Polio eradication is within our grasp. But if we don’t eradicate the disease now, the risk of crippling and deadly polio outbreaks will continue to threaten the world’s children. You can help Progress and Rotary International get the job done by contributing to Rotary’s PolioPlus program or creating awareness of polio.

Challenges to Polio Eradication

Health experts agree that these primary challenges must be overcome in order to reach the goal of polio eradication:

http://igg.me/p/59723?a=366229

In a time when the majority of us hardly carry cash anymore and our debit/credit card have become our medium for retail transactions the new legislature under the Dodd-Frank law has caused a chain reaction of volitile feelings through the consumer, merchant and financial institution. Considering Progress' loyalty to working with credit unions, it's important to note that credit unions are facing this dilemma too - with the debit card interchange fee reducing dramatically, how credit unions will cover that large revenue loss may come at a cost to their member benefits.

Progress' VITA program in Madison is well under way with volunteer recruitment. With over 70 students showing interest in learning more about tax law we are counting on having a surplus of volunteers (as long as itemizing doesn't scare them off!) and providing quality training.

In a few weeks Progress Through Business plans to offer the City of Madison the SelectAbilities platform. SelectAbilities.com was developed to create a network where local economies could grow by enabling neighbors to hire other neighbors, local entrepreneurs , or local businesses; thereby keeping the money local and reinvesting back into their community. However, SelectAbilities has not yet been able to offer this network to communities due to the lack of traffic, and profiles created.

Progress Partners, The Milwaukee Urban Entrepreneur Partnership (UEP) and the Metropolitan Business Collaborative (MBC), are about to activate a Special Project Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to plan, design and initiate the Milwaukee Urban Entrepreneurship Center.

Background on the MBC:

It may be months away, but the start of a new school year always initiates the wheels to start turning and planning to proceed. Taxes are on my mind, especially volunteer recruitment. Our success is determined by volunteer numbers, quality and quantity of available trainings and supervisory support.

Progress continues its focus on assisting the "Working Poor" through tax preparation and financial education. Lately we have been busy with an initiative funded by Filene Research Institute to determine the efficacy of the Savers' Credit for Credit Union clients. We have several CUs throughout the nation ready to start and several more interested. The program is designed to encourage savings in the form of retirement accounts, funded on a regular basis. This, of course, has the benefit of establishing accounts at the CU.

I wrote an article on appreciation for our electronic newsletter yesterday. It felt good to write that. And I figure that I might as well stay on the same topic. After more than seven years, we continue to rely on volunteers, funders and partners who have stayed with us from the very beginning. One of the nice things, though, is that we pick up new blood each year.

One of the aspects of Progress Through Business that I like most is that I really like the people who work with us.

One of the key attributes of successful entrepreneurs is their enthusiasm and passion for their businesses. During the initial phases of SelectAbilities I faced many hurdles including but not limited to, raising initial capital, failure, and unexpected tasks. My passion and vision for SelectAbilities may be the only reason it was ever launched.

Our relationship with Filene Research Institute has expanded to include the newest project, Savers' Clubs. This initiative undertaken by individual Credit Unions throughout the country is designed to help qualified individuals get the Savers' Credit when filing their Federal tax returns. The idea is an expansion of the already popular tax program wherein Progress helps interested employers, including Credit Unions, help their own employees by providing free tax preparation services.

With the regular tax season behind us it was time for Progress to file its own tax return as all tax-exempt organizations (other than churches and church-related organizations) are required to file annually with the IRS.

Smaller tax-exempt organizations - those with annual gross receipts of $25,000 or less-- file the Form 990-N (e-Postcard). This notice, which must be electronically filed, asks for only a few basic pieces of information:
• the organization’s taxpayer identification number
• its tax period
• legal name and mailing address
• any other names used

A lot of people find comfort in song lyrics and for almost every personal, professional, spiritual, (the list could go on) experience one could find a song to suit the moment. And to briefly summarize my welcoming into Progress and working with the VITA program, Sam Cooke said it best in “A Change is Gonna Come”.

This financial education program is enjoying significant success in North Carolina, which is the third state to offer this opportunity to its credit union employees. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania preceded North Carolina. In those other two states, the results of the program were impressive; so much so that the program sponsors decided to offer the program again and expand the participant pool to include employees in non-credit union industries, such as school districts and government employees. Therefore, NC joins WI and PA in offering the IEiYW program to 6000 current participants among the three states!

It is important to note that North Carolina's success is again confirming what was discovered in WI and PA: that this employee education model is effective and desirable, which is spurring other states to request inclusion in upcoming IEiYW programs.

In the first five weeks, North Carolina has experienced a participation rate of

The Arizona Central Credit Union (ACCU) in Phoenix Arizona completed its first ever tax program with the assistance of the Arizona Credit Union League (ACUL) and Progress. Using the Progress model of employees helping employees ACCU embarked upon an mission to reach out to its own employees in the summer of 2010. They got the necessary training and certification from the IRS; worked closely with the City of Phoenix tax coalition to master the process of providing quality tax services to its employees.

St.Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix looks upon employee satisfaction as a real measure of its success. St. Joes, a consistent finalist in "The Best Place to Work" surveys by the local press and business organizations, simply wants to provide the very best in patient care and knows that it all starts with excellent employees.

With the tax season wrapping up and our successful Madison VITA site e-filing over 500 returns I’ve had the pleasure (with a little bit of stress) to participate in a wonderful service. I never thought I would plunge into the world of taxes with such fervor, but when I accepted the VISTA position in August 2010 I planned to put everything into it. I delved into tax law and swam my way through the material. It’s not easy but one step at a time I came to understand deductions, credits, taxable income, dependency guidelines, but it wasn’t until tax season that I really learned by doing.

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-20110...

As an upcoming newsletter article we are publishing will show, Progress Through Business and its sister organization, the Center on Business and Poverty, have become "net exporters" of projects. That is to say, we start good programs and spin them off to organizations or people which or who are most able to carry the projects to their best possible outcomes. This has been true of our free tax preparation programs at employer and educational institutions in five states. It has worked as we have helped to start 30 companies. And we are intending to spin off even more of our activities.

The UWMC VITA Program in Wausau provides three key FREE services: tax prep, FAFSA help, and W-7(ITIN) assistance. As our program grows and becomes stronger, we are able to offer more services as well as serve more people.