United Way’s “bundled” services aren’t about keeping warm for the winter. They’re about providing integrated programs to help struggling Bay Area residents address their complete financial picture and achieve financial stability.

Our Earn It! Keep It! Save It! free tax preparation service is often a gateway to those bundled services. Low-income residents come in to one of our 200 tax sites thinking they will just get free tax preparation, and they  leave with connections to other programs that can help them improve their finances.

For example, Charselle Hooper visited the Earn It! Keep It! Save It! tax site at SparkPoint Marin because she couldn’t afford a commercial preparer. She had lost her job and was unsure how to account for her unemployment benefits on her tax return. After completing her return, the volunteer tax preparer suggested that Charselle look into SparkPoint’s other services.

At SparkPoint, people can get one-on-one financial coaching, credit counseling, and career assistance, in addition to getting connected with public assistance, matched savings accounts, and first-time home buyer programs.

For Charselle, her situation was complicated because she couldn’t work while awaiting back surgery. However, she had lots of creativity, and had written a children’s book. At SparkPoint, she learned how to create a business plan, and she hopes to publish later this year or next year.

“I first came to SparkPoint to get my taxes done. Now, they are helping me plan for my future and stay focused and upbeat, which isn’t easy in this tough economy. With their encouragement, I know I’m going to get through this tough patch,” said Charselle.

Charselle is one of about 60,000 people who will use United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! free services this year, and many will be referred to SparkPoint and other services so they can gain more solid financial footing.

Learn more about Earn It! Keep It! Save It! and find the tax site near you at www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org.  You can also call 211 to find a tax site and learn what documents to bring.

It’s hard to believe, but there is a benefit to filing your taxes – even if you don’t get a refund!  That’s because getting free tax preparation at an Earn It! Keep It! Save It! site can open the door to hundreds of local programs that can help you improve your finances.

For example, Yolanda D. visited the Earn It! Keep It! Save It! site at the SparkPoint San Francisco at Plaza Adelante last year. Free tax preparation was just the first step for Yolanda. She earns a living by cleaning houses, and dreamed of formally starting her own house-cleaning business someday.

Our free tax sites can connect you with local programs that can help you start saving, go back to school, get a good job, buy a first home or start a new business.

With SparkPoint’s help, she connected with a business consultant who helped her register her business and develop a business plan. Mission Economic Development Agency, which runs the SparkPoint San Francisco center, provided Yolanda with a $1,500 business-startup grant, which she invested in her business.  Yolanda was also referred to the Mission Asset Fund, a partner organization at Plaza Adelante, to sign up for the Individual Development Account (IDA) matched-savings program with the intention of saving more money to invest in her business.

With a robust plan for expanding and sustaining her company, Yolanda is well on her way to financial success. And, it all started with a tax return.

Earn It! Keep It! Save It! kicked off in the Bay Area last week and is providing free tax preparation at more than 200 locations to households that earned less than $50,000 in 2011.  Call 211 or visit www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org to find the free tax site near you.

And when your taxes are done, don’t forget to ask about programs

Our free tax sites open the door to programs that empower people to improve their finances.  In addition to saving families hundreds of dollars on tax preparation, our sites connect low-income families with programs that can help them start saving, go back to school, get a good job, buy a first home or start a new business.”

- Kelly Batson, a director of United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, which kicks off its 10th year in the Bay Area today.

The Earn It! Keep It! Save It! coalition provides free tax preparation at more than 200 Bay Area locations to households that earned less than $50,000 in 2011. To find a tax site, call 211 or visit www.EarnItKeepItSaveIt.org.

Last year, the program prepared taxes for nearly 60,000 families and helped bring back $63.8 million in tax refunds back into our community. That money gets spent locally, helping generate economic growth, jobs, and a stronger tax base.

Read the press release.

Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, United Way’s free tax preparation program, relies on 3,600 volunteers to ensure that people get the refunds they deserve – volunteers like Kristina Ng. When Kristina first walked into a tax site, she was nervous but prepared. She had no previous experience. However, she had received special training through Earn It! Keep It! Save It! and was now an IRS-certified tax preparer, ready to help demystify taxes for all her free-of-charge clients.

Kristina remembered one client who lived right upstairs from an Earn It! Keep It! Save It! site. The woman had seen the word, “free,” and decided to check it out.  She was afraid that she was going to owe money, but when the process was done, she was thrilled when Kristina told her she would be receiving close to a $3,000 refund.

“She was so happy which made me happy,” Kristina recalled. “It was a good feeling to be able to use my skills to lift people up, give them hope, and help them build a future.”

Kristina’s client got her refund because of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which is a credit given to low-wage workers. It is often not claimed because people do not know about it, making free, reliable tax preparation all the more important for those struggling to get by. The EITC can be as high as about $6,000 which can mean the difference between paying rent or being homeless for a year.

Since its inception, Earn It! Keep It! Save It! has brought nearly $275 million in refunds, including almost $99 million in EITC credits, back to low-income residents in the Bay Area. According to Kristina, volunteering is an essential part of the equation:  “Volunteering provides a vital resource for people who don’t have money,” she said. “Unlike other tax preparation services that charge, we are volunteering, so we only have one thing in mind: doing good for the people who come in.”

Though tax season is a long way off for some, Earn It! Keep It! Save It! recruits volunteers all year long. So if you are interested in learning a new skill while providing a vital service for our community, go to www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org volunteer and sign up. Training will begin this fall.

We need your help to protect federal funding for VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) and EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit), which are essential to United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! (EKS) tax assistance program. Take action today to ensure the survival of EKS.

Funding for both the VITA program and the EITC could be on the chopping block as the Congressional Super Committee, which is charged with reducing the federal deficit, makes decisions about which federal programs to cut or preserve.

Of the 212 free tax preparation sites in the EKS Bay Area Coalition, 115 are VITA sites. VITA sites not only provide free tax preparation, and bring millions of dollars back to our region, but also serve as an important gateway to services that low-wage workers need, including low-cost banking, job counseling and financial-skills training.

The EITC is one of the largest federal income-support programs and is intended to make employment more attractive than public assistance by supplementing low-wages and incentivizing work. For many low-income families, the EITC is a substantial credit that can mean the difference between being sheltered or homeless.

We need your help to protect funding for these vital economy-boosting programs. Call Congressmember Xavier Becerra (202-225-6235), our California representative on the “Super Committee,” and tell him to protect funding for VITA and the EITC. By calling today, you’ll join thousands of volunteer tax preparers who are participating in the Day of Action declared by the National Community Tax Coalition, which is a membership organization for community-based organizations offering free tax preparation and financial services to low-income working families.

Your call will help ensure United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Coalition continues to grow and succeed. EKS is an important local economic stimulus, which has brought $275 million in tax refunds back to the Bay Area since 2003 – money which is spent locally and which research shows has generated 1,057 jobs in the Bay Area. Read more about the economic impact.