Economic Opportunity Funders hosts an Annual Budget and Tax Briefing to provide funders and philanthropic advisors with a unique opportunity to learn about and discuss why federal and state budget and tax work matters to national, state, and local philanthropy. During this briefing, participants network with colleagues and learn about and discuss pressing policy developments, key battles and opportunities at the federal and state level, and emerging policy, communications, and organizing strategies to advance worker justice, social protections, and an economy that works for all.

Since 2014, watch parties have been organized to expand our reach to funders by web-streaming our anchor federal budget and tax outlook plenary session. Hosts can organize supplemental programs, where participants view the federal budget and tax outlook presentation (live or as a recording on a later date) and then engage in a discussion with local experts on how the current landscape impacts critical programs and services in their state or area of interest.  

The purpose of the watch parties is to help funders:

• Gain a better understanding of this year’s pressing federal budget and tax issues and their impact on families, workers, and communities; 
• Learn more about coordinated efforts underway to shape the budget and tax fights ahead; and
• Consider grant making strategies and opportunities for collaboration with like-minded stakeholders.
   

Charitable foundations are working hard to reduce poverty, increase housing stability, reduce hunger, increase access to quality affordable child care and health care, and much more.  But philanthropic dollars only go so far.  We need state and federal revenues and programs to be adequately and equitably funded to ensure systemic changes are possible.

Public budgets and the revenue systems that support them are some of the most important policy instruments of our government. They reflect our values and priorities through decisions on how to tax residents and businesses and spend these collective resources. These decisions impact what families have to spend on basic needs and invest in their future, define the size of the government and its role in the national economy, and affect the lives of all Americans. A solid understanding of budget and tax policy within our current political and economic climate is crucial for anyone working in philanthropy.

States get about one-third of their revenue from the federal government — funds that help pay for health care, schools, housing, roads, child care, job training, and a range of other programs. Unlike the federal government, most states and localities must balance their budgets every year and are directly affected by fluctuations in federal funding, presenting state policymakers with important choices regarding how to adjust their own spending in response.

State budgets are expected to shrink substantially in 2025, as the post-pandemic era of federal aid, record spending, and historic tax cuts comes to a close. Policymakers will face difficult decisions about whether to raise taxes or reduce critical programs and services like food assistance, Medicaid, housing, and education investments. In addition, the expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act presents an urgent moment to ensure states and localities have the revenues they need to invest in programs for children and families and an opportunity to correct our course towards a more equitable tax code. These debates and their outcomes will touch every corner of philanthropic work -- early childhood, health care, state, and local government services, climate change, housing, senior services, family support services, and much more.