December 19, 2024
2024 Year in Review: Making Colorado the Best Place to Raise Kids
We unlock more joy for kids and families in our communities when we decrease the economic burdens our systems place on them
By Santhosh Ramdoss, President & CEO
There’s a profound beauty woven into the fabric of our world, a beauty our founders, Sam and Nancy Gary, deeply believed in. They saw firsthand how joy flourishes when children have the bedrock of a safe, loving and economically stable home.
This unwavering belief in the potential of every child and every family is the driving force behind everything we do at Gary. It’s the spark that has ignited most of the transformational solutions we’ve championed, including one of the most enduring, which has been finding ways to harness the power of tax credits to lift the economic weight that too often falls on the shoulder of families.
This commitment to reducing the economic burden of families is embedded in our DNA, as we believe it gives parents the peace of mind they need to create nurturing, loving homes.
I recently met with the team from Mile High United Way, particularly those overseeing Tax Help Colorado. Gary had incubated this program and partnered with MHUW to transition it over to the organization a couple of years ago, and it has flourished under their management. They’ve significantly increased the number of tax filers they support and have become strong advocates for families accessing earned income tax credits and other forms of tax relief.
During the meeting, the program lead mentioned they’ve started using a tax credit calculator powered by MyFriendBen, another one of Gary’s recent innovations aimed at reducing the financial burden faced by families. The power of the calculator is that families can see firsthand what they would be eligible to receive in tax credits in the upcoming tax season. For instance, they can now calculate that a hypothetical household with a parent with two kids working as a childcare provider, earning $36,000 a year, would receive an expected tax credit of $14,000 this coming year.
This amount is in large part due to Colorado’s historical investments in tax credits for families, particularly the Family Affordability Tax Credit, which will unlock $700 million in additional support annually for families with children. Gary had the privilege of being part of a phenomenal coalition that came together to advocate for the passage of a tax aiming to cut Colorado’s child poverty rate in half.
As we reflect on 2024, a year where the economic struggles of Colorado families persisted and, at times, intensified, we desperately need beacons of hope. At Gary, we find that hope, that inspiration, in this incredible community and our shared conviction to support families and children. Our work in 2024 – through the Family Affordability Tax Credit, MyFriendBen, and others outlined below – is a testament to that belief, a tangible effort to translate that hope into action. Collectively we can make Colorado the best place to grow-up as a kid, find joy, and discover the tremendous beauty in this world.
Thank you for being a part of this journey.
HB24-1288 & Family Affordability Tax Credit
Cutting Colorado’s Child Poverty Rate in Half
In 2025, families can expect to receive between $2K – $10k per child in credits — simply by filing their taxes. And early next year, some 100,000 households who have missed out on the financial benefits that tax credits provide, will be receiving communications from the Colorado Department of Revenue with that simple and clear message.
Our team was humbled and honored to play a role in the 2024 passage of HB24-1311, which created the Family Affordability Tax Credit (FATC), as well as HB24-1288, which paved the way for a data-sharing agreement that will allow the government to communicate with individuals who have long missed out on the benefits tax credits provide. We believe these two pieces of legislation will create an opportunity – particularly when combined with existing state and federal tax credits – to significantly strengthen the financial mobility of low and middle income households with children.
In addition to passing the legislation, we have issued $400K in grant funding to seven community organizations, aiming to increase awareness around and utilization of all tax credits. Our hope is that through a robust and highly measurable communications plan executed with these community organizations in concert with our long standing partners at Get Ahead Colorado and Tax Help Colorado will lead to more families taking advantage of these significantly beneficial tax credits for many years to come.
MyFriendBen
$50 Million in Benefits Funds Unlocked Through Screening Tool
MyFriendBen, which helps users find government benefits and tax credits, saw promising growth in 2024 with national expansion on the horizon in 2025. In Colorado, more than 20,000 households have used the tool to find about $2,500 in monthly savings. Partners across Colorado, including Adams, Eagle, Jefferson and Denver counties, Colorado 211, and Get Ahead @ the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, use MyFriendBen in their daily work.
Recently, MyFriendBen was awarded $2.4M from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to deepen the impact of the tool and expand to other states. The first replication of MyFriendBen is underway in North Carolina in partnership with inclusive civic tech organization Code the Dream, and an increasingly sophisticated set of open source eligibility rules is being built and maintained in partnership with the national nonprofit PolicyEngine.
Over the next two years, we will leverage this momentum to proactively scale MyFriendBen’s work in more states, with the overall goal of unlocking $100M in public benefits and tax credits.
My Spark Denver
4,000 Denver Students Gain Access to Afterschool Activities
More than 4,000 Denver Public School students found their spark and pursued their passions during the pilot year of My Spark Denver.
Evaluation data for the program, which provided students from low-income households with $1,000 stipends for afterschool and summer activities, show that participating youth were more likely to report a sense of belonging and positive relationships with trusted adults. Additionally, parents and guardians had a greater sense of empowerment in finding activities for their children. Kids and families can choose from more than 200 afterschool programs, including Athletics & Beyond, one of the most popular My Spark programs run by Narcy Jackson and his team.
As one of Gary’s newest ventures, our team is currently working with community partners to identify a sustainable structure and long-term home for My Spark Denver.
Proposition 123 Implementation
Jurisdictions Representing 88% of Colorado Residents Opt in to Creating More Affordable Housing
Housing continues to be one of the biggest hurdles facing Colorado, and we were thrilled to see continued steps forward for both public and private solutions in 2024.
Our policy team continues to support the state in the implementation of Proposition 123, which issued approximately 25 awards for more than $85 million to support affordable housing, including the first six projects to receive equity funding from the program. Additionally, our team continued to support the rollout of the tenant equity vehicle through Prop 123, a first-of-its-kind program that allows renters to earn cash back for paying rent.
On the private side of this work, our impact investing team was proud to support the Mixed Income Neighborhood Trust (MINT), which acquired its first property in Colorado, with 175 units to be made permanently affordable, and PadSplight, which launched their Denver marketplace in 2024, which is likely to bring 500-1,000 units of affordable housing options online for Metro Denver residents in the next 12 months.
Wealth Through Ownership
Unlocking Pathways to Wealth & Ownership for More Colordans
To fully participate in the economic prosperity our country aspires to provide, families must not only have livable incomes and manageable debt, but accessible pathways to generate wealth. But today, the tremendous wealth generated by the richest country in the world is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. With the roots of wealth creation coming from the ownership of assets like homes, businesses, individual financial accounts and community-owned real estate, we dedicated much of the year to identifying, building or expanding families’ ability to access essential wealth-generating opportunities.
This fall, along with partners from the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program and The Bridgespan Group, Gary hosted the second annual ASSEMBLE100 Summit (A100). There we convened 100 investors, entrepreneurs, fund managers, policymakers and thought leaders to explore and advance ownership investing— a collection of investment strategies and solutions designed to broaden and accelerate household access to appreciating assets, while simultaneously creating strong, long-term economic value for investors. We hope the Summit’s report, Ownership Investing: Financing the Future of Wealth, expands the conversation on wealth disparities, clearly outlines the assets capable of ensuring every family has the minimum wealth necessary for economic stability and prosperity, and brings more investors into this growing investment movement.
Throughout the year Gary continued to invest and expand access to two such asset classes: home ownership and employee ownership. The Dearfield Fund for Black wealth continued its mission to support first-time Black and African American homebuyers, unlocking $42 million to date in mortgage financing to support 216 homebuyers, with the average homebuyer seeing their net worth grow by more than $13K.
In our Employee Ownership portfolio, investments in Apis & Heritage Capital Partners (A&H), Mosaic Capital and the Essential Owners Fund helped more employees become part owners of their companies. One business receiving investment support from A&H is Apex Plumbing in Arvada, and our team was proud to document their evolving story in 2024. During the making of our short documentary film, the company increased its revenue by $16 million, helping the value of its employees’ stock grow 43% in a matter of months. We’re now partnering with the Colorado Employee Ownership Office to use this short film to help more owners and organizations better grasp the human impact of employee ownership models and conversions.