Making new connections in Las Vegas
Being involved in the Vegas Valley Coalition for free tax preparation opened the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada to new community connections.

The Volunteer Center became a part of the Vegas Valley Coalition when it organized last summer. This is the first tax season the coalition will be focusing on getting eligible families Earned Income Tax Credit through its free tax preparation sites. Coalition members include representatives of banks, corporations, the government of North Las Vegas, the city of Las Vegas, service provider organizations and other nonprofits.

Being involved in the tax coalition "has been a real opportunity for us," says Fran Smith, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada. The Volunteer Center made connections with the IRS as well as municipal, bank and chamber officials. The Volunteer Center also developed relationships with local colleges, Smith says.

"The Volunteer Center’s major role is volunteer recruitment, supporting volunteer management and volunteer coordination," Smith says. The Volunteer Center hopes to enlist 150 volunteers who will work during the two and a half months of tax season at three tax preparation sites, one of them mobile. The mobile site is thanks to the local Classroom on Wheels (COW) agency, which trains people in low-income communities to use computers. That COW bus will be made available for free tax preparation.

The Volunteer Center targeted its pitch for volunteers to a variety of audiences:

• Public housing residents
• Employees of local businesses
• Educational institutions
• Retiree groups
• Professional organizations

Working with the local Housing Authority, the Volunteer Center enlisted residents to greet people who come in to free tax preparation sites. Involving residents of the low-income community has been a goal of free tax preparation programs.

"The methods we use (to attract volunteers) depend on the audiences," Smith says. "For schools or residents of low-income areas, we’re promoting it as a job credentialing type of opportunity. To prepare taxes, you have to pass a test to be certified." Smith says she asks corporations and the Chambers of Commerce to help provide volunteers who are comfortable working with numbers."

Bilingual volunteers are critical in Las Vegas, Smith says. So the Volunteer Center approached the Latin Chamber of Commerce, and aimed media appeals at the Latin community through Spanish-language media. The efforts worked.

"We get results from our Spanish outreach efforts far more than from English-language media," Smith says. "It may be because it’s a more targeted audience."

Some techniques the Volunteer Center is using:

• Ask what companies are willing to give
• Target mailings for volunteers and EITC recipients to specific audiences
• Follow up mailings with phone calls

Smith says the coalition asked if any companies could make employees available to volunteer during work hours, but when that appeal got little response, "We told them we need people during evenings and weekends. In Las Vegas, a lot of people work hours other than 9 to 5."

The Volunteer Center is working with major gaming corporations, some of whom have the most developed employee volunteer programs in the area. The coalition targets neighborhoods by zip code where a greater percentage of people filed for EITC in previous tax years. In one community, of the estimated 16,000 households that fall within EITC income caps, about 47 percent claimed the tax credit last year. The coalition hopes to increase the number of overall tax returns they file by 10 percent and increase by 5 percent the number of families who receive EITC.

Smith has final words of advice.

"Be careful of over committing," she says. Free tax preparation sites require much thought, planning and volunteer effort. "But on the opportunity side, take advantage of it. It is an excellent way to position the Volunteer Center as an asset to the community and a community builder. The coalition is a community-building coalition. Here, it’s bringing together people who have not been previously connected."

To contact Fran Smith, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Southern Nevada, email volunteernevada@cox.net

To find out what other Volunteer Centers are doing in the EITC and asset-development arena, contact Bandana Shrestha, Director of Model Programs and Partnerships at the Points of Light Foundation, at BShrestha@PointsofLight.org.