WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Center for Children and Families (NCCF) and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area nonprofit community is bracing for significant impact on budgets and services to vulnerable communities as sweeping changes to our country’s tax code remove incentives associated with the charitable deduction. Coupled with a downward trend in Federal employee giving through the CFC, nonprofit organizations throughout the region are bracing for the worst with many expecting a dramatic impact to the services they can provide to vulnerable populations in the community. With so many federal workers in the metropolitan area, the local CFC campaign is the largest in the country and represents a critical fundraising mechanism for area nonprofits.
“NCCF continues to serve the D.C. metro region’s most vulnerable populations of children, youth and families as we have since our founding in 1915. A critical function of our mission and the success of NCCF rely on the support of our local community and corporate partners,” says Ralph Belk, NCCF’s Deputy Executive Director, Program Administration. “This new tax code certainly puts that support in peril.”
According to the Washington Post, “The Independent Sector, a consortium of nonprofits groups, now says: ‘Adoption of the House bill will result in only 9 percent of taxpayers choosing to itemize and able to claim the charitable deduction. This shift will result in a $12–$20 billion decline in charitable giving each year.’”
“Many nonprofit budgets are already severely stressed with demand at an all-time high, a reduction in charitable giving would be catastrophic for the most vulnerable in our community. We are also seeing a significant downturn in revenue for the Combined Federal Campaign that our nonprofit community depends on.” said Rosie Allen-Herring, President and CEO, United Way of the National Capital Area.
According to the Urban Institute’s Washington, D.C. Research Initiative and United Way NCA research, here are a few statistics underscoring the challenges in our community:
- The Washington, DC, region is one of the most expensive places in the country to own and rent property. More than 33 percent of households in the DC region pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing;
- Currently, 18.2 percent of DC residents live in poverty and 13.4 percent of households in DC report low or very low food security. And 30% of our region’s residents classify as “liquid asset poor”;
- More than 12,000 area residents experience or are at-risk of homelessness.
NCCF’s largest-reaching program, the Neediest Kids, serves 45,000 D.C. region students each year and is funded solely through private contributions. Without the continued support of individual donations, thousands of poor students will go without glasses, winter coats, shoes that fit, school uniforms and meals. 42% of the National Capital Region’s students are poor and these resources are critical in ensuring that they are able to focus on academic accomplishments and future economic stability, much like their more affluent peers.
About the National Center for Children and Families
The National Center for Children and Families (NCCF) was founded in 1915 as the former Baptist Home for Children, a local orphanage. Currently, NCCF’s residential programs serve homeless families, victims of domestic violence, and children and adolescents who have been removed from their families due to abuse and neglect and/or behavioral challenges. Nationally accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA), NCCF now propels more than 50,000 children, youth, and families annually into an improved quality of life through a wide continuum of 20 local programs: emergency shelters and transitional housing, therapeutic residential care, foster care and adoption, teen parent services, and community-based prevention services, while relying on community education and training, volunteerism, and advocacy. For more information, visit us on the web at www.nccf-cares.org.
About United Way of the National Capital Area
United Way of the National Capital Area fights for the health, education and financial stability of every person in the National Capital community. United Way NCA has been improving lives by creating measurable impact in the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties for more than 40 years. For more information about United Way of the National Capital Area, visit UnitedWayNCA.org.
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Source: The National Center for Children and Families
Contact:
Annie Wilson
301-365-4480 x135
awilson@nccf-cares.org
