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United Way of Metropolitan Nashville Receives $25,000 Grant
March 27, 2009NASHVILLE, Tenn., United Way of Metropolitan Nashville is one of only thirty United Ways nationwide to receive a $25,000 grant from Wal-Mart Foundation to expand its free tax preparation services and education efforts around the Earned Income Tax Credit.
The grant enables the Nashville Alliance for Financial Independence (NAFI) to focus on first-time tax filers who often are unaware of the free tax services. NAFI is a United Way-led initiative and coordinates Davidson County’s network of 16 sites offering free tax prep services. The sites serve low- and moderate-income filers making $42,000 or less. Surveys from free tax preparation programs like NAFI’s show that 72% of first-time filers are under the age of 25. Only 35% of Davidson County filers utilizing NAFI’s free tax prep sites last year were under the age of 34 in 2008.
“Many Nashville residents are unaware of the tax credits they qualify for,” said Margaret McKenna, president of Wal-mart Foundation. “Through this Wal-mart Foundation grant, we are able to help eligible consumers take advantage of tax credits, and provide them with opportunities to save money on tax preparation fees.”
“The grant helped us launch a targeted outreach campaign and website, www.MyMoneyNashville.org, to better reach a demographic that has been challenging for us thus far,” said Rachel Freeze, manager of NAFI. “The younger generation is often intimidated by tax preparation and this easy-to-use website provides options for free tax preparation help as well as tools for taking ownership of one’s finances. We are looking forward to seeing the positive results that this grant from the Wal-mart Foundation will have on our work.”
Nashville was also selected by Wal-mart Foundation to be a pilot community for Beehive, an easy-to-use online self-filing tool which will be used in conjunction with MyMoneyNashville.org.
