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AmeriCorps State and National FY 2015 Annual Plan

FY Appropriation: $335,430,000

Target Member Level: 75,569

Key Milestones:

 FY 2015 application deadline – January 21, 2015

 FY 2015 awards – May 8, 2015

 FY 2016 NOFO release – Summer 2015

 Grantee Meeting – July/August 2015

Funding Priorities:

AmeriCorps State and National will seek to fund programs in the following six focus 

areas that use an evidence-based approach to creating community impact and 

solving community problems, as envisioned by the Edward M. Serve America Act. 

 Disaster Services, 

 Education, 

 Environmental Stewardship, 

 Healthy Futures, 

 Opportunity, and 

 Veterans and Military Families 

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act requires CNCS to select at least two of 

five statutorily defined focus areas in making competitive AmeriCorps State and 

National grants. For the 2015 AmeriCorps State and National competition, CNCS 

especially seeks to increase its investment in programs that serve veterans and 

military families or that engage veterans in service, education programs that 

improve academic outcomes for children and youth in the lowest performing 

schools, disaster services, economic opportunities for community and AmeriCorps 

members, environmental programs that are part of the 21st Century Service Corps, 

Governor and Mayor Initiatives to address a pressing challenge in a particular state, 

programming that supports the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, and multi-focus 

intermediaries that demonstrate measurable impact and primarily serve 

communities with limited resources. 

National Performance Measures: Programs opting into the Priority Performance 

Measures will receive priority for funding. 

Accountability: AmeriCorps State and National will continue to place a high priority 

on accountability and will devote significant effort and resources to oversight and 

monitoring to assure compliance with all applicable rules and regulations. Special 

efforts will be made to help partners and grantees implement performance 
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measurement and to comply with all administrative and financial reporting 

requirements.

Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation: For FY 2015, AmeriCorps 

State and National will continue to make available to its grantees all of the agency’s 

16 priority measures and will continue to allow the use of the Complementary 

Program Measures. 
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AmeriCorps VISTA FY 2015 Annual Plan 

FY 2015 Appropriation: $92,364,000

Target Member Level: 7,370 

Key Milestones: 

 Fall 2014: Program Guidance to CNCS State Offices and Field

 November 2014 – August 2015: 35-40 Pre-Service Orientations to train and 

assign new AmeriCorps VISTA members

 February 2015: AmeriCorps VISTA 50th Anniversary - National Solutions 

Summit in Washington, DC 

 April – December 2015: Community Solutions Summits in selected cities

 December 2015: AmeriCorps VISTA 50th Anniversary – National Solutions 

Showcase in Austin, TX

Programming Priorities:

AmeriCorps VISTA was created with the purpose of reducing poverty and building 

economic opportunity. AmeriCorps VISTA members build the organizational and 

financial capacity of local programs that help low income Americans gain skills and 

resources they need to break the cycle of poverty. 

AmeriCorps VISTA has identified the CNCS Strategic Plan focus areas, objectives, 

and performance measures that best correspond with the AmeriCorps VISTA antipoverty mission. This year, AmeriCorps VISTA will prioritize the expansion of 

programming in support of National Guard members and their families and those 

programs that spur student interest in science, technology, engineering, and math 

(STEM) education

Ultimately, CNCS expects to invest no less than 80 percent of AmeriCorps VISTA 

resources toward building the capacity of programs and organizations work in the 

following focus areas.

 Disaster Preparation and Long-Term Recovery* 

 Economic Opportunity (Housing*, Employment, Financial Education) 

 Education (School Readiness*, Academic Engagement and Performance*, 

High School Graduation, My Brother’s Keeper initiative, and Post-secondary 

Education)

 Environmental Stewardship (Workforce Development, Energy Efficiency, 

Climate Resilience)

 Healthy Futures (Intergenerational Food Security*, Access to Health Care)

 Refugee Services (justice AmeriCorps)

 Veterans and Military Families
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Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation: AmeriCorps VISTA will seek 

projects that demonstrate the effectiveness of their proposed intervention in 

addressing community needs. In addition to measuring project performance in 

organizational and financial capacity building, AmeriCorps VISTA will additionally 

measure the value of the member’s national service experience. Project sponsors 

are directed to align programming within the focus areas and priority areas listed 

above. 

*Agency priority measures
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AmeriCorps NCCC FY 2015 Annual Plan 

FY Appropriation: $30,000,000

Target Member Level: 1,200

Key Milestones: Campus Start Dates

 Southwest Region and Pacific Region Traditional – October 2014

 Southern Region, North Central Region, and Atlantic Region Traditional –

February 2015

 Southwest Region, Pacific Region, Southern Region and Atlantic Region FEMA 

Corps – February 2015

 Southern and North Central Regions FEMA Corps - July 2015

Funding Priorities: 

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act authorizes the AmeriCorps National 

Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) to operate a national service program and other 

service programs that provide young people with leadership and team-building 

opportunities to meet national and community needs in the areas of: natural and 

other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and 

conservation, energy conservation, and urban and rural development. 

In order to successfully carry out the legislative mandates of the program while 

increasing program effectiveness and efficiency, the AmeriCorps NCCC has outlined 

key objectives and targets it will strive to meet in 2015 and beyond. These 

objectives and targets reference the impact of our service, the opportunities and 

training provided to our members, and overall program operations. 

AmeriCorps NCCC Service Projects and Special Initiatives:

In 2015, AmeriCorps NCCC project outreach and implementation will reflect a 

continued focus on the service areas as outlined in the Serve America Act to include: 

natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental 

stewardship and conservation, energy conservation, and urban and rural 

development. 

To further build upon programmatic strengths such as our residential design and 

intensive member training program, AmeriCorps NCCC will continue in its role as 

the agency’s lead responders in times of disasters as well as disaster preparation, 

mitigation and recovery. 

AmeriCorps NCCC will continue its’ partnership with the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency to support the goal of an additional 1,000 AmeriCorps NCCC 

members, who will work solely in this service area their entire ten months of 

service. In 2015, Pacific, Southwest, and Atlantic Regions will host their third class 
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of AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA CORPS members and the Southern and North Central 

Regions will host their fourth class of members. 

AmeriCorps NCCC conducts project sponsor surveys, which provide outcome 

evidence on the community impact of the AmeriCorps NCCC program model. The 

FY13 results show two primary outcomes of AmeriCorps NCCC projects. First, 

AmeriCorps NCCC service enhanced the capacity of the sponsoring organization to 

meet community needs. Second, collaborating with AmeriCorps NCCC expanded or 

enhanced the sponsoring organization’s community impact. Ninety-five percent of 

the sponsors enhanced their ability to provide services, including increasing the 

number of people they could serve and the amount of service they could provide.

AmeriCorps NCCC Members:

The Serve America Act mandates that AmeriCorps NCCC engage participants from 

economically, geographically, and ethnically diverse backgrounds. Additionally, 

AmeriCorps NCCC was directed to conduct outreach to increase participation of 

disadvantaged youth to a target enrollment of 50 percent by the year 2012. In 2015, 

we anticipate reaching more than 40 percent, accompanied by an aggressive 

strategy for keeping us moving toward the very ambitious goal. Although the 

AmeriCorps NCCC performs a significant amount of service that directly benefits 

youth from disadvantaged circumstances (including mentoring and tutoring) the 

intent of this directive is to engage young Americans from disadvantaged 

circumstances as AmeriCorps NCCC members. In order to meet this goal, 

AmeriCorps NCCC will continue to implement measures as outlined in the 

AmeriCorps NCCC Annual Recruitment plan, including:

 Expand AmeriCorps NCCC recruitment efforts by conducting outreach to 

organizations and institutions that support youth from disadvantaged 

circumstances;

 Collaborate with state and local corps programs to promote second year of 

service opportunities with AmeriCorps NCCC among their membership; 

 Promote AmeriCorps Week and all National Days of Service as opportunities 

to introduce school-aged children to service and volunteering;

 Increase use of all social media outlets; and

 Expand the strategic use of the approximately 17,000 AmeriCorps NCCC 

alumni in recruitment efforts to increase the applicant pool for Corps 

Members and Team Leaders and aggressively promote national service.

Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation: 

AmeriCorps NCCC will contribute to seven of the 16 agency-wide priority 

performance measures. The measures we support align with our statutorily defined 

issue areas of: natural and other disasters, environmental stewardship and 

conservation, energy conservation, infrastructure improvement, and urban and 

rural development.
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Senior Corps: RSVP FY 2015 Annual Plan 

FY Appropriation: $48,902,000

Target Volunteer Level: 245,415

Key Milestones:

 FY 2013 continuation grants will be awarded non-competitively with 

start dates in quarters 3 and 4. 

 Funds associated with FY 2014 continuation grants: $27,400,000

 Funds associated with the FY 2015 competitive grants and required 

extensions for incumbents that were unsuccessful, and where there is no 

successful applicant in the service area, as required under the 

competition rules: $19,700,000

 RSVP FY 2015 Competition. Award grants beginning in March 2015. 

Awards will be made for:

o Successful applicants for grants scheduled to be competed in FY 

2015

o Successful applicants for previously vacated geographic service 

areas that were part of the FY 2012, FY2013, and FY2014

competitions.

o Extensions of the current FY 2014 grants for RSVP incumbents 

unsuccessful in the 2015 competition, in compliance with the 

authorizing legislation. 

o Estimated total number of competitive, continuation and 

extension grant awards in FY 2015: 656

Funding Priorities:

 Competitive and continuation grants fulfilling program priorities. 

Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation: 

The majority of the new RSVP standard performance measures reflect CNCS 

agency-wide priority and supporting measures, augmented by a number of 

program specific measures. CNCS will continue to require that all new grantees 

adopt subsets of the agency’s priority performance measures to track and report 

their effectiveness and impact. CNCS anticipates that the concentration of 

programming in strategic focus areas, using priority performance measures, will 

be as follows:

 70 percent of activities must occur within the Agency-Wide Priority and 

Complementary Program Performance Measures. RSVP grantees will also 

be required to identify a “Primary” Focus area. RSVP grantees must commit 

to reporting a combination of Agency-Wide outputs and outcomes related 
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to the “Primary” Focus Area. The “Primary” Focus Area must account for at 

least 25 percent of the RSVP volunteers enrolled in the project. 

 30 percent of volunteers can be placed in community priority assignments 

that are outside the scope of the CNCS Strategic Plan.

Senior Corps began implementation of mandatory National Performance Measures 

in FY 2013. The competitive RSVP 2014 and 2015 grants were required to adopt the 

RSVP National Performance Measures Requirements as part of the application 

process. By the end of FY 2015, approximately 96 percent of all RSVP grants will 

operate under the National performance Measures.

The chart below tracks the timeframe of National Performance Measures 

implementation:

Fiscal 

Year

Percent of RSVP Portfolio to Compete and Adopt Performance 

Measures

2013 32 percent of all projects implement national measures

2014 28 percent of projects adopt national measures for the 1st time

60 percent of all projects implement national measures

2015 40 percent of projects adopt national measures for the 1st time

96 percent of all projects implement national measures
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Senior Corps: Foster Grandparent Program FY 2015 Annual Plan 

FY Appropriation: $107,702,000

Target Volunteer Level: 27,450

Key Milestones: 

 FY 2015 renewal and continuation grants will be awarded noncompetitively during quarters 2, 3, and 4. Quarter 2 will be funding 

incremental, due to the CR. Possible additional grant and/or non-grant 

activities, to be determined based on availability of FY 2015 funds. 

 Estimated total number of grant awards in FY 2015: 313

Currently, all grants and Volunteer Service Years (VSYs) relinquished in any state 

are centralized for budget contingencies. There is also approximately $3 million in 

available funds for permanent grant investments. Priority uses for centralized 

funding will be a competitive process to award a combination of new grants and 

augmentations to existing grants, limited to Tribal applications. 

Funding Priorities:

 Renewal and continuation grants fulfilling the statutory authority of FGP 

to place volunteers in assignments to serve children with special or 

exceptional needs.

 Compete and award Tribal grants and grant augmentations.

Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation: 

FGP performance measures are aligned with Strategic Plan Focus Areas, and the 

majority of FGP measures are subsets of agency-wide measures. For FGP, the focus 

is education, with a concentration on school readiness. The emphasis on education 

aligns with the Strategic Plan, as well as the purpose of the FGP program. Grantees 

will be required to concentrate 75 percent of their activities, as defined by VSYs in 

the education focus area. Twenty-five (25) percent of activities can be in program 

specific measures supporting child safety, welfare, and health.

Senior Corps began implementation of mandatory National Performance Measures 

in FY 2013. All renewal grants, which are entering the first year of a new three-year 

grant, were required to adopt the FGP National Performance Measures 

Requirements. By the end of FY 2015, all FGP grants will operate under the National 

Performance Measures.

The chart below tracks the timeframe of National Performance Measures 

implementation:
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Fiscal 

Year

Percent of FGP Portfolio to Adopt Performance Measures

2013 37 percent of all projects implement national measures

2014 28 percent of projects adopt national measures for the 1st time

65 percent of all projects implement national measures

2015 35 percent of projects adopt national measures for the 1st time

100 percent of all projects implement national measures
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Senior Corps: Senior Companion Program FY 2015 Annual Plan 

FY Appropriation: $45,512,000

Target Volunteer Level: 14,150

Key Milestones: 

 FY 2015 renewal and continuation grants will be awarded noncompetitively during quarters 2, 3, and 4. Quarter 2 funding will be 

incremental, due to the CR. Possible additional grant and/or non-grant 

activities, to be determined based on availability of FY 2015 funds. 

 Currently, all grants and Volunteer Service Years (VSYs) relinquished in 

any state are centralized for budget contingencies. There is also 

approximately $900,000 in available funds for permanent grant 

investments. Priority uses for centralized funding include: (1) state-level 

competition in Alaska for a replacement SCP sponsor (the only state 

without an SCP grant); and (2) competitive process to award a 

combination of new grants and augmentations to existing grants, limited 

to Tribal applications. 

 Estimated total number of renewal and continuation grant awards in FY 

2015: 180

Funding Priorities:

 Renewal and continuation grants to existing SCP sponsors that will place 

volunteers in assignments that meet the statutory purpose of the 

program to support for adults in need of additional assistance to remain 

independent for as long as possible.

 State level replacement sponsor competition in Alaska

 Compete and award Tribal grants and grant augmentations.

Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation: 

SCP performance measures are aligned with Strategic Plan Focus Areas, and the 

majority of SCP measures are subsets of agency-wide measures. For SCP, the focus is 

Healthy Futures – Independent Living. Additional program specific measures will 

capture the benefits to caregivers through respite. The emphasis on independent 

living aligns with the Strategic Plan, as well as the authorized purpose of the SCP 

program. Grantees will be required to concentrate 100 percent of their activities, as 

defined by VSYs in the Healthy Futures-Independent Living focus area. 
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Senior Corps began implementation of mandatory National Performance Measures 

in FY 2013. By the end of FY 2015, all FGP grants will operate under the National 

Performance Measures.

The chart below tracks the timeframe of National Performance Measures 

implementation:

Fiscal Year Percentage of SCP Portfolio to Adopt Performance Measures

FY 2013 32% of all projects implement national measures 

FY 2014 23% percent of projects adopt national measures for the 1st time

52% of all projects implement national measures 

FY 2015 45% percent of projects adopt national measures for the 1st time

100% of all projects implement national measures 
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Social Innovation Fund FY 2015 Annual Plan

FY Appropriation: $70,000,000

Key Milestones:

 Notice of Funding Opportunity Release: Mid-February 20151 (tentative)

 Application deadline: Mid-April (tentative)

 Notification of funding decisions: Mid-August 2015 (tentative)

 Annual Grantee Convening: September 2015

Funding Priorities:

Focus Areas:

• Youth Development – Preparing America’s youth for success in school, 

active citizenship, productive work, and healthy and safe lives;

• Economic Opportunity – Increasing economic opportunities for 

economically disadvantaged individuals; and/or

• Healthy Futures – Promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing the risk 

factors that can lead to illness.

Collective Impact – SIF supports approaches to local challenges where a cross-sector 

coalition of local organizations identify a common set of challenges and evidencebased solutions, sets ambitious goals and works together to implement the solutions 

that must demonstrate their effectiveness.

Target Beneficiaries 

• Opportunity Youth: young people between the ages of 16 to 24 who are 

neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market, and 

• Traditionally underserved and underrepresented geographic areas and 

populations.

Expand Access to Capital through Pay For Success

As part of the 2015 Congressional appropriations, SIF was given authority to use up 

to 20% of 2015 grant funds to implement a competition to test Pay for Success 

approaches. The PFS competition was designed to address limited availability of 

funds for planning, feasibility studies, deal structuring, and pipeline development, 

all of which have constrained growth of the field. In FY 2015, the SIF will continue 

this pilot using up to 20 percent of grant funds to invest in Pay for success projects. 

CNCS proposes to make the funds requested for the Pay for Success initiative 

available until the end of FY 2016 to provide CNCS with sufficient time to develop an 

effective mechanism for attracting high quality projects, ensure that Pay for Success 

 

1 NOFO-related dates are tentative because they are dependent on clearance by OMB and reclearance internally.
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applicants have the time they need to put together robust applications, assess their 

likelihood of success, and distribute funds during the start-up of this initiative. 

Start a Central Administrative Data Access Facilitator Pilot.

CNCS has requested $4 million to fully fund a five-year pilot to facilitate SIF 

grantee’s and subgrantee’s access to high-quality administrative data. This data 

facilitation hub will serve as the conduit that aids all subgrantees in accessing data 

available across state and federal sources, which is a key aspect of evidence-based 

grant making but currently fraught with challenges. This initiative has the potential 

to reduce evaluation costs while simultaneously improving evaluation quality. It will 

also enhance CNCS’s ability to assist subgrantees in reaching a moderate or strong 

level of evidence. If the proof of concept is successful, it could be replicated by other 

interested parties, and could serve as a model for reducing the cost of high-quality 

evaluations for nonprofit organizations. 

Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation: 

The SIF is in the process of clearing pilot performance measures, which include 

eight agency-wide measures and several that are SIF-specific. These measures were 

selected based on input from performance measure leads at CNCS, existing SIF 

grantees and subgrantees. The measures will provide us needed information for 

performance management and reporting ongoing intermediate grantee progress 

while we wait for specific evaluation data results to be released. We are also 

piloting collecting scaling and demographic information. Once cleared through the 

OIRA process as part of our larger Data Collection revisions, grantees will begin 

reporting on these measures in April 2015.
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Subtitle H FY 2015 Annual Plan

(Volunteer Generation Fund, Call to Service – MLK and 9-11 Days of Service)

FY Appropriation: $6,900,000

Key Milestones: 

 9-11 Day of Service

o New grant competition

o Applications due Spring 2015

 MLK Day of Service 

o New grant competition

o Applications due Spring 2015

 Volunteer Generation Fund

o NOFA released May 2015.

o Applications due July 2015.

o Grants will be awarded competitively-September 2015.

Funding Priorities:

• 9-11 Day of Service: Grantees will plan and carry out direct service activities 

that honor those lost on September 11th, 2001 and those who rose in service as a 

result of that tragedy. Activities in the portfolio may be part of a continuum of 

year-round service and contribute to advancing overall programmatic impact 

and organizational capacity. 

• MLK Day of Service: Grantees must competitively subgrant a portion of the 

federal funds to eligible organizations to plan and carry out direct service 

activities on Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. Activities in their portfolio 

may be part of a continuum of year-round service and contribute to advancing 

overall programmatic impact and organizational capacity. 

• Volunteer Generation Fund: Grantees must provide evidence that subgrantees 

have enhanced their capacity to fulfill the following requirements:

o Engage local partner organizations that use volunteers in a 

collaborative process of planning and implementation for increasing the 

impact of volunteers in meeting critical needs 

o Provide relevant, competency-based volunteer roles and 

opportunities that attract and retain high caliber volunteers 

o Develop the internal operational systems and financial management 

systems that will provide organizational sustainability

Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation:

Performance measures for Subtitle H funds must include reports on the number of 

community volunteers recruited and/or managed by CNCS supported organizations 

and national service participants. 
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State Commission Support Grants FY 2015 Annual Plan

FY Appropriation: $15,038,000

Target Member/Volunteer Level: Not Applicable

Key Milestones:

• FY 2015 partial awards – December 2013

• FY 2015 balance of award– April/May 2015

Funding Priorities: 

As required by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, funding will be awarded 

on a formula basis to support State Service Commissions as they implement service 

as a strategy to address local problems, such as leading disaster response and 

readiness efforts, addressing high school dropout rates, increasing mentoring 

efforts, supporting persons with disabilities, and establishing volunteer centers, 

online matching platforms, and other systems to effectively engage citizens in 

service. Funds will also be used in their outreach to prospective AmeriCorps 

grantees, administration of grant competitions, oversight and monitoring of grants 

and programs.

In addition, Commission Administrative Grants will be used to cultivate highperforming organizations by strengthening their training and technical assistance, 

accountability, and grant oversight activities, as well as to support Administration 

initiatives such as The President’s Task Force on Expanding National Service and the 

Governors and Mayors Outreach. For instance, for the President’s Task Force on 

Expanding National Service initiatives such as School Turnaround AmeriCorps, 

justice AmeriCorps and STEM AmeriCorps, Commissions could be conducting 

multiple grant competitions throughout the year instead of one annual competition.

Performance Measure Adoption and Implementation: 

Performance measures are determined by each State Service Commission, based on 

their state service plan. Plans are reviewed, approved, and monitored by CNCS staff 

to ensure compliance and monitor progress.