FY 2020 Terms and Conditions

Community Conversations Research Cooperative Agreements

These Corporation for National & Community Services (CNCS) Cooperative 

Agreement Program Specific Terms and Conditions and the General Terms and 

Conditions are binding on the Awardee.

Due to COVID 19, CNCS has provided guidance that informs the applicability, implementation, or enforcement of the 

terms and conditions due to legislative changes and new facts that support discretionary agency action. Please refer to 

the COVID-19 FAQs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

I. Changes from the 2019 Community Conversations 

Research Competition 

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II. Statutory Authority 2

III. Community Conversations Research Cooperative 

Agreement Specific Terms and Conditions

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A. Definitions 2

B. Roles and Responsibilities of the Awardee 4

C. Roles and Responsibilities of CNCS 5

D. Notification of Budget, Staff and Management Changes 6

E. Reporting Requirements 7

F. Cooperative Agreement Period and Incremental 

Funding

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I. CHANGES FROM THE 2019 COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS 

RESEARCH COMPETITION

1. Changed Office of Grants Management to Office of Grant Administration (OGA) 

and updated Grants Officer titles to Grants Award Specialist throughout.

2. III.B(3)(d). – Removed program specific acknowledgement.

3. III.E(1) Removed the quarterly requirement to notify a Program Officer if the 

workplan changes. 

4. III.E(3), (4), (5), & (7) – Updated these sections to reflect final, Year 3, reporting 

requirements.

5. III.(G). – Removed the section on Breaches of Personally Identifiable Information 

as it exists in the General Terms and Conditions.

II. STATUTORY AUTHORITY

This award is authorized by and subject to Subtitle H – Investment for Quality and 

Innovation, Part III – National Service and Civic Engagement Research Competitions Pilot 

Program, Section 198K (Funds) of the National and Community Service Act of 1990, as 

amended by the Serve America Act (the “NCSA”), 42 U.S.C. §12653(d) and by the Federal 

Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act (FGCAA), 31 U.S.C. §§6301-6308. Other 

authorities are outlined in the General Terms and Conditions.

III. COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS RESEARCH COOPERATIVE 

AGREEMENT SPECIFIC TERMS AND CONDITIONS 

A. DEFINITIONS- For this Cooperative Agreement the following definitions 

apply: 

1. Application means all information and materials (including all 

assurances and certifications, the proposed budget as approved by 

CNCS, or any information incorporated by reference) submitted by the 

Awardee in CNCS’s eGrants system in response to the Notice of 

Federal Funds Availability, including any amendments or 

modifications to the information and materials made in response to any 

CNCS request for clarification. 

2. Awardee means the direct recipient of this Cooperative Agreement.

3. Communities include a group of people including residents, local 

stakeholders, organizations or other institutions that are working 

collectively, share a common concern, or identity. 
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4. Civic engagement is defined as a cluster of individual efforts and 

activities oriented toward making “a difference in the civic life of ... 

communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, 

values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the

quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political 

processes” and through informal or formal networks.

5. Civic infrastructure is defined as the “invisible structures and 

processes through which the social contract is written and rewritten in 

communities,” “the formal and informal processes and networks 

through which communities make decisions and solve problems”, or

“the network that exists among local groups such as community 

development corporations (CDCs), foundations, other nonprofits, local 

governments, public housing authorities, businesses, and voluntary 

associations.” 

6. Civic health is defined as the way that communities are organized to 

define and address public problems. 

7. Field research site is a local community or communities identified as 

the location(s) where the research will take place and where 

community residents and stakeholders will be recruited and trained as 

community researchers (i.e., co-researchers). 

8. National service is defined as a structured opportunity for individuals 

to serve their communities for an extended period of time through 

volunteering with or without a stipend. CNCS is the largest supporter 

of national service, though other avenues for national service exist and 

this competition is not exclusive to opportunities funded by CNCS.

9. Participatory research is a broad term to denote approaches that 

focus on collaborative knowledge production and co-learning, social 

change, capacity building, and strengthening communities. Knowledge 

is produced jointly, between social researchers and a group of people 

or “community,” for the goal of addressing communities’ concerns 

with practical solutions. With participatory research, “the process of 

conducting research is as important as the research outcome” and there 

is mutual benefit for all partners. Participants are actively engaged in 

the entire research and action process and gain skills and knowledge 

that can bring about individual or collective change.
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10. Social capital can be understood as the “shared norms or values that 

promote social cooperation, instantiated in actual social relationships” 

or as the facilitating agent for social cohesion and civic engagement.

11. Volunteering is unpaid, noncompulsory work, specifically, time one 

gives without pay to activities performed either through organizations 

such as schools, nonprofits, churches; civic, or political organizations 

(e.g., formal); or directly for others outside one’s own household (e.g., 

informal).

B. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AWARDEE

1. General

The Awardee must perform the activities supported by this Cooperative 

Agreement in compliance with the statutes, regulations and administrative 

authorities cited or referred to in these Terms and Conditions, in conformance 

with its approved application (including the approved budget), and consistent 

with any approvals or directions provided by CNCS in the course of carrying 

out the Cooperative Agreement. The Awardee is legally accountable to 

CNCS for the use of award funds and is bound by the provisions of the 

award. 

2. National Service Criminal History Check Requirements

CNCS has determined that the National Service Criminal History Check 

Requirements as set forth under the General Terms and Conditions, Section 

III.F., are not applicable to this Research competition and that Awardees need 

not fulfill that requirement to be in compliance with the responsibilities under 

this Cooperative Agreement.

3. Affiliation with CNCS and with the Community Conversations Research 

Competition

a. Sharing Award Products. Awardees will make their products available 

to others in the field. 

b. Acknowledgement of Support. All presentations such as PowerPoint 

slides, publications, conference presentations, posters, infographics, or 

other dissemination activities related to the project funded by the 

Community Conversations research cooperative agreement must 

explicitly state that the project is funded by the Office of Research and 

Evaluation at CNCS. 
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c. The Awardee is responsible for assuring that the following 

acknowledgement and disclaimer appears in any external report or 

publication of material based upon work supported by this award: 

“This material is based upon work funded by the Office of Research 

and Evaluation at the Corporation for National and Community 

Service (CNCS) under Grant No. ____ through the Community 

Conversations research cooperative agreement competition. Opinions

or points of view expressed in this document are those of the authors 

and do not necessarily reflect the official position of, or a position that 

is endorsed by, CNCS.”

d. The Awardee will include the appropriate CNCS logo(s) on documents 

and presentation materials. If you unclear about the appropriate CNCS 

logo(s), please ask your Program Officer.

e. The Awardee may not use or display the CNCS name or logo in 

connection with any activity prohibited in these terms and conditions, 

or if the activity is not funded by this award or is not prohibited in 

these terms and conditions, the Awardee may not use or display the 

CNCS name or logo unless they have received written permission to 

do so from the CNCS Office of Government Relations and Strategic 

Engagement.

C. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CNCS

Performance under this Cooperative Agreement is subject to the general oversight 

and monitoring of CNCS. Additional substantial involvement of CNCS will include:

1. Research Plans

Reviewing and approving the Awardee’s work plan and final research plan 

for carrying out the research project.

2. Convening of Awardees

Convening Awardees either in-person or virtually to discuss projects and 

share feedback with one another. These convenings may include Awardees 

attending and presenting at the CNCS Research Summit, Grantee meetings, 

CNCS program convenings, webinars, etc. The convenings may also include 

CNCS staff and external experts identified by CNCS and the Awardees.

3. Access to CNCS data and Program Staff
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a. Facilitating access to CNCS data sources that are publicly available 

and reasonable to obtain as well as facilitating restricted use data with 

additional data sharing agreements. 

b. Facilitating access to CNCS program staff relevant to the Awardees’ 

research projects, in a manner that is reasonable and not overly

burdensome on CNCS staff.

c. CNCS is under no obligation to provide access to data or staff if such 

access is not feasible or deemed overly costly by CNCS.

4. Dissemination of Research Project Results

a. CNCS may decide to disseminate the results of Awardee research 

projects, either in a report produced by Awardees, or material 

produced by CNCS based on the report.

b. CNCS will provide feedback for final product.

D. NOTIFICATION OF BUDGET, STAFF AND MANAGEMENT CHANGES

1. Within 5 business days, the Awardee must notify CNCS of any change in the 

staffing of any key position included (in whole or in part) as a cost in the 

award budget. This requirement applies regardless of whether the position is 

included in the federal or matching cost portions of the budget. The Awardee 

must also notify CNCS of any changes in any positions which are not 

included in the approved budget, but which involve leadership oversight of 

the activity under this award. The Awardee must also notify CNCS of any 

change in the senior leadership of the Awardee.

2. The Awardee must first obtain the prior written approval of the Program 

Office before changes in the scope, objectives or goals of the program, and 

whether they involve budgetary changes.

3. The Awardee must obtain the prior written approval of CNCS’s OGA before 

deviating from the approved budget in any of the following ways:

a. Specific Costs Requiring Prior Approval before incurrence under the

uniform administrative requirement, cost principles, and audit 

requirements for Federal awards at 2 CFR Parts 200 and 2205. Certain 

cost items in 2 CFR Parts 200 and 2205 require approval of the award 

agency for the cost to be incurred as allowable. Please ensure you 

consult the regulations prior to incurring costs to ensure allowability.
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b. Purchases of Equipment over $5,000 using award funds, unless 

specified in the approved application and budget.

c. Unless the CNCS award is $50,000 or less, changes to cumulative 

and/or aggregate budget line items that amount to 10 percent or more 

of the total budget must be approved in writing in advance by CNCS. 

Awardees may transfer funds among approved direct cost categories 

when the cumulative amount of such transfers does not exceed 10 

percent of the total budget.

4. CNCS Grant Award Specialists are the only officials who have the authority 

to alter or change the terms and conditions of the award. Grant Award

Specialists will execute written amendments, and Awardees should not 

assume approvals have been granted unless documentation from OGA has 

been received. Programmatic changes also require final approval of CNCS’ 

OGA after written recommendation for approval is received from the 

Program Office.

E. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Awardee Reports and Deliverables for 2020 Continuation Awardees (i.e., Year 3, for 

the 2018 Community Conversations Research Competition Awardees) 

1. Each Awardee will deliver to the CNCS Program Officer a revised research 

workplan for Year 3 by October 31, 2020. The workplan will set forth the 

process including activities and timeline, to be used to fulfill the award

requirements. The Awardee shall notify the Program Officer during Year 3 if 

there are changes to the workplan and will update the workplan accordingly.

2. In Year 3, each Awardee shall participate in phone meetings with other 

Awardees as requested and with staff from the Office of Research and 

Evaluation (ORE) on a regular schedule to be determined to discuss the 

workplan, research projects, paper presentations, and publications.

3. In Year 3, each Awardee shall work with ORE to prepare documents which 

will lead to 1) a final technical report to be made available on the CNCS 

Evidence Exchange and 2) articles, book chapters, briefs, and other 

materials to be used publicly regarding the research completed during Years 

1, 2 and 3. 
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4. For the Original Project in Year 3, each Awardee shall submit a final 

technical report that is of publishable quality to be made publicly available on 

CNCS’s Evidence Exchange (https://www.nationalservice.gov/impact-ournation/evidence-exchange). Publishable quality means a high-quality report 

that could be the basis for other publications such as peer-reviewed articles, 

book chapters or a book, etc. 

a. This final report shall be a culmination of the work completed between 

Year 1 to 3 and shall constitute the background, relevant literature 

review, research design (i.e., research questions/objectives, the 

participatory research approach utilized, research methods, analysis), 

the findings, action plans developed from the findings, and challenges 

and lessons learned for principal investigators and the community. The 

last section on lessons learned, should include a discussion on how the 

approach used by the research team (see NOFO, p. 2): actively 

engaged residents and other local stakeholders in the research process; 

facilitated the identification of a local issue of concern to the 

community; helped to identify what factors are facilitating or hindering 

community participation to address the locally-identified issue; and, 

assisted in building relationships and increasing civic engagement in 

tackling the community identified issue. 

b. A draft final report for the Original Project (that will be labeled as a 

semiannual report in eGrants) is due July 31, 2021 and will be 

reviewed by CNCS staff within 30 days. The final report (that will be 

labeled as a second semiannual report in eGrants) will be due October 

30, 2021. It will include all the work done to date through September 

30, 2021. This report will address any comments offered by CNCS in 

the review of the draft submitted before July 31, 2021. This final 

report will be uploaded to the Evidence Exchange. 

5. If awarded a Supplement for Year 3, the Awardee shall submit one final 

technical report that is of publishable quality to be made publicly available on 

CNCS’s Evidence Exchange (https://www.nationalservice.gov/impact-ournation/evidence-exchange). Publishable quality means a high-quality report 

that could be the basis for other publications such as peer-reviewed articles, 

book chapters or a book, etc. This final report shall be a culmination of the 

work completed in Year 3 and shall constitute the background (how this 

project expands or builds on the Original Project), relevant literature review, 

research design (i.e., research questions/objectives, research methods, the 
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participatory research approach utilized, analysis), the findings, and 

challenges and lessons learned for principal investigators and the community. 

The last section on lessons learned, should include a discussion on how the 

approach used by the research team in the Supplement (see NOFO, p. 2): 

actively engaged residents and other local stakeholders in the research 

process; facilitated the identification of a local issue of concern to the 

community; helped to identify what factors are facilitating or hindering 

community participation to address the locally-identified issue; and, assisted 

in building relationships and increasing civic engagement in tackling the 

community identified issue. 

a. A draft final report for the Supplemental Project (that will be labeled 

as a semiannual report in eGrants) is due July 31, 2021 and will be 

reviewed by CNCS staff within 30 days. The final report (that will be 

labeled as a second semiannual report in eGrants) will be due October 

30, 2021. It will include all the work done to date through September 

30, 2021. This report will address any comments offered by CNCS in 

the review of the draft submitted before July 31, 2021. This final 

report will be uploaded to the Evidence Exchange. 

6. In addition to the report(s) (i.e., draft article), it is expected that the Awardee 

will submit material that could be publicly shared such as relevant datasets, 

instruments, interview questions, etc. Please see “Section B.3.” in this 

document that specifies how Awardees should share grant products and 

acknowledge CNCS support in publications and other material. 

7. Awardees will send a brief progress report of their 1) Year 3 activities for the 

Original and Supplemental projects including dissemination plans; 2) a brief

outline of their final technical reports (Original and Supplemental projects); 

3) if needed, a revised workplan (noting any changes) to their Program 

Officer. The Program Officer will follow up within 30 days with feedback.

Due Date Reporting Period Covered 

April 30 October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021

8. Financial Reports

The Awardee must submit semi-annual cumulative Federal Financial Reports 

(FFR), summarizing expenditures during the reporting period. These reports 

will be submitted timely through the appropriate electronic system. At the 

discretion of CNCS, the FFR deadlines are as follows:

Due Date Reporting Period Covered
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April 30 Start of the Award (October 1) through March 31

October 31 April 1 through September 30

All Awardees must also submit an FFR - Cash Transactions Report on a 

quarterly basis to the Department of Health and Human Services Payment 

Management System per the Electronic Funds Transfer Agreement.

9. Requests for Extensions of Reporting Deadlines

Requests for extensions of reporting deadlines will be granted when 1) the 

report cannot be furnished in a timely manner for reasons legitimately beyond 

the control of the Awardee; and 2) CNCS receives a written request 

explaining the need for an extension before the due date of the report. 

Extensions of deadlines for financial reports may only be granted by OGA, 

and extensions of deadlines for Progress Reports may only be granted by the 

Office of Research & Evaluation or another office deemed appropriate by 

CNCS.

10. Final Financial Report

An Awardee completing the final year of its Cooperative Agreement must 

submit, in lieu of the last semi-annual financial report, a final financial report, 

this report is due no later than 90 days after the end of the Cooperative 

Agreement.

F. COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT PERIOD AND INCREMENTAL FUNDING

For the purpose of National Service and Civic Engagement Cooperative 

Agreements, a project period is the complete length of time an Awardee is funded to 

complete approved activities under the agreement. A project period may contain one 

or more budget periods. A budget period is a specific interval of time for which 

Federal funds are being provided to fund an Awardee's approved activities and 

budget.

Unless otherwise specified, the Awardee’s Cooperative Agreement covers a three

(3) fiscal year project period, contingent upon the availability of funding and 

compliance by the Awardee with the Cooperative Agreement. Additional funding is 

contingent upon satisfactory performance as determined by CNCS and the 

availability of funds. The project period and the budget period are noted in the 

Notice of Grant Award.