2024 Annual Impact Report
Connecting with Communities to Shape Policy Priorities for NC
An election year brings both opportunities and challenges for a non-partisan nonprofit organization that is hyper-focused on advancing public policies that improve people’s lives. The opportunity is to engage people who are hearing more about the promises of what policy can do, while the challenge is cutting through rhetoric to highlight real conditions on the ground.
Getting energized for 2024
The NC Budget & Tax Center entered 2024 with a commitment to deepen our work to shift economic narratives and how policy can make sure that every person — Black, brown and white, Indigenous and immigrant — can secure the well-being they deserve to fuel the economy. We hosted an Economy for All lecture with Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom, energizing attendees and making deeper connections with community leaders in Alamance, Robeson, and Lenoir counties and beyond through our Beyond Voting program.
The NC Budget & Tax Center team poses with Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom at the 2024 Economy for All event.
Connecting people and policy
Through work with these leaders and a range of partners, the NC Budget & Tax Center spent the Spring gathering policy priorities from more than 1,400 North Carolinians through surveys and polling. In May 2024, nearly 100 community leaders joined us at the NC General Assembly for Our Dollars Our Future, testifying to their communities’ priorities, meeting with legislators and the Governor’s office, and building their connections across community to further their strategies for building awareness of the importance of maintaining the corporate income tax.
Raising awareness of harmful march to zero income taxes
With clear needs for affordable child care and housing, quality education through public schools, health care, and income supports, we worked to raise awareness about the risks posed by a move to a zero percent income tax for corporations. Over the Spring and Summer, we engaged more than 250,000 North Carolinians in conversations about budget and tax topics through community events — such as the Common Cause NC-led Carolina Daze Festival — and secured more than 1,000 signatures on our petition to keep the corporate income tax. In collaboration with NC Black Alliance, our Better NC Fellows program built momentum for better tax and budget policies through collaboration with 10 community leaders, engaging 275 more people at local events.
BTC staff members talk with voters at a booth at the Carolina Daze festival.
Wins at the legislature
All the while, we engaged directly at the legislature with state advocacy partners and legislative champions to resist harmful tax policies, expanding private school vouchers for the wealthy, and anti-immigrant policies. Our team, working with a broad group of stakeholders — including business leaders, democracy, education and environmental organizations, and faith-based groups — successfully halted a ballot measure to lock in recent income tax cuts for profitable corporations and wealthy individuals, protecting $9 billion in public money from being lost each year. The ballot measure was brought up twice and defeated twice through a combination of partner alignment, communication, and direct legislator engagement.
Responding to Hurricane Helene
And when Hurricane Helene devastated Western NC, the NC Budget & Tax Center joined forces with long-time partners at the NC Inclusive Disaster Recovery Network to establish a policy-focused working group. Together, we championed state funding for those directly impacted by the storm — individuals at risk of losing their homes, businesses, and vital connections to the region.
Telling a Systems Story of People & Policy
Our consistent media work and expanded social media capacity amplified our narrative beyond the single story about policy that was being told by legislative leaders to demonstrate the role of policy in delivering well-being and the power of people in our economy and civic life. We were bolstered by quarterly action hours organized by UU Justice NC to submit letters to the editors, contact lawmakers, and collect local budget information, as well as by coordination meetings on narrative power hosted by Progress NC. We also were able to consistently publish commentary in the state’s major newspapers.
Making the Case for Well-Being
Not content to be constrained by the current policy conversations:
- We documented how American Rescue Plan money advanced well-being, as well as the expansive future opportunities with the federal Inflation Reduction Act to support workforce development and infrastructure equitably.
- We researched and began to share the case for a state Child Tax Credit that could cut poverty by a third in North Carolina, unlocking a host of better outcomes for children and families in education, health, and lifetime earnings.
- We researched the potential for our public money to promote well-being and solidarity that people across North Carolina.
- We joined with more than 50 partner organizations and grassroots leaders post-election to plan a two-year effort to build support for a state budget that enhances the lives of all North Carolinians.
2024 clarified what it will take to win better material conditions for people in our state. The dedicated efforts of the NC Budget & Tax Center staff, Board, and partners have laid a strong foundation for this long journey ahead, paving the way for even greater progress in 2025.
Thank you for your partnership in making this possible.
2024 By the Numbers
- 4 new staff members joined the NC Budget & Tax Center, expanding capacity to focus on community building, development, legislative advocacy, and the impact of federal climate legislation on NC.
- 4,496 people engaged with our Election Guide on social media.
- 6,895 physical copies of our Election Guide were passed out to people across NC.
- 250,000+ voters contacted across the state through relational voter tactics, small/local business and event canvassing, social media ads, text banking, events, tabling, targeted emails, and literature drops.
- 65+ blog posts, reports, statements, and actions created by our team for BTC’s website, as well as dozens of letters to the editor, op-eds, toolkits, and other pieces published to other locations.
- 300% increase in people visiting our website in 2024. We launched a redesigned website in March 2024.
- 166 media hits mentioning BTC, our people, our products, and our partners, in outlets such as MSN News, Bloomberg, WRAL, WUNC, NC Newsline, The Assembly, Spectrum News, and media outlets in Raleigh, Durham, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Asheville, and more across the state.
- 48% increase in number of unique people who signed up for our webinars year over year.
- 30+ presentations and trainings for groups and people across the state on a variety of topics
- 19 young adults went through our 2024 Summer Policy institute, spanning 12 different colleges and universities, bringing our total SPI alumni network to 92 participants.
