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Washington, D.C. 20525

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AmeriCorps State and National 2022 

Planning Grant Project Progress 

Report Instructions

AmeriCorps State and National

June 2023
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Contents

Who Completes the Planning Grant Project Progress Report?................................ 1

What Are the Components of the PPR?..................................................................... 1

When Is the Planning Grant PPR Due?........................................................................ 1

Selecting the Right PPR ................................................................................................ 2

Reporting Period ........................................................................................................... 3

Completing the PPR ..................................................................................................... 3

General Information Tab .......................................................................................... 3

Narratives Tab............................................................................................................ 3

Narrative Field 1: Primary Activities (required): ................................................... 4

Narrative Field 2: Accomplishments and Challenges (required):..................... 4

Narrative Field 3: Other Narrative (required): ..................................................... 4

Summary Tab............................................................................................................. 4

Submitting the PPR........................................................................................................ 4

Reviewing Feedback and Responding to Clarification Items in the PPR................ 5

Who Completes the Planning Grant Project Progress Report?

All National and Tribal planning grantees and State Commissions who have planning 

grant primes must complete a Planning Grant Project Progress Report describing the 

progress made during the planning period. 

State Commissions must report on any planning subgrantees that are not attached to 

a planning grant prime via the regular end-of-year and final Progress Reports.

What Are the Components of the PPR?

The PPR for planning grants and State Commission planning grant primes consists of 

a set of narrative responses. No Performance Data Element or performance measure 

data is requested. 

Please complete the report using eGrants, AmeriCorps’ integrated, secure, webbased system for grants management, and follow these instructions. 

Please note: AmeriCorps State and National PPRs are not visible to grantees in 

eGrants until 4 months prior to their due date.

When Is the Planning Grant PPR Due?

The PPR is due 120 days after the grant end date. 
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If you cannot meet the submission deadline for the progress report, you must request 

an extension from your Portfolio Manager. Requests for extensions may be granted 

when:

1. The report cannot be finished in a timely manner for reasons legitimately 

beyond the control of the grantee, and

2. AmeriCorps receives a request explaining the need for an extension before the 

due date of the report.

Selecting the Right PPR

After logging into eGrants, click the “Progress Report” link in the lower right corner of 

the screen.

Figure 1: Home page of eGrants Phase 2 with the Progress Report link circled.

Find the grant number for your planning grant or planning grant prime and expand 

the list by clicking on the orange arrow key to the right of the grant number and grant 

name. 
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Find the progress report with a due date of 120 days after your grant end date (the 

progress report type should be Progress Report Lite Quarterly) and click on the 

edit link. You will be taken to the main progress report screen. If you do not see a 

report that has the appropriate type and due date, please let your Portfolio Manager 

know.

Reporting Period

The reporting period is from the beginning of your planning grant/planning grant 

prime through the end date of the grant. The reporting period listed in eGrants may 

be incorrect; please ignore it. 

Completing the PPR

General Information Tab

On this tab, you will see information for the progress report you have selected. Check 

the Progress Report Type and Due Date to ensure you have selected the correct 

report. If you have not selected the correct report, click the Cancel button and select 

the correct report. If you have selected the correct report, click the Begin button to 

open the progress report. If you return to this tab after starting the report, you will see 

a Continue Working button that allows you to open the report that is in progress.

Open amendments on the same grant year as the PPR may interfere with data entry in 

the PPR. If you have amendment(s) currently in process that fit this description, please 

work with your Portfolio Manager to get the amendment(s) awarded or withdrawn 

before you start entering data into the PPR. Also, it is best to avoid initiating 

amendments on the same grant year while you are entering data into the PPR (i.e., 

after you open the PPR for the first time, but prior to submitting the PPR to 

AmeriCorps). Same-year amendments awarded during the PPR data-entry process 

may result in the need to re-enter all of the data from scratch.

Narratives Tab

The Narratives tab asks grantees to reflect on activities and accomplishments during 

the planning grant period. State Commissions should not provide information from 

every planning grant subgrantee when responding to narrative questions; rather, 

they should provide high-level analysis of their planning grant portfolio 

supplemented by relevant examples. 

Click on the accordion panels to enter narratives. When accordion panels are closed, 

green checkmarks indicate that text has been entered in the text box. Text must be 

entered in every narrative field before submitting the PPR. For fields that are not 

required, if not providing narrative, enter NA in the text box.
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Provide the following narratives. Please limit your remarks to 1,500 words or less. 

(The PDF printout of the PPR often truncates the narratives entered in the Progress 

Report interface. However, the Progress Report screens themselves will accept 

32,000 characters per narrative field and will save the entire narrative entered up to 

that limit, even if the narrative does not display fully in the PDF.)

Narrative Field 1: Primary Activities (required):

Describe the primary activities you or your subgrantees engaged in during the 

planning period. This may include activities to develop plans for the following aspects 

of an AmeriCorps program: member activities; member recruitment, training, and 

support; site management; performance measurement; oversight and monitoring; 

partnership development; sustainability; etc.

Narrative Field 2: Accomplishments and Challenges (required):

• What were your or your subgrantees’ primary accomplishments during the 

planning period?

• What challenges did you or your subgrantees encounter during the planning 

year, and how did you/they address these challenges?

Narrative Field 3: Other Narrative (required):

Please describe how you or your subgrantees are better prepared to submit a highquality application as a result of this planning grant. If you or any of your subgrantees 

do not plan to submit an application for an AmeriCorps program, please explain why 

not.

Click Next to go to the next tab.

Summary Tab

This tab provides a summary of the data entered in previous tabs. 

You can view or print all text and data entered into the PPR by clicking Print Overall 

GPR Summary. 

To print a visual summary similar to the summary screen, click, Print Grantee Report.

To comment on this summary, enter text in the Overall Grantee Note text box. 

(Please note: the Overall Grantee Note text box has a 3,980-character limit. Any text 

entered above the character limit will not be saved.)

Submitting the PPR

When all data have been entered into the progress report, go to the Summary tab 

and click the Grantee – Submit to AmeriCorps button.
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Reviewing Feedback and Responding to Clarification Items 

in the PPR

For each tab where data are entered, the AmeriCorps Portfolio Manager reviews data 

and determines whether clarification is necessary. If clarification is required, the 

Portfolio Manager checks the Clarification Required box on each tab that requires 

clarification and returns the PPR for rework.

The following text fields for feedback and clarification appear on all tabs where data 

are entered:

• Program Officer Feedback – May contain feedback from the AmeriCorps

Portfolio Manager. Grantees are not required to provide clarification regarding 

this feedback.

• Program Officer Clarification Items – Contains clarification items from the 

AmeriCorps Portfolio Manager. Grantees are required to respond to these 

clarification items.

• Grantee Clarification – Grantees use this text field to enter their responses to 

the clarification items that appear in the Program Officer Clarification Items 

field.

After responding to all clarification items, the grantee returns the report to 

AmeriCorps by clicking the Grantee – Submit to AmeriCorps button on the 

summary tab.

If the progress report does not require clarification or all clarification items have been 

satisfactorily addressed, the AmeriCorps Portfolio Manager will set the PPR status to 

Reviewed. The grantee will receive email notification and will be able to review all

feedback provided in the progress report when the report is in Reviewed status.