Alabama Arise: A Complete Guide to the Statewide Advocacy Organization Fighting Poverty Through Policy Change, Tax Reform, and Member-Led Action

1. What is Alabama Arise? (Organization Overview)

Alabama Arise is a statewide coalition that brings together diverse voices from across Alabama to advocate for public policies that reduce poverty and promote economic justice. Unlike traditional advocacy organizations that set their own agendas, Arise is fundamentally member-led, meaning that the people and organizations most affected by poverty have the primary voice in determining which issues the organization tackles each year.

The organization’s membership includes a broad cross-section of Alabama communities, representing faith-based organizations, community groups, nonprofit service providers, civic organizations, grassroots leaders, and thousands of individual Alabamians who share a commitment to addressing systemic poverty through policy change rather than charity alone.

What Makes Alabama Arise Different?

Alabama Arise stands apart from other advocacy organizations in several important ways. First, the organization operates on the principle that “the people closest to the problem are the experts.” This means that individuals experiencing poverty are not viewed as passive recipients of services but as knowledgeable advocates who understand firsthand how policies affect their daily lives.

Second, Arise focuses on structural change rather than individual solutions. The organization believes that poverty is caused primarily by systemic factors—unfair tax structures, inadequate wages, barriers to healthcare, and other policy failures—rather than individual choices or shortcomings. This perspective shapes everything from the research Arise conducts to the solutions the organization proposes.

Third, Arise is nonpartisan. The organization does not endorse political candidates or align itself with any political party. Instead, Arise evaluates policies and lawmakers based solely on how their actions affect Alabamians living in or near poverty, regardless of party affiliation.

The Scope of Alabama Arise’s Work

Alabama Arise operates across the entire state, with members and member organizations in communities from the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf Coast. The organization’s work spans multiple policy areas that affect the economic security and well-being of low-income Alabamians, including state tax policy, healthcare access, public education funding, criminal justice reform, food security, affordable housing, voting rights, and workplace protections.

The organization’s funding comes from private foundations and member contributions. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Alabama Arise is transparent about its finances and publishes annual reports detailing its activities, accomplishments, and budget.

2. Mission, Vision, and Core Values

Understanding Alabama Arise’s mission, vision, and values is essential to understanding how the organization approaches its work and makes decisions about which policies to support or oppose.

The Mission

Alabama Arise’s mission is straightforward and action-oriented. The organization exists to advance public policies that improve the lives of Alabamians who are marginalized by poverty. This mission statement contains three critical elements that guide all of the organization’s work.

First, the focus is on public policies, not direct services. While Alabama Arise partners with many organizations that provide essential services like food assistance, healthcare, and housing support, Arise itself concentrates on changing the underlying systems and structures that create or perpetuate poverty.

Second, the mission emphasizes improving lives, which means Arise measures success by real-world outcomes—whether families have more money to spend on necessities, whether more children have access to healthcare, whether working people can afford basic needs on their wages.

Third, the mission specifically identifies “Alabamians who are marginalized by poverty” as the organization’s primary constituency. This language acknowledges that poverty is not just about low income but about being pushed to the margins of economic and political life.

The Vision

Alabama Arise envisions an Alabama where three conditions exist. These vision statements paint a picture of the state Arise is working to create:

Economic opportunity for all: An Alabama where all people have the resources and opportunities to reach their potential, live happy and productive lives, and ensure that each successive generation has a secure and healthy future. This vision recognizes that poverty isn’t just about today’s struggles but about whether families can build a better tomorrow.

Responsive and inclusive government: An Alabama where government leaders are responsive, inclusive, and justice-serving, and where people are actively engaged in the policymaking process. This vision reflects Arise’s commitment to participatory democracy and the belief that good policy requires input from those most affected by it.

Concern for the common good: An Alabama where all people live with concern for the common good and respect for the humanity of every person. This vision statement speaks to the values and culture that Arise believes must underpin effective anti-poverty policy.

Core Values That Guide the Work

Alabama Arise operates according to ten core values that shape how the organization conducts its policy analysis, organizing, and advocacy:

3. How Alabama Arise Works (Three-Part Approach)

Alabama Arise uses three interconnected strategies to advance policies that reduce poverty and promote economic justice. Each component supports and strengthens the others, creating a comprehensive approach to policy change.

Strategy 1: Policy Analysis

The Arise policy team conducts rigorous research and analysis on state policies and legislative proposals. This work involves examining existing laws, analyzing proposed legislation, studying state budget documents, and evaluating the likely impacts of policy changes on Alabamians with low incomes.

Critically, Arise’s policy analysis goes beyond simple economic projections. The organization analyzes policy impacts by race, gender, age, location, and income level, recognizing that policies often affect different communities in different ways. For example, a tax policy that seems neutral on its surface might have dramatically different effects on rural versus urban communities, or on families with young children versus elderly households.

The policy team produces several types of research products, including detailed policy reports, concise fact sheets, legislative scorecards, budget analyses, and testimony for legislative committees. All of this research is made publicly available so that members, lawmakers, media, and the general public can access reliable information about how policies affect low-income Alabamians.

Strategy 2: Statewide Organizing

Policy research alone doesn’t change laws. That’s where organizing comes in. Alabama Arise organizes members and people across the state to speak out on public policies that affect their lives. This organizing work takes many forms.

The organization recruits and mobilizes members to contact legislators, participate in public hearings, attend rallies and advocacy events, share their personal stories with media and lawmakers, and engage in their local communities on policy issues. Arise also conducts “listening sessions” around the state where people share their experiences with issues like healthcare access, tax burdens, food insecurity, and other challenges.

A key organizing program is Think Big Alabama, an advocacy training initiative launched in partnership with Alabama Values. This program equips Alabamians with the skills and confidence to become effective advocates for policy change in their communities and at the state level.

Strategy 3: Citizen Advocacy

The third pillar of Arise’s work is training and supporting members for active participation in the democratic process. This includes legislative advocacy—meeting with lawmakers, testifying at hearings, and building relationships with elected officials—as well as broader civic engagement.

Alabama Arise hosts an annual Legislative Day in Montgomery where hundreds of members gather at the State House to meet with their legislators and advocate for the organization’s priority issues. The organization also provides ongoing support throughout legislative sessions, helping members understand complex bills, track legislation, and communicate effectively with their representatives.

Importantly, Arise teaches advocacy skills rather than simply asking members to deliver scripted messages. The organization believes that authentic, informed advocacy from constituents is far more effective than generic mass messages. Members learn how to tell their personal stories, present data effectively, ask strategic questions, and build long-term relationships with policymakers.

4. 2026 Legislative Priority Areas

Each year, Alabama Arise members vote to select the organization’s legislative priorities for the upcoming session. This democratic process ensures that the organization’s agenda reflects the issues that matter most to the people actually experiencing poverty and economic hardship. Here are the seven priority areas that Arise members selected for 2026:

1. Health Equity

Alabama Arise advocates for policies to close Alabama’s health coverage gap for adults with low incomes and protect access to maternity care. Currently, Alabama is one of the states that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, leaving approximately 300,000 Alabamians without access to affordable health insurance. These individuals earn too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance or qualify for marketplace subsidies.

The organization also focuses on maternal health, as Alabama has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation, with significant racial disparities. Arise supports policies that would extend postpartum Medicaid coverage, expand access to doulas and midwives, and address the shortage of maternity care providers in rural areas.

2. Hunger Relief

Arise works to expand access to nutrition programs, particularly for children. A major focus is allowing more public schools to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which enables high-poverty schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students without requiring individual applications. This approach reduces stigma, increases participation, and ensures that all children in high-need schools have access to nutritious meals.

In 2025, Alabama appropriated $7.3 million in state funding specifically to help more schools participate in school breakfast programs, representing a significant victory for Arise’s hunger relief advocacy. The organization continues to push for policies that make it easier for families to access SNAP (food stamps) and for schools to implement universal meal programs.

3. Adequate State Budgets

Alabama Arise advocates for state budgets that provide adequate funding for essential services that help Alabamians escape poverty. This includes equitable public education funding that ensures every student receives adequate resources regardless of their ZIP code, state funding for affordable housing programs to address Alabama’s housing crisis, and public transportation investments to help people access jobs, healthcare, and other necessities.

The organization analyzes budget proposals each year and produces detailed reports showing how funding decisions affect low-income communities. Arise argues that inadequate budgets are often the result of inadequate revenue, which brings us back to tax policy (see Section 5).

4. Inclusive Democracy

Arise supports policies that remove barriers to political participation. This includes no-excuse early voting so that people who work multiple jobs or lack transportation can vote more easily, removal of barriers to voting rights restoration for people with felony convictions who have completed their sentences, protection against voter purges and other practices that disproportionately affect low-income voters and voters of color, and support for automatic voter registration and other reforms that increase voter participation.

The organization views voting rights as fundamental to anti-poverty work, because people experiencing poverty can’t improve their situations through policy if they’re excluded from the political process.

5. Justice Reform

Alabama Arise advocates for a more restorative criminal justice system rather than a purely punitive one. Specific priorities include applying Alabama’s ban on judicial override of jury sentencing decisions in death penalty cases retroactively, reforming harsh sentencing laws that disproportionately affect low-income defendants, improving the parole system to provide more opportunities for rehabilitation and reintegration, and abolishing the death penalty.

The organization recognizes that mass incarceration and harsh criminal justice policies trap people and families in poverty by creating barriers to employment, housing, education, and civic participation.

6. Tax Reform

Tax policy has been Alabama Arise’s signature issue for decades. The organization works to create a fairer state tax system that doesn’t push struggling families deeper into poverty. Current priorities include eliminating the remaining state sales tax on groceries (reduced from 4% to 2% but not yet fully eliminated) and replacing that revenue through more equitable sources, reforming Alabama’s income tax structure to provide more relief for low- and moderate-income families, ending or limiting tax breaks that primarily benefit wealthy households and corporations, and creating more adequate revenue to fund essential services.

We’ll explore Arise’s tax work in more detail in Section 5.

7. Worker Power

Alabama Arise supports policies that give working people more economic security and bargaining power. This includes removing tax incentives from companies that violate child labor laws, extending paid parental leave protections to more workers, raising the minimum wage, strengthening workplace safety protections, and protecting workers’ rights to organize.

The organization recognizes that many Alabamians living in poverty are actually working full-time or multiple jobs, and that poverty is often the result of low wages and inadequate worker protections rather than unemployment.

5. Tax Reform: Arise’s Signature Issue

Alabama Arise has been a leading advocate for tax reform in Alabama for decades, and this work has produced some of the organization’s most significant victories. Understanding Arise’s approach to tax policy is essential to understanding the organization’s overall strategy and impact.

Why Tax Reform Matters for Poverty

Taxes might seem like a technical issue disconnected from the daily struggles of poverty, but Alabama Arise has consistently shown how tax policy directly affects whether families can afford groceries, whether the state has enough revenue to fund schools and healthcare, and whether the economic system is fair or rigged against working people.

Alabama’s tax system has several features that make it particularly harsh on low-income families. The state relies heavily on regressive sales taxes, which take a larger percentage of income from poor families than from wealthy ones. Alabama also had one of the nation’s lowest income tax thresholds for families, meaning that people living below the federal poverty line were still required to pay state income taxes. And until recently, Alabama was one of only three states that taxed groceries at the full sales tax rate.

The Grocery Tax Campaign

One of Alabama Arise’s most visible and successful campaigns has been the effort to eliminate the state sales tax on groceries. For years, Arise produced research showing that this tax hurt struggling families most, since food represents a larger share of poor families’ budgets than wealthy families’ budgets.

The organization mobilized members to share powerful personal stories about choosing between groceries and medicine, or cutting meals to make the food budget stretch. Arise’s advocacy training helped ordinary Alabamians become effective spokespeople who could articulate both the human impact and the policy details.

The campaign achieved partial victories in 2023 and 2025, reducing the state grocery tax from 4% to 3% and then to 2%. While Arise continues to push for complete elimination, these reductions represent real money back in the pockets of struggling families. For a family spending $100 per week on groceries, the reduction from 4% to 2% saves approximately $100 per year—not a fortune, but meaningful for families living paycheck to paycheck.

The 2006 Income Tax Cut

In 2006, Alabama Arise’s research and advocacy were crucial in the passage of a state income tax cut specifically targeted at families living in or near poverty. This legislation raised the income tax threshold, meaning that thousands of Alabama families with low incomes were removed from the state income tax rolls entirely.

This victory demonstrates Arise’s pragmatic approach to tax policy. The organization doesn’t oppose all tax cuts—it opposes tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy households while starving state budgets. Tax cuts for working poor families, on the other hand, directly serve Arise’s mission of reducing poverty.

The Alabama Tax & Budget Handbook

One of Arise’s most important educational resources is the Alabama Tax & Budget Handbook, a comprehensive guide designed to make state finances accessible to ordinary citizens. The handbook breaks down Alabama’s complex tax structure, explains where tax revenue comes from and where it goes, and analyzes the fairness of different tax policies.

This publication reflects Arise’s commitment to transparency and civic education. The organization believes that people can’t effectively advocate for tax reform if they don’t understand how the system works, so Arise invests significant resources in making complex policy information understandable and actionable.

Fighting Federal Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

Alabama Arise also engages on federal tax policy when it affects Alabamians with low incomes. In January 2025, Arise joined 55 partner organizations in a letter urging Congress to oppose extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions that primarily benefit wealthy households. The letter argued for expanding the Child Tax Credit instead, which would provide meaningful tax relief to working families.

This work illustrates how Arise connects state and federal policy. Many of Alabama’s budget challenges are exacerbated by federal tax policies that reduce revenue, and many of Alabama’s poorest families would benefit more from an expanded federal Child Tax Credit than from state-level tax cuts.

6. Major Accomplishments and Impact

Over its history, Alabama Arise has achieved significant policy victories that have improved the lives of thousands of Alabamians. Here are some of the organization’s most important accomplishments:

Grocery Tax Reduction (2023 and 2025)

As mentioned earlier, Arise played a central role in reducing Alabama’s state sales tax on groceries from 4% to 3% in 2023 and then to 2% in 2025. This represents approximately $$100$$ to $$150$$ in annual savings for a typical family, with larger savings for larger families. While the organization continues to advocate for complete elimination, these reductions represent substantial progress on an issue that directly affects every Alabama household.

State Income Tax Cut for Low-Income Families (2006)

Alabama Arise’s research and advocacy were crucial in passing legislation that raised the state income tax threshold for families with low incomes. This policy change removed thousands of struggling Alabama families from the state income tax rolls entirely, allowing them to keep more of their earnings for necessities like housing, food, and healthcare.

School Breakfast Funding (2025)

In 2025, Alabama appropriated $$7.3$$ million in state funding to help more public schools participate in school breakfast programs. This appropriation came after years of Arise advocacy demonstrating that many Alabama children arrive at school hungry, which impairs their ability to learn. The funding helps schools implement or expand breakfast programs, particularly in high-poverty areas where food insecurity is most prevalent.

Criminal Justice Reforms

Alabama Arise has been part of coalitions that achieved several criminal justice reforms, including restrictions on judicial override in death penalty cases (where judges could impose death sentences even when juries recommended life imprisonment), improvements to the parole system, and sentencing reforms that reduced harsh mandatory minimum sentences for certain offenses.

Medicaid Expansion Advocacy

While Alabama has not yet expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, Arise has built a strong coalition and generated significant public support for expansion. Public opinion polling shows that a majority of Alabamians support Medicaid expansion, largely due to education and advocacy work by Arise and partner organizations. This groundwork positions the state for potential expansion in the future.

Civic Engagement and Leadership Development

Beyond specific policy victories, Alabama Arise has developed a powerful infrastructure for civic engagement. The organization has trained thousands of Alabamians in advocacy skills, built a statewide network of member organizations, created resources that help ordinary citizens understand complex policy issues, and demonstrated that people experiencing poverty can be effective advocates for their own interests.

This civic infrastructure is itself an accomplishment, because it creates lasting capacity for policy change that extends beyond any single issue or legislative session.

7. Who Can Join and Membership Benefits

Alabama Arise welcomes two types of members: individual members and organizational/group members. The organization’s member-led structure means that members don’t just financially support the work—they actively shape the organization’s priorities and participate in advocacy efforts.

Individual Membership

Any person who shares Alabama Arise’s values and mission can become an individual member by making a financial contribution to the organization. When you donate to Arise, you automatically become a member for one year. There’s no minimum donation amount required, though the organization provides suggested giving levels.

Individual members receive several benefits. They can vote on the organization’s annual legislative priorities during the membership meeting each fall, ensuring that the people most affected by poverty have a direct voice in setting Arise’s agenda. Members also receive the Arise Daily News Digest, a curated roundup of news and opinions on poverty-related issues from across Alabama and the nation. Additionally, members get access to member-only resources, including detailed policy briefs, advocacy toolkits, and legislative updates throughout the session.

Perhaps most importantly, individual members are invited to participate in Arise’s organizing and advocacy activities, including Legislative Day, advocacy trainings, community listening sessions, and other events.

Organizational/Group Membership

Alabama Arise also welcomes organizations and groups as members. Current member organizations include churches and faith communities, nonprofit service providers, civic organizations, community groups, labor unions, professional associations, and advocacy organizations working on related issues.

Organizational members gain similar benefits to individual members, including voting rights on legislative priorities, access to member resources, and opportunities to participate in advocacy activities. Additionally, organizational membership helps groups connect with Arise’s statewide network, access policy research and analysis relevant to their work, and amplify their voices on poverty-related policy issues.

Organizations interested in joining Alabama Arise can contact the organization’s development team to learn about membership options and benefits specific to groups.

What Membership Supports

Member contributions fund Alabama Arise’s core operations, including the policy research team that produces analysis and reports on state legislation and budgets, the organizing staff who recruit members and coordinate advocacy campaigns, the communications team that produces educational materials and media outreach, advocacy training programs like Think Big Alabama, annual events like Legislative Day, and the infrastructure that allows Arise to respond quickly to emerging policy issues.

Because Arise is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, membership contributions are typically tax-deductible as charitable donations, though you should consult a tax professional about your specific situation.

8. How to Get Involved (Ways to Support)

There are many ways to support Alabama Arise’s work, whether or not you’re able to make a financial contribution. The organization believes that everyone has something to contribute to the movement for economic justice.

Become a Member

The most direct way to support Arise is to become a member through a financial contribution. You can join online at alarise.org or by mailing a check to the organization’s Montgomery office. Memberships last for one year and are renewable annually.

Become an Arise Ambassador

During Alabama Arise’s annual membership drive, you can become an Arise Ambassador by helping recruit new members. Ambassadors receive special training and materials to help them talk with friends, family, and community members about Arise’s work and the importance of joining. This role is perfect for people who want to contribute their time and relationship-building skills to grow the organization.

Attend Legislative Day

Each year, Alabama Arise hosts a Legislative Day in Montgomery where members gather to meet with their state legislators and advocate for Arise’s priority issues. This is an excellent opportunity to participate in the democratic process, learn advocacy skills, and see firsthand how state government works. Arise provides training and support so that even first-time advocates feel confident meeting with lawmakers.

Participate in Think Big Alabama

Think Big Alabama is an advocacy training program that equips Alabamians with the skills to become effective advocates for policy change. The program includes workshops on storytelling, media engagement, legislative process, organizing strategies, and more. Participants learn how to tell their stories powerfully, understand how policy is made, build coalitions, and sustain long-term advocacy campaigns.

Share Your Story

Personal stories are among the most powerful tools for policy change. If you have experience with issues like struggling to afford groceries, lacking health insurance, facing barriers to voting, dealing with the criminal justice system, or other poverty-related challenges, sharing your story can help lawmakers understand why policy change matters. Arise’s communications team can help you craft your story and identify opportunities to share it with decision-makers and media.

Contact Your Legislators

Throughout legislative sessions, Alabama Arise sends action alerts to members asking them to contact their legislators on specific bills or budget proposals. These contacts can take the form of phone calls, emails, letters, or in-person meetings. Arise provides talking points and background information to help you communicate effectively, but the most powerful messages are those that combine policy details with your personal perspective.

Follow and Share on Social Media

Alabama Arise maintains active social media presence on platforms like Facebook, sharing policy updates, member stories, advocacy opportunities, and educational resources. Following Arise on social media and sharing their content helps spread awareness about poverty-related policy issues and builds public support for the organization’s priorities.

Bring Arise to Your Community

Alabama Arise staff members are available to speak at churches, community organizations, civic clubs, and other groups across Alabama. These presentations can cover Arise’s overall work, specific policy issues, or how communities can get involved in advocacy. Hosting an Arise presentation is a great way to educate your community about poverty-related policy issues and potentially recruit new members.

9. Resources and Publications

Alabama Arise produces a wide range of educational resources and publications designed to make complex policy issues accessible to ordinary citizens. These resources are available on the organization’s website at alarise.org/resources.

The Alabama Tax & Budget Handbook

This comprehensive guide explains how Alabama’s state government raises and spends money. The handbook breaks down the tax structure, analyzes different revenue sources, explains the budget process, and evaluates the fairness of Alabama’s fiscal policies. It’s designed for citizens who want to understand state finances but don’t have backgrounds in economics or public policy.

Fact Sheets

Arise produces concise fact sheets on specific policy issues, providing key statistics, policy analysis, and recommendations. Recent fact sheets have covered topics like Alabama’s upside-down tax system, the grocery tax and its impact on families, federal budget proposals and their impact on Alabama, school breakfast programs, Medicaid expansion, and criminal justice reform proposals.

These fact sheets are designed to be accessible to general audiences while providing enough detail and documentation for policymakers and media.

Legislative Priorities Documents

Each year, Alabama Arise publishes its legislative priorities in both English and Spanish, explaining the issues the organization will focus on during the upcoming legislative session. These documents include background on why each issue matters, specific policy proposals, and ways members can help advocate for these priorities.

The Arise Daily News Digest

This daily email newsletter is an exclusive benefit for Arise members. The digest curates news articles, opinion pieces, and analysis from Alabama media and national sources on issues related to poverty, economic justice, healthcare, education, criminal justice, and other topics relevant to Arise’s work. It’s an efficient way for busy people to stay informed about policy developments.

Personal Stories

Arise regularly publishes stories from members and other Alabamians about how policy issues affect their lives. These stories humanize abstract policy debates and demonstrate why issues like grocery taxes, healthcare coverage, and worker protections matter in concrete, tangible ways.

Letters and Testimony

Arise publishes the letters it sends to elected officials and the testimony it provides to legislative committees. These documents demonstrate how the organization communicates with policymakers and provide models for members who want to contact their own representatives.

10. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)