Best Practices
SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSITY (VITA)
2500 NORTH RIVER ROAD
MANCHESTER, NH 03106
1. History
2. Time-Line
3. Budget
4. 2006 VITA Results
5. Hours of Operation
6. # Volunteers
7. # Volunteer Hours
8. Source of Volunteers
9. # Clients Served
10. $ Value of refunds
11. Additional $'s saved clients in tax return refund preparation
12. Site Coordination
13. Volunteers
14. Media/Marketing
15. Outreach
16. Coalition Building
17. Future
1. History (how long has you site been in operation?)
Four years
2. Time-Line (were there goals you attempted to accomplish each year?)
Increase our service to the public
3. Budget (what is your budget for your site and source of dollars?)
The IRS provides materials free of charge. The University
provides space and other logistical support.
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4. 2006 VITA Results (this will be provided by IRS)
N/A
5. Hours of Operation
We operated this year from 11-1 on M/W/F and 4-6 on Tu/Th.
We also operated in the Hooksett Library on Mondays from
5-7 P.M. and the Pittsfield Town Hall, on Wednesdays from
4-6 P.M.
6. # Volunteers
We had twenty-two volunteers.
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7. # Volunteer Hours
The hours were rotated as assigned; normally everyone
worked two hours per week.
8. Source of Volunteers
Southern New Hampshire University students
9. # Clients Served
By the end of the tax season, approximately 235
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10. $ Value of refunds (will get from IRS)
N/A
11. Additional dollars saved clients in tax return refund preparation (if
you collected this information)
Approximately $18,000
Best Practices (this section looks at what worked best for your site)
12. Site Coordination (what made your site run smoothly and efficiently?
how were you successful in reaching targeted clientele?)
Past experience and the use of various SNHU resources,
and networking
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13. Volunteers (how did you recruit volunteers? what did you do to keep
them working at your site?)
Reinforcement to the student community that this is a
good fit for them, for several reasons; practical application
of their human relations skills and working with the public,
they learn how to prepare a tax return, which they will be
doing the rest of their lives, they get to put on their resume
that they are a certified IRS representative, in volunteering
they get to assist the community, they earn three course
credits, without sitting in a classroom.
14. Media/Marketing (what did you do in the area of media and marketing
that increased awareness about your site?)
We used the resources of SNHU, including posting notices
and distributing flyers on campus, also contacting other
people that we have networked over the years to spread
the news about the program.
15. Outreach (what other types of outreach activities were you involved
in to enhance the effectiveness of your site?)
Outside locations were advertised by the AARP, in
Hooksett and the Pittsfield Town Administrators.
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16. Coalition Building (if you have a coalition, what made it successful?)
N/A
17. Future (what are your plans for the future [site expansion, asset
building, etc.]? what will you do differently in the future?)
Continued expansion - based on word of mouth.
Additional Information:
Below is the Southern New Hampshire University VITA Course Description:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The I.R.S. mission, which is to provide America’s taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all, will be followed in this course. The course will be the first step toward working for the I.R.S. in a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. This entails becoming certified as a volunteer, setting up your own site and then marketing that site to the general public. This program would include you in the 93 Million Americans who each year helps to make our world a better place to live by volunteering. This course will not entail the preparation of any complicated income tax returns.
International Students:
15 W-7 forms with 8843’s for International Students were submitted
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