2022 Impact Report

Launched the Safety Net Innovation Lab with a $100 million investment from the Audacious Project and Blue Meridian Partners. In 2022, we launched our first cohort and secured commitments for our second cohort, representing 10 out of 15 total state partnerships. We completed discovery and identified effective delivery interventions for the first cohort and will kick off discovery for the second cohort in early 2023. We also developed an evaluation framework that will hold us accountable for truly delivering impact and advancing equity across all our state partnerships.

Identified focus areas across our first five Cohort states. We are increasing equitable access to SNAP in California, improving the integrated benefits journey for clients and caseworkers in Louisiana, improving the integrated benefits application experience in Colorado, reducing SNAP churn in Connecticut, and processing streamlined Medicaid renewals and reducing churn in Minnesota.

Handed off MNbenefits to the state of Minnesota. Through MNBenefits, residents can apply for nine different benefits programs in less than 20 minutes. At the point of handoff, the platform had already helped over 211,000 people access $89 million in benefits, and its impact continues to grow, serving as proof that our work can create lasting change.

Relaunched GetCTC in the U.S. and expanded to Puerto Rico. In 2022, Puerto Rican families were eligible for the full amount of the Child Tax Credit for the first time ever. We updated GetCTC to accommodate Puerto Rican residents, establishing an application path for nearly 300,000 newly-eligible Puerto Rican families.

Launched our national outreach campaign to guide families with low incomes to GetCTC. Our goal was to work with 25 states—but over 30 states joined the campaign, sending more than 10 million direct messages and prompting 30,000 households to claim an estimated $42 million.

Advocated for policies that simplify the tax process. Thanks to our advocacy efforts and those of our partners, the IRS allowed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to be included in simplified filing this year. We expanded GetCTC to include the EITC, increasing the amount of tax benefits families received when filing with us. We also successfully advocated for the IRS to engage in outreach to non-filers, and in October, the IRS sent over 9 million letters to people who had not filed a 2021 tax return and were eligible for tax credits.

Partnered with the state of Utah to clear the eligible convictions of 310,000 people. Utah has adopted the code and technical process we built to identify and continually clear records as they meet eligibility requirements. This is a fundamental shift toward an automatic process that achieves record clearance equitably, expeditiously, and at scale.

Increased the number of people who are eligible for record clearance. We worked with advocates and partners in several states, including Rhode Island and Oklahoma, to write legislation that expands record clearance eligibility and uses an automatic clearance process to deliver relief. This helps us reach more people who are living with criminal records and reduce their burden in seeking relief. We know this work can be fruitful—after just four years of work in California, SB 731 was signed into law, greatly expanding record clearance eligibility with the potential to impact millions of convictions.

Made it easier for the government to implement automation. In Nevada, we were contracted by Clark County to conduct a feasibility study regarding automatically sealing cannabis and other eligible records, and in Colorado, we streamlined the automatic process to reduce complexity and save over $5 million. In California, we completed a key research project around how people find out their record has been cleared.

Helped build the most comprehensive online data resource about 911. Our first National Action Team, Reimagine911, built tools that enable local agencies to better understand 911 data so that calls can be channeled more accurately, without automatically resorting to law enforcement.

Led 14 impact sprints that built a foundation for strong community partnerships. Across nine Brigades and two Network Team projects, we partnered with 16 community organizations across the country to develop prototypes and engage volunteers across diverse issue areas. Each Impact Sprint project team was provided support like paid management and assistance with volunteer recruitment to help Brigades to deliver impact through partnerships.

Piloted broadband-related activities to close the digital equity gap. At Brigade Congress, the Network participated in a virtual collective action event, where teams analyzed 36 census blocks and 105 addresses for inconsistencies with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) data. They discovered 11 wrongly categorized blocks and found that only 42% of addresses are fully served to FCC-reported levels. Brigade Members also participated in an on-site Affordable Connectivity Program enrollment activity to better understand the barriers to participation in the application process.

Two of the products built by our 2021 Community Fellowships program launched for resident use in 2022.

In Fort Collins, Colorado, GetFoCo, an all-in-one application portal to the discounted services and municipal benefits offered by the city, began a phased launch this year, which saw the average engagement rate nearly double and an uptick in submissions for services. Santa Barbara, California launched ThriveSBC, a community resource app designed to promote seamless access to necessary resources for the justice-impacted community of Santa Barbara County.

In Adams County, Colorado, the app that Fellows developed to help the county distribute digital motel vouchers directly to those experiencing homelessness distributed approximately 3,000 vouchers, averting more than 16,000 nights of unsheltered homelessness. November and December were the most highly utilized months in the history of the program.

Through the Opportunity Accelerator, we’re partnering with nonprofits, local governments and community organizations to improve economic mobility and advance racial equity. In the City of Memphis and Shelby County in Tennessee, we’re focused on the population of Opportunity Youth—young people aged 16 to 24 who are disconnected from education and employment—to reconnect them to schools and jobs.