JANUARY 15, 2026

Goodman Philanthropies Awards $250,000 Grant to the Center for Taxpayer Rights for expert guidance on Trump Accounts for low income families.

Washington, DC — This past Fall, Goodman Philanthropies announced a $250,000 one-year grant to the Center for Taxpayer Rights to support the U.S. Treasury Office of Tax Policy with expert guidance on the inclusive design and implementation of the newly created Trump Accounts. The grant will help ensure Trump Accounts — $1,000 investment accounts established at birth—are structured to build wealth inclusively and reach families with low incomes and low wealth.

Why Goodman Philanthropies Invested

If designed and implemented well, Trump Accounts could represent one of the most significant federal investments in child asset-building in decades. The idea is powerful: provide every child with an early financial stake, harness the power of compounding, and normalize long-term saving and investing from birth.

But policy design matters. Without careful attention to enrollment processes, contribution structures, tax treatment, and administration, Trump Accounts risk widening wealth gaps rather than narrowing them. Goodman Philanthropies is investing in this work to help ensure the policy delivers on its promise for families with the fewest resources.

Scope of Grant

This grant will support a comprehensive legal, policy, and operational analysis of the new Section 530A (“Trump Accounts”), with a particular focus on ensuring equitable access for low-income and other vulnerable populations. While the accounts hold significant promise, they raise unresolved questions about enrollment mechanisms, reliance on tax-return data, eligibility for children in non-filing households, treatment of supplemental contributions from states and nonprofit organizations, and interactions with other means-tested benefits. The grant will also address practical implementation risks, including barriers for families below the tax-filing threshold, coordination with state and local entities, the need for accessible and understandable enrollment processes, and the heightened risk of fraud and identity theft inherent in any program distributing public benefits.

Through this grant, the Center for Taxpayer Rights will conduct a targeted literature review and consult with experts, advocates, and organizations experienced in direct cash transfers and inclusive program design. The Center will develop and submit recommendations to the U.S. Department of the Treasury on account design, enrollment processes, and success metrics to maximize participation and minimize administrative burden. It will also propose legal guidance on the application of the General Welfare Doctrine and related principles to supplemental contributions by states and nonprofits, review IRS guidance and public-facing materials for clarity and accessibility, and recommend improvements where needed. In addition, the Center will create educational materials for taxpayers and community organizations, pilot those materials in selected geographic areas to assess their impact on participation, and develop recommendations for consumer protection and financial education standards for institutions offering these accounts.

About the Center for Taxpayer Rights

The Center for Taxpayer Rights is a unique organization in the field of tax, in that it integrates both direct representation, litigation, and services with systemic advocacy. They are a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering taxpayers’ awareness of and access to taxpayer rights and deepening their understanding of the role taxation plays in achieving the common good. By providing free legal assistance to US low income taxpayers and technical support to low income taxpayer clinics in the United States and internationally, we help ensure tax administrations are fair and just.  The Center for Taxpayer Rights advocates for systemic change by connecting with national and international policymakers, advocates, and academics on issues impacting taxation and taxpayer rights; filing amicus briefs and participating in high-impact litigation in important tax cases; and promoting transparency through freedom of information act requests and other research. Learn more.

About Goodman Philanthropies

Goodman Philanthropies supports innovative, evidence-based solutions that expand economic mobility across the United States. We prioritize approaches that combine rigor, innovation, and scale to move the needle on poverty and opportunity. Our work is generously funded by Bennett & Meg Goodman, who are committed to dismantling barriers to upward mobility through strategic, impact-driven philanthropy. This grant is part of our broader wealth-building strategy, which aims to fund new and innovative tools, policies, and ideas that enable more low to moderate-income Americans to participate in asset-building as a mechanism for sustained, intergenerational economic mobility. Early wealth-building policies and programs, such as Trump Accounts, represent one such innovation that we believe, if designed well, have high potential to drive U.S. economic mobility at scale.

To learn more about our work and our portfolio of grants, visit www.goodmanphilanthropies.org.