2022 Impact Report

2022 Impact Report

Letter from the President

“Enough. It’s not enough.” That’s what I heard in 2022 time and time again. We have jobs and we earn income, but we can’t earn enough to outpace inflation, to afford life’s basic needs, to thrive. 2022 was a wakeup call year for me. Why?

Because Congress let the Child Tax Credit expire, even after millions of children and families were lifted out of poverty and it was lauded as one of our most successful anti-poverty efforts in history. Cash works. Period. And yet, too often, Congress doesn’t. And too often, our local and state governments don’t work effectively for low-income people either. The system is broken.

As a longtime organizer and strategist, I’ve seen the power of collective action and winning campaigns firsthand. I’ve tried to bring that spirit to our work with 37 Community Connect partners across California from as far north as Mt. Shasta to as far south as Imperial and almost everywhere in between. Uniting us all to change the system.

Every day of 2022, our Community Connect partners worked on the frontlines to help Californians on tight incomes to understand tax credits, navigate overly complicated public benefits, file taxes for free, and, many times, access thousands of dollars in cash back.

They met people where they were at–from grocery stores and laundromats to gas stations and farmers’ markets. And they met them, like community organizers, with information they could use and trust.

That dedicated education and outreach made all the difference, and continues to make all the difference, for people living paycheck to paycheck because it means more cash when they need it most. But our Community Connect partners know as well as we do that even large, annual tax refunds are not enough to lift families out of poverty for good. That’s why we must bring the fight to the halls of power to do more for and give more to people living in financial crises.

It’s also why we empowered community leaders like Elizabeth–who you’ll read about in this report—to share their stories in the statehouse so leaders heard directly from her about what she needed. And because of their brave stories, we won.

We won a new Foster Youth Tax Credit of $1,000 to support youth ages 18-25. Youth like Elizabeth, who are aging out of the system and still need support. And after our 2021 win to include people working towards their citizenship as eligible for the CalEITC, this year we connected immigrant families with over $100 million dollars.

We did great work in 2022, but we know our fight can’t and won’t stop here. Because people are still living in crisis and there’s still more work to be done. So we hope you’ll roll up your sleeves or open your pocketbooks to fight right alongside us. With so many people who need us and need more, the battle against poverty is one we can’t afford to lose.

In 2026, Baseline changed its name from Golden State Opportunity.