Thank You for Supporting Toast to Ariva 2024!

Support Our Work This #GivingTuesday

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s Toast to Ariva, our annual fundraising cocktail reception and community gathering! We’re so grateful for all of our sponsors and for the opportunity to honor our amazing partners year after year. 

Honoring Our Partnership with University Neighborhood Housing Program (UNHP)

We rely on a community of partnerships to reach and serve the families, seniors, and residents of the Bronx. This year’s event celebrated our longstanding partnership with University Neighborhood Housing Program (UNHP) under the leadership of Executive Director Jim Buckley, who also served as an Ariva board member for 10 years. 

“At UNHP, we’ve always recognized that success and community work depend largely on the team that has been working together. We’ve been working with Ariva for many years now, first on taxes and, in more recent years, through the Ready to Rent and financial counseling program. We make a great team, and the Bronx benefits from it,” says Jim.

We couldn’t agree more!

For 13 years, UNHP has hosted one of Ariva’s NYC free tax preparation sites at its Northwest Bronx Resource Center (NWBRC)—at its peak, filing over 1,500 tax returns a year. The launch of the NWBRC in 2012 helped our partnership blossom, and today we offer our Ready to Rent and Financial Counseling programs. Together, we empower more New Yorkers with effective tools and resources to transform their financial future.

We are so grateful to have Jim and the entire team at UNHP as partners in building justice, opportunity, and inclusion in the Bronx. Our partnerships help us expand our NYC free tax prep and financial counseling services year after year, so it’s always a pleasure to celebrate these cherished members of our community! 

Read on for more about our impact and future plans to help more New Yorkers achieve financial security and freedom. If you’re excited about the Bronx and our mission, we invite you to consider contributing to our end-of-year giving campaign, starting with this #GivingTuesday. Every dollar you give supports seniors, immigrant families, people who may be new to financial planning, and many others.

Power in Partnership: Celebrating 2024 Successes and Expanded Services

Over the past year, we’ve expanded our community tax services and celebrated many more accomplishments. Thanks to generous support from the Flagstaff Foundation, New York Foundation for Elder Care, and the Samuels Foundation, we launched a pilot of our new senior tax program at four different locations earlier this year. 

“We did 800 tax returns just at these four sites. In future years, we expect to fully expand at those locations with more clients,” says Executive Director Irene Baldwin.

Looking ahead, we’re excited about more opportunities to provide New Yorkers—including senior citizens and those new to the United States financial system—with accessible, free financial help that will enable them to become financially empowered. 

For example, through La Ventanilla, our longstanding partnership with the Mexican Consulate in New York City and M&T Bank, we provide comprehensive financial capability services to many people who  are new to the country. This year, we proudly expanded that initiative to the Ecuadorian consulate. 

“Our job at the Mexican Consulate is to help people new to the United States understand the financial system and tax system. This year, our anchor partner, M&T, shared our enthusiasm for this project and expanded funding. We were able to launch a second site at the Ecuadorian Consulate this summer and have already assisted 400 people,” shares Irene. 

Thank You

These celebrations aren’t possible without the commitment of our community. Thank you to Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation for donating the beautiful space for our Toast to Ariva celebration. We greatly appreciate our staff, board members, partners, clients, volunteers, and everyone who is committed to financial inclusion and economic justice. Thank you for collaborating with us to support our clients with free financial counseling and free tax filing in NYC!

Please consider making a donation today to support this important work!