250 E Street SW

Washington, D.C. 20525

202-606-5000 / 800-942-2677

202-606-5000 / 800-942-2677

Date: March 2023

Dear ARP Volunteer Generation Fund grantees,

Welcome to the start of your grant period and, for some of you, welcome to AmeriCorps! We 

hope your VGF projects have gotten off to a great start this month and look forward to 

hearing about your accomplishments in the coming months.

As you may know, VGF is now housed under the new Volunteer Initiatives program office, 

which oversees AmeriCorps VGF and Days of Service grants. Our program staff consists of 

Emily Stock, who started as Project Manager for Volunteer Initiatives in May, and Zoe 

Goldenberg-Hart, who started in January as Volunteer Initiatives Grant Specialist. You can 

expect to see more communications from our office over the course of your grant with 

resources and programmatic support, and we look forward to working in partnership with 

you. By now you should also be acquainted with the Office of Regional Operations staff 

supporting your grant; please direct all questions throughout your project to your Portfolio 

Manager.

Program updates:

• As you continue to launch your VGF project, please make use of the VGF New 

Grantee Checklist attached to this message. The checklist is meant to guide you 

through the steps of setting up your project for grant compliance and includes links to 

other useful resources and eCourses that may help direct you.

• Please note that the Grantees & Sponsors resources page on the AmeriCorps website 

does not currently have a page for VGF. We are working to launch one in the next few 

months that will serve as a hub for resources specific to your VGF project. We will 

notify you once the page is up and running; in the meantime, refer to the Manage 

Your Grant page for general resources or contact your Portfolio Manager for specific 

guidance.

• VGF grantees were invited in February to attend a virtual briefing on the National 

Partnership for Student Success (NPSS). The session recording is available online, and 

slides from the presentation are attached to this email. Grantees supporting NPSSrelated activities are encouraged to seek technical assistance through the NPSS Hub 

or become NPSS supporting champions.

• As your project progresses, we want to hear the inspiring stories that come out of it! 

The reach of VGF goes far beyond what can be captured quantitatively, and we are 

always looking for stories that showcase the broad impact of VGF projects. Stories can 

include short narratives, photographs, news articles, or anything else you would like to 

share. Submit stories from your VGF projects throughout your grant to 

VolunteerGeneration@cns.gov.
 2

250 E Street SW

Washington, D.C. 20525

202-606-5000 / 800-942-2677

202-606-5000 / 800-942-2677

Agency updates:

• We encourage you to check out the Volunteering and Civic Life in America research

put out by the AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation in January of this year. 

The office kicked off a four-part webinar series called Reigniting Civic Life in March 

with the session “What is Civic Engagement? Exploring New Paradigms.” Register 

here for the second session, “Community-Based Research as a Vehicle for Civic 

Engagement and Community Impact,” on Wednesday, April 26, 3:30-4:45 p.m. ET.

• You should have received a memorandum on March 10 from our Office of Grants 

Administration notifying you of the elimination of the Payment Management System 

(PMS) Federal Financial Report (FFR)/Federal Cash Transaction Report (FCTR) 

quarterly filing requirement. As a reminder, you will still have to file an FFR/FCTR 

covering the period from January 1 to March 31 no later than April 30. That will be 

the last FFR/FCTR you are required to file in PMS.

We look forward to celebrating your successes throughout this grant and to working in 

partnership with you all!

In service,

Emily Stock, Project Manager for Volunteer Initiatives

Zoe Goldenberg-Hart, Volunteer Initiatives Grant Specialist