS will hold a meeting in Manhattan, KS to start a new U.S. Poverty group at Kansas State University. The meeting is from 5:30 – 7:00 pm CT in Room 113, Leadership Studies Building, 1300 Mid-Campus Drive N, Manhattan, KS. If you know people in the Manhattan area, urge them to attend. RSVP via Facebook here. If you have questions, contact Jos Linn at [email protected].

Then on November 3, RESULTS will host a meeting in Kansas City, MO to start a new U.S. Poverty group there as well. The meeting is from 7:00 – 8:45 pm CT at the First Baptist Church of North Kansas City, 2205 Iron St, North Kansas City, MO. If you know people in the Kansas City area, urge them to come. If you have questions, contact Jos at [email protected].

Finally, on November 12, RESULTS will host a RESULTS meeting in Chicago, IL to re-start the U.S. Poverty group there. The meeting will be from 6:30 – 8:30 pm CT (location TBA). Please urge your Chicago friends to save the date and plan to attend. Contact Jos if you have questions ([email protected]).

Quick News

Vote for New Grassroots Board Member. RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund is looking to fill one grassroots board position to serve a term of three (3) years beginning in November of 2015. There are four grassroots board seats in total. Grassroots board members represent the volunteer body on the Board of Directors and on the Executive Committee of the Board. It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors to work with the Executive Director in shaping the direction of RESULTS, and to advise on major policy for the organization, as well as providing fiduciary oversight. Our grassroots board candidates include Mark Campbell, Lisa Peters, and Beth Wilson. View their candidate bios here. All active RESULTS volunteers are eligible to vote. You must submit your vote no later than midnight TE on Monday, November 9. To vote, go here.

Join #StopTheCuts Twitterstorm Tomorrow. On Wednesday, October 21, at 1:00pm ET RESULTS will join the Coalition on Human Needs, 9to5 – National Association of Working Women, AIDS United, Children’s Leadership Council, Food Research and Action Center, MomsRising, MoveOn.org, National Council of Jewish Women, National Women’s Law Center, and advocates across the country for a #StopTheCuts twitterstorm telling Congress get to work, raise the debt ceiling, and #StopTheCuts to vital human needs programs. This Twitterstorm will amplify the posts in MomsRising’s blog carnival, which includes RESULTS Expert on Poverty Ruth Innocent sharing about the importance of EITC and other programs for her family. Groups and individuals can RSVP to participate in the Twitterstorm here, and jump in by retweeting @RESULTS_Tweets. CHN has a national and state poverty data social media toolkit and encourages all to share their messaging, resources, and graphics with the hashtag #StopTheCuts during the Twitterstorm.

Upcoming Events

Go 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: November 6-15; Senate: November 21-29. Request face-to-face meetings.

RESULTS U.S. Poverty Free Agents Calls, October 20 at 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm ET. Join online at: http://fuze.me/27491886; or by phone at (201) 479-4595 and enter Meeting ID: 27491886. For more information, contact Jos Linn ([email protected]).

RESULTS Introductory Call, October 30, at 1:00 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, November 14 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.

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/.