Social Impact Exchange Conference on Scaling Poverty Alleviation Session June 18 th , 2010

1. Social Impact Exchange Conference on Scaling Poverty Alleviation Session June 18th, 2010 Presentation by Irene Skricki Center for Family Economic Success Annie E. Casey Foundation

2. Annie E. Casey Foundation The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization, dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States Center for Family Economic Success The Center for Family Economic Success (CFES) is a comprehensive approach to help families build strong financial futures for themselves and their communities by integrating workforce development, financial services, and work supports with strategies to improve neighborhoods.

3. FES Framework Wealth Building Community Investment Financial Services & Credit Center for Working Families Workforce Development High Cost Work Supports/EITC

4. Elements of Scale Scale Achieved Sustainability Influence private sector Influence policy Subcategories of scale Broad adoption of practice Standardize/best practices Drivers of scale Saturation in place Vulnerable populations Build evidence Develop prototype

5. Parameters of Poverty Alleviation Field • Income supports (TANF, EITC) • Other work and family supports (SNAP, SCHIP, Medicaid, child care subsidies) • Public family-serving systems (child welfare, juvenile justice, other family services) • Postsecondary education • Housing and economic development • Access to public benefits * • Workforce development * • Assets and financial services *

6. Poverty Alleviation Challenges • What measure of poverty do we use? • Federal standard • Self-Sufficiency Standard • Measures that include financial stability/assets • Two-generation strategy • Kids vs. parents, or both? • Place vs. policy

7. Landscape of Poverty Alleviation Scale Efforts • Most of poverty alleviation happens through public policy/public delivery systems • examples: TANF, SNAP, tax credits, SCHIP, Medicaid • main lever is policy change • In workforce and assets, private markets matter • New ideas being tested at large scale • example: Conditional Cash Transfers • New federal funding streams • Social Innovation Fund, Promise Neighborhoods, Choice Neighborhoods, etc. • New funder initiatives • Open Society Institute Special Fund for Poverty Alleviation • Gates Foundation work on postsecondary education • Organizing of funders • Funder networks (AFN, EITC Funders Network) • funding pools like NFWS • Health care reform could be a big driver in the future

8. Casey’s Interest in Scale Foundation-wide discussions • New Casey CEO’s interest in scale • Internal workgroups on scale • Casey Exceptional Opportunities Fund CFES Scale Examples • Earned Income Tax Credit • increase capacity of VITA, change policy, influence private sector • National Fund for Workforce Solutions • large-scale replication via funding pool • www.AssetPlatform.org • online financial and asset services resources for CBOs • Public benefits access • multi-foundation effort to increase benefits uptake

9. Impediments to Scale • Lack of clear prototypes • Not enough refinement and testing of prototypes • Inadequate resources for scale • Lower funder capacity in general due to economy • Reluctance of funders to collaborate intensively • Inadequate capacity of implementing organizations • Inertia: difficulty getting new ideas/approaches adopted • Difficult process of policy change