User:Beefyt/Center for Economic Progress



The Center for Economic Progress (CEP) is a non-profit organization based in Chicago that offers free tax preparation and financial counseling to low-income families.

Services
As part of the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, CEP provides free tax preparation at sites in Chicago and surrounding Illinois during tax season to families that earn under $50,000 annually or individuals who earn under $25,000. It also promoted the 2010 US Census at its tax sites in neighborhoods that showed especially low response rates in 2000.

In 2009, CEP helped 33,000 Illinois families obtain $52 million in tax refunds. Since 1990, it has helped 230,000 families obtain $340 million in refunds.

CEP employs approximately 50 staff members and recruits more than one thousand volunteer tax preparers each year.

Operations
In the past three years, Charity Navigator has awarded CEP a three- or four-star rating (good or excellent) for organizational efficiency and organizational capacity for the last three annual reporting periods. CEP’s fund raising efficiency is above both the Chicago and national average for nonprofit organizations. It currently costs CEP six cents to raise one dollar.