DC Tax Volunteer Saves Families Hundreds Each Year

A single mom walks into a DC tax center year after year, and each time she leaves with a few hundred extra dollars that could make or break her month.

That's the work Donna Ortega does as an AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteer. She offers free tax filing and financial guidance to people who can't afford professional accountants.

Ortega discovered the opportunity online in 2003 and immediately fell in love with the work. Her first site in DC's Chinatown could get chaotic, with crowds pushing to the front of the line, but volunteers from a local Chinese church kept everything running smoothly.

After joining AARP Foundation as a staff member, Ortega decided to volunteer with their Tax-Aide program. The certification felt intimidating because it required advanced training for complex tax returns, but her colleagues wouldn't let her back out.

Now she's been helping families for two decades. One client stands out above all the others.

Ortega met a young single mother during her first year and kept running into her at different volunteer sites across the city. Every year brought new financial challenges, from childcare credits to education deductions.

The mom always listened carefully and came back the next year fully prepared on the previous issue, ready to tackle something new together. Those few hundred dollars Ortega helps her save each year make a real difference in her life.

Sunny's Take

What makes this story special isn't just the money saved. It's the relationship built over years of trust and care.

Wealthy families get this kind of personalized financial guidance as a matter of course from paid advisers. Through Tax-Aide, struggling families get the same valuable advice for free.

Now when they see each other at tax sites, they joke about the daughter who started as "the deduction." That little girl has grown up alongside a friendship built on helping hands and warm hearts.

Tax-Aide volunteers often come from professional backgrounds and spend their evenings and weekends doing this work. Many have served the same communities for years, building lasting relationships with the people they help.

For Ortega, it's simple: watching families keep more of their hard-earned money while building financial knowledge is a labor of love that works her mind and warms her heart every tax season.