The Colorado Fiscal Institute fights for rational people-centered economic and fiscal policies that promote equity and widespread prosperity in Colorado. CFI is a trusted leader in driving forward innovative research and advoacy that helps improve the lives of millions of Coloradans - and we depend on the generosity of supporters like you.
The Colorado Fiscal Institute envisions a Colorado where responsible, people-centered, economic and fiscal policies advance equity and widespread economic prosperity.
Our mission is to provide credible, independent, and accessible analyses of fiscal and economic issues facing Colorado. We lead, inform and influence policy debates and contribute to sound decisions that improve the well-being of individuals, communities, and the state as a whole.
For CFI, tax and economic policies are the foundation for creating strong, healthy, and thriving communities and economies. How communities raise money together through taxes and solve problems through public budgets can fuel economic opportunity and prosperity for all or hold us back. To win on people-centered tax and economic policies, CFI uses research and data, statewide education, and strategic communications.
• Research: CFI’s original research projects as well as partner projects with community organizations, make the case for why many everyday issues that impact Coloradans across the state are also tax and economic issues – housing affordability, childcare costs, worker rights, immigration, transportation infrastructure and funding, climate change, etc. Through qualitative and quantitative data and research we can create and pass policies that lift communities from the bottom up.
• Statewide Education: In a state where Coloradans hold the power to decide on most tax policy decisions, CFI understands that we cannot create a tax system that promotes economic prosperity without Coloradans across the state having a deep understanding of how our tax code works, how it impacts individual and family economic opportunity, and how it supports community investments and wealth building. To address this need, CFI created the Tax Ambassador Program, a six-week train-the-trainer course designed to provide community members with a space to learn about Colorado’s tax and budget system and how to become advocates for an equitable tax structure.
• Strategic Communications: A critical component of CFI’s mission is changing people’s understanding and beliefs about what truly creates a strong economy that uplifts people and communities. That’s why CFI engages in public opinion research, digital communications, and earned media, which pushes a “people-centered economy” narrative, which is founded on the belief that people are the economy and it's our everyday connections and transactions with one another that make the economy flow, and if the most marginalized among us aren’t doing well, the economy isn’t doing well.
For nearly 15 years, the Colorado Fiscal Institute operated as the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, a project of the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. The project began as an all-volunteer coalition of health care, education, and human service advocates who realized that they could not effectively advocate for low-income Coloradans without a better understanding of how to navigate the budget process and operate within Colorado's onerous fiscal constraints.
In 1999, with the support of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington D.C., the coalition launched the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute to house the permanent analytic capacity for fiscal and economic research that could support advocates for low-income families. The project quickly became a recognized leader in fiscal and economic policy research and advocacy in Colorado.
In October 2012, the project's leadership launched the Colorado Fiscal Institute as an independent nonprofit with the belief that an organization dedicated solely to fiscal and economic policy would be more effective in promoting ideas that expand opportunity, equity, and economic prosperity for all Coloradans.
CFI's structure has changed, but its core mission remains the same. CFI continues to deliver on our founder's vision for a strong permanent analytic capacity to support Colorado's policy ecosystem. The breadth of topics that CFI turns its analytic eye towards and the depth of its relationships with diverse organizations, from K12 advocates to immigrant rights activists to health care providers, demonstrate the value of CFI's contribution.
Organization name
Colorado Fiscal Institute
other names
CFI
2012
Tax id (EIN)
46-1281109
Category
Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
110 16th Street Mall Suite 1410Denver County, CO, US
CO, US