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2024 |

AmeriCorps Seniors

FY2024 Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion Replacement and Expansion Opportunities

Office Hours: Budget Q&A

Jan-24 3
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Agenda

• Important Dates & Contact Information

• Primary Focus Area & Funding Priorities

• Budget Overview

• Q&A

• Pre-Submitted

• Open Forum

Jan-24 4
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Poll #1

Question 2: 

Have you accessed the training and 

technical assistance resources and 

webinars on the funding opportunity 

webpage? 

Jan-24 5

Question 1: 

Did you attend any of our live applicant 

training and technical assistance 

webinars? Please select all that apply. 

• AmeriCorps Seniors in Action: 

Mobilizing a Generation

• Identifying Funding Priority Areas in 

Your Community

• Tour of the Notice of Funding 

Opportunity – Selection Criteria 

Review

• National Performance Measures and 

Work Plans

• I did not attend any other live events
Poll #2:

How confident do you feel in your current level of expertise related to 

today’s primary topic: Budgets?

5- Very Confident

4- Confident

3- Neutral/Not sure

2- Not confident

1- Very not confident

Jan-24 6
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Important Dates

Applications are 

due no later than 

Thursday, February 

1, 2024, by 5:00 p.m. 

Eastern Time.

Successful 

applicants will be 

notified by 

April 2024.

Successful 

applicants will be 

issued awards by 

June 2024.

Jan-24 7
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Late Application Process

See section D.4.c in the Notice.

Applications submitted after February 1, 2024, at 5:00 pm ET will not be 

accepted.

Unless:

• The applicant provides written explanation or justification and any other 

evidence that substantiates the claimed extenuating circumstance(s)

◦ Via email to FGPSCPReplacement@cns.gov

◦ No later than 24 hours after the application deadline as stated in the 

Notice

◦ Early requests for an extension will not be approved

Jan-24 8
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Contact Information

For questions related to this funding opportunity, contact 

FGPSCPReplacement@americorps.gov.

For details on this opportunity and to see other opportunities available 

through AmeriCorps, visit the AmeriCorps Funding Opportunities website.

Jan-24 9
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Funding Priorities and Primary 

Focus Areas 

Jan-24 10
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Current Funding Opportunity Primary Focus Areas

• Education

• Provide or facilitate access to 

services and resources that 

contribute to improved 

educational outcomes for 

economically disadvantaged 

people

Foster Grandparent Program

• Healthy Futures

• Provide support and resources to 

help older adults live 

independently and provide 

support and respite to caregivers 

of older adults

Senior Companion Program

Jan-24 11

Primary Focus Areas and Funding Priorities
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Funding Priorities

Primary Focus Areas and Funding Priorities

Jan-24 12

• Organizations leading service in communities with concentrated poverty, rural 

communities, tribal communities, and those organizations serving historically 

underrepresented and underserved individuals, including but not limited to 

communities of color, immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, people 

who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and religious minorities.

• Projects that propose to serve states listed in Appendix A: Priority States and 

Territories.

• Organizations that serve people with arrest and conviction records and provide 

meaningful reentry opportunities.

• Programs that support civic bridgebuilding projects (meaning projects that foster 

respect among diverse communities, strengthen relationships across lines of 

difference, forge a sense of common civic purpose, and seek to solve a 

community program and diminish polarization) and provide training in civic 

bridgebuilding skills and techniques to AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers.
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Appendix A: Priority States and Territories

Jan-24 13

Primary Focus Areas and Funding Priorities

AS GU MP PR VI

U.S. Territories

*Applicants are not limited 

to this list of states and 

territories to apply for, but 

AmeriCorps Seniors is 

prioritizing projects that 

designate counties in these 

states and territories due to 

relinquishments.

*Applicants can apply for 

one or more counties.
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Foster Grandparent Program Funding Priorities

• Programs focused on early learning and those that prepare AmeriCorps 

Seniors volunteers to enter early learning careers.

• Efforts to help local communities continue to recover from the COVID-19 

Pandemic through focused education efforts to address learning loss.

Primary Focus Areas and Funding Priorities

Jan-24 14
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Senior Companion Program Funding Priorities

Projects that propose to raise public awareness about the challenges and needs of family 

caregivers and the role of older adult volunteers. Innovative service projects that can be 

executed by older adults will be given priority consideration. These projects can include 

those that: 

• Advance partnerships that promote greater engagement for older adult support for 

family caregivers. 

• Optimize well-being of family caregivers by strengthening services and supports, i.e., 

services to help caregivers manage their own health/emotions/physical stress, 

helping to find and secure other trustworthy/affordable services or supports, and 

those that prevent caregiver isolation. 

• Develop volunteer roles that integrate older adults as volunteers who serve as part of 

a care coordination for clients and ongoing support for family and other caregivers. 

• Develop interventions where elders can support caregivers in tribal communities. 

• Spur innovations that engage older adults in intergenerational activities that help 

increase access to information and services for caregivers. 

Primary Focus Areas and Funding Priorities

Jan-24 15
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Jan-24 16

Budget Overview
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Budget Functions

An approved budget is part of the grantee’s 

contractual obligation and:

• A financial guide

• Helpful to ensure compliance 

• A tool for measuring progress and funds 

management

Jan-24 17
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Budget Basics

• Realistic

• Consistent 

• Flexible

• Realistic scope

• Appropriate detail 

• Competitive proposal

• Compliance

• Effective delivery

Jan-24 18
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Budget Narrative Development

• Follow instructions in Notice of Funding Opportunity

• Include allowable, reasonable, necessary, and allocable 

costs, as defined by 2 CFR 200

https://ecfr.federalregister.gov

• Estimate resources needed to achieve program goals

• Organize narrative to fit budget categories

• Provide adequate descriptions

• Check your math

Jan-24 19
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Unallowable Costs

Examples:

• Lobbying

• Entertainment and alcohol 

• Expenses not tied to program objectives

• Costs that constitute waste, fraud, and abuse

• Unreasonable from “prudent person” perspective

• Costs with no logical basis

Jan-24 20
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10% of total project costs

Minimum Match Requirement (Grantee Share)

Example

AmeriCorps Grantee Total Budget

Total project costs $90,000 $10,000 $100,000

Jan-24 21
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Matching Resources

• Necessary

• Reasonable

• Allowable

• Allocable

• Not paid by other 

Federal awards

• Compliant

• Documented

https://americorps.gov/grantees-sponsors/manage-your-grant

Jan-24 22
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Budget Structure

Separated by major categories and 

divided into AmeriCorps* and Grantee shares

I. Volunteer Support Expenses II. Volunteer Expenses

Examples:

 Project staff personnel expenses and 

fringe benefits

 Project staff travel

 Equipment and supplies

 Contractual and consultant services

 Project staff Criminal History Checks

 Indirect costs

Examples:

 Volunteer meals

 Volunteer uniforms

 Volunteer insurance

 Volunteer recognition

 Volunteer travel 

* Note that eGrants identifies the AmeriCorps share as “CNCS Share”

Jan-24 23
Budgeting Tips

• Meet AmeriCorps Seniors cost guidelines

• Required expenses (e.g., Annual Convening, National 

Service Criminal History Check (NSCHC)) 

• Detailed Source of Funds equal to budgeted match

• Adequate and accurate calculations and explanations

• Allowable costs only 

• Align with stated program goals

Jan-24 24
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Budget Questions

Jan-24 25
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How does the funding work? Are we requesting an amount to cover the 

number of volunteers we want, or are we requesting that amount to cover 

the volunteers and then additional funds for the grant will be to implement 

the program?

Applicants are to propose budgets to meet the program needs and 

requirements.

See Grant Application Instructions for guidance on completing the Budget 

Section 1 and Section 2 of eGrants. See Fiscal Year 2024 AmeriCorps Seniors 

FGP/SCP sample budget narrative.

Budget Question #1

Jan-24 26
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Please confirm, when completing the budget, we should only propose cost 

for 1 year even though we would like consideration for multi-year funding?

AmeriCorps anticipates making three-year grant awards. AmeriCorps 

generally makes an initial award for the first year of the period of 

performance, based on a one-year budget. 

Continuation awards for subsequent years are not guaranteed; they 

depend upon availability of appropriations and satisfactory performance. 

For fully funded awards (those who have received more than one year of 

funding), those funds are guaranteed.

Budget Question #2

Jan-24 27
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How do stipends generally work? Are AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers paid 

per hour?

• Yes, AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers are paid based on their hours of service, 

which includes time spent with clients, training and orientation, etc. 

• AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers who meet eligibility guidelines and serve 5 to 40 

hours for FGP/SCP receive an hourly stipend. To be enrolled and receive a 

stipend, an AmeriCorps Seniors volunteer cannot have an annual income, from 

all sources, deducting allowable medical expenses, that exceeds the income 

eligibility guideline for the state in which he or she resides.

• Current income eligibility levels – including high costs areas – are posted on the 

AmeriCorps Seniors SCP/FGP grantees website; or are available by contacting 

the appropriate portfolio manager.

Budget Question #3

Jan-24 28
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Do the stipends run through the organizations paying system? AmeriCorps 

doesn't provide the stipend payroll system, right?

Correct. AmeriCorps doesn’t provide the stipend payroll system. If 

awarded, the grantee will be responsible for having systems in place to 

issue stipends to volunteers.

Budget Question #4

Jan-24 29
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Can you use more of the $9,000 to increase the stipend to the volunteer?

For these opportunities, the stipend is set at $4 per hour. All qualified 

volunteers must be paid at $4 per hour.

Budget Question #5

Jan-24 30
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Can you budget for mileage reimbursement for volunteers?

Budget Question #6

Jan-24 31

Volunteer Travel is an allowable 

cost in Section II.B. 

- Appropriate justified

- Costs are reasonable, 

necessary, allocable, and 

correctly calculated

- Detailed description aligns to 

program narrative
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Please enter your questions 

into the Q&A box.

Questions?

Use the Q&A to ask your questions.

Jan-24 32
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Notice of Funding Opportunity and Appendices

33

Jan-24 33

Resources available on the Funding Opportunity Page.

Key information related to the program’s description, federal award, 

eligibility, application and submission, and application review. 

Read this first. 

Notice of Funding 

Opportunity

Lists states and territories where AmeriCorps Seniors is prioritizing projects. 

Applicants are not limited to this list of states and territories. Applicants can 

apply for one or more counties in a state. 

Appendix A: Priority States 

and Territories

Guidance for performance measures selection, output and outcome 

pairings, and required information for Work Plan in eGrants. 

Appendix B: National 

Performance Measure 

Instructions

Defines terms most used by AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors. 

Appendix C: Terms and 

Definitions

Step-by-step guidance for submitting your application in eGrants

Appendix D: Grant 

Application Instructions

Resource to help applicants determine a minimum number of volunteer 

service years (VSY) for a funding request. 

Appendix E: Cost Per 

Volunteer Calculator
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Applicant Training and Technical Assistance

Jan-24 34

General 

Information

• AmeriCorps 

Seniors in Action: 

Mobilizing a 

Generation

• Introducing 

AmeriCorps, 

AmeriCorps 

Seniors, and Its 

Programs

• Identifying 

Funding Priority 

Areas in Your 

Community

Notice of Funding 

Opportunity

• Tour of the Notice 

of Funding

• Tour of the Notice 

of Funding 

Opportunity –

Selection Criteria 

Review

Performance 

Measures and 

Work Plans

• National 

Performance 

Measures 

Curriculum

• National 

Performance 

Measures and 

Work Plans

• Office Hours: 

General and 

Performance 

Measurement 

Q&A

Budgets

• Best Practices in 

Budget 

Development

• Office Hours: 

Budget Q&A

Applications

• Submitting Your 

Application in 

eGrants

• AmeriCorps Due 

Diligence Review 

and Compliance 

Training

Event recording and presentations available at on the Funding Opportunity Page.

January 18, 2024

Foster Grandparent Program, 2:00 p.m. ET. 

Senior Companion Program, 3:30p.m. ET.
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Poll #3

Having attended today’s webinar, how 

confident do you feel in your current level of 

knowledge relating to Budgets?

5- Much more confident

4- More confident

3- Neutral/Not sure

2- Less confident

1- Much less confident

Jan-24 35
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Thank you for your interest in 

AmeriCorps Seniors funding 

opportunities. 

Jan-24 36