Track: Nuts and Bolts for Emerging and Existing Sites & Coalitions

Disability Initiative (Sponsored by the National Disability Institute):  Learn how you can expand your outreach efforts to include people with disabilities.  Speakers will share strategies and goals of the Real Economic Impact (REI) Tour including increasing awareness and understanding about free tax preparation, the creation and expansion of disability workgroups within coalitions and increasing visibility of the importance of the REI Tour (asset building and tax filing) through planned special events and activities.    

ITIN and Community Tax Preparation: Speakers will present basic information about ITIN eligibility  and its impact on quality tax preparation services.  The IRS is looking to expand the IRS acceptance agent process and VITA may begin to play a larger role.  Discussion will also include information on providing outreach and education to those eligible to use ITINs.

Marketing and Outreach:  Are you looking to add marketing tools and strategies to your free tax preparation toolkit?  Do you want to maximize outreach and awareness in your coalition?  Attend this workshop and you will learn about the impact of various media tools used to convey key messages to target audiences in your community.

Volunteer Coordination: This interactive workshop will focus on shared experiences by participants. Please come ready to share ideas and challenges you have faced in managing and motivating your free tax preparation program volunteers. Facilitators with backgrounds in volunteer management will guide participants through group problem-solving activities. The session will end with a compilation of sharing best practices and creative solutions to common problems.

Track: Beyond Free Tax Preparation

Asset Building Initiatives: Tax time is the perfect time to help clients to save money. Hear from programs across the region that are connecting taxpayers with large scale financial education programs, Individual Development Accounts, financial services, and financial coaching. This workshop will also discuss program models and challenges to staff and fund raise for these services.

Educational Institution Partnerships: Join us in this workshop to hear about tax programs that have created successful working relationships with local universities.  Learn how to work with students and professors to achieve a quality volunteers experience and manage supervision needs.

Financial Products: Join us in this workshop to learn about products that can truly move families to economic self-sufficiency.  This active workshop will feature existing local and national products innovations and will involve a planning period to brainstorm what can be done with financial institutions and practitioners.

Technology Innovations: Advances in technology have stream-lined financial services access, but many practitioners still struggle to connect clients with these services in a meaningful way. This workshop features a demonstration and discussion of the new Asset Platform, a free clearinghouse of resources for practitioners, as well as new initiatives using cell phones and a technology tool-kit for non-profits.

Track – Sustainability

Advocacy: Come to the Advocacy workshop to learn about policies that affect your clients, basic policy process and how to engage legislators, volunteers and clients in your work.  Discussions will include tips for building relationships with elected officials, both at the state and national level.

Funding and sustainability: Tax preparation sites and asset building coalitions often find their program capacity is dependent on the success of their ability to fund raise.  Financial institutions can be key community partners in coalition asset building.  This workshop will examine two successful partnership models between financial institutions and community based organizations.

Social media: Has Facebook, Twitter and blogging changed the way you communicate and interact? Can your free tax preparation coalition or non-profit benefit from using these tools? This workshop will examine the trends and show you how and why you should get on board.

Working with New Partners to Create Financial Service Alternatives: In the last decade, refund anticipation and payday lenders emerged as the “go to” place for many consumers facing a cash crunch. Learn about employers and companies offering refund anticipation and payday loan alternatives, in partnership with credit unions, to respond to the financial needs of employees with short-term cash emergencies. These innovative products often rival traditional refund anticipation and payday loans in terms of convenience, but offer better pricing and repayment terms as well as supportive financial education services that can lead employees to lower cost traditional financial products in the long-run.
 
Planning for Long Term Success - Regional Planning Meetings (Maryland, DC, Virginia, West Virginia)

Meet with others in your state/district who are doing free tax preparation and other asset building work. We will discuss training, funding opportunities, marketing, and policy. Join us for this exciting discussion!