Last fall, Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan released its evaluation report of the Detroit Child Tax Credit Campaign, which launched in 2020 to ensure eligible Detroit families were able to access the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), a provision of the American Rescue Plan that provided up to $3,600 per year, per child to low-income families (and decreasing amounts for higher incomes until phasing out). The Detroit Child Tax Credit Campaign was co-led by Kresge, the United Way of Southeastern Michigan, the City of Detroit, Accounting Aid Society, Wayne Metro Community Action Agency, Community Development Advocates of Detroit, and Poverty Solutions, joined by funding partners the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Skillman Foundation and Ballmer Group.

The campaign was developed in recognition that the expanded CTC could reduce child poverty in Detroit by a quarter, but risked missing low income families, especially those who did not have a tax filing requirement. The campaign focused on coordinating neighborhood-based outreach efforts, creating shared messaging around the CTC, implementing innovative marketing and communications strategies, and expanding free tax preparation capacity through nonprofit VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) providers.

U-M’s report highlights the success of the model created by Detroit’s CTC campaign: it estimates that  the campaign reached over 140,000 Detroit residents and contributed to the city’s 93% CTC awareness rate. Most importantly, the report suggests that Detroit families received at least $6.5 million in Child Tax Credits as a result of the campaign’s activities. Core to its success was the coalition’s ability to streamline and coordinate the tax preparation provider infrastructure, the community development system, and the parent engagement and support infrastructure in Detroit. It built on the capacity and expertise of VITA providers, but also leveraged the deep trust and relationships built by neighborhood-based organizations who were the trusted messengers to lead outreach to families. These community organizations, in turn, were provided with the information and resources to support families directly through coordinated marketing and communications.

Even with the expiration of the expanded CTC, the lessons from Detroit’s CTC Campaign provide a blueprint for how Detroit – and other communities – can strengthen coordination between municipal and nonprofit institutions, tax preparation providers and community organizations to ensure families are able to access their full suite of tax credits, ranging from the EITC to home heating and energy credits. While these tax credits provide a much-needed boost for low-income families to build economic stability and security, they are only impactful if families file taxes and can access those benefits. As the partners in Detroit’s Child Tax Credit Campaign work to institutionalize these efforts going forward, we hope communities can learn from both its successes and the challenges to inform cross-sectoral collaborations to advance socioeconomic mobility for children and their families.