AmeriCorps 2023 State of the Evidence Report

Executive Summary

September 1, 2023

Scott Richman, Michelle Bennett, Katie Gleason
AmeriCorps 2023 State of the Evidence Executive 

Summary

September 1, 2023

Scott Richman, Michelle Bennett, Katie Gleason

Submitted to:

AmeriCorps

Office of Research and Evaluation

250 E Street, SW

Washington, DC 20525

Attention: Katy Hussey-Sloniker

Submitted by:

Mathematica

1100 First Street, NE, 12th Floor

Washington, DC 20002-4221

Phone: (202) 484-9220

Fax: (202) 863-1763

Citation

Richman, S., M. Bennett, and K. Gleason. “AmeriCorps 2023 State of the Evidence Report.” Mathematica, 

September 2023. 

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge several people who contributed to and supported this report funded by 

AmeriCorps. At AmeriCorps, Katy Hussey-Sloniker, Mary Hyde, Lily Zandniapour, Andrea Robles, Rosa 

Johnson and other staff within the AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation provided feedback that 

greatly enhanced this report. We appreciate their thoughtful insights into AmeriCorps programs and the 

evidence-building efforts the agency has undertaken. We also thank Mathematica study team members 

Kelsey Bagwill and Ryan Fiorito for their support in the preparations and logistics that helped this report 

come to fruition. In addition, Susan Vermeer Lopez provided valuable project leadership that supported 

this report’s development, and Linda Rosenberg provided critical technical review and feedback that 

greatly enhanced the report. Sheryl Friedlander helped prepare it, and Dale Anderson and Jennifer Brown 

provided editorial assistance.

Produced and published at U.S. taxpayer expense.
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Executive Summary

In the past decade, AmeriCorps,

1 its grantee organizations, and AmeriCorps Office of Research and 

Evaluation (ORE) research grant recipients have generated a wealth of evidence on AmeriCorps programs, 

interventions, civic engagement, and national service. In 2017, AmeriCorps ORE released the first State of 

the Evidence Report, which was one of the agency’s first large-scale efforts to synthesize a growing body 

of evidence across the various AmeriCorps funding programs and grants. That report used evidence 

obtained from October 2014 to June 2017.The purpose of this report is to synthesize key themes from 

studies produced by or for AmeriCorps from 2017 to 2022 with the goal of describing the state of the 

evidence where the agency seeks to make an impact.

This 2023 State of the Evidence report is based on the 

investments AmeriCorps regularly makes in evidence 

building through several avenues. The agency provides

funding and technical support to AmeriCorps State and 

National grantee organizations to conduct independent 

evaluations of their interventions. Other programs, such 

as AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps VISTA, and 

AmeriCorps Seniors, also generate evidence that aligns 

with the agency’s learning agenda. AmeriCorps ORE 

funds research grants, third-party evaluations, systematic 

reviews, and meta-synthesis analyses, and it also conducts its own research to generate credible and 

relevant evidence on AmeriCorps programs, successful interventions, and civic life in the United States. 

2017 State of the Evidence Report

The 2017 State of the Evidence Report is a 

precursor to the current report. The 2017 

report synthesizes the body of evidence 

produced by or for AmeriCorps from 2014 to 

2017. See the 2017 State of the Evidence 

Report for a discussion of AmeriCorps’ earlier 

evidence findings, which are not included in 

this 2023 State of the Evidence Report.

A. State of the Evidence framework and research questions 

In collaboration with ORE, Mathematica developed a State of the Evidence framework that defines where 

the agency seeks to build evidence in pursuit of its mission to “improve lives, strengthen communities, 

and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.” This framework guides how we approach

the evidence synthesis and the structure of this report.

The four domains in this framework represent where AmeriCorps seeks to make an impact through its 

investments in national service and volunteerism: participants, partners, communities, and society. Each 

domain also includes the specific research questions this report addresses:

• Participants are the individual AmeriCorps members and volunteers who join AmeriCorps to serve local 

communities through AmeriCorps programs.

What does AmeriCorps know about AmeriCorps participants? More specifically ... 

– What are the characteristics of participants who serve with AmeriCorps?

– What outcomes and impacts, if any, do AmeriCorps participants experience?

1 Prior to 2020, AmeriCorps operated as the Corporation for National and Community Service (or CNCS).
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• Partners are the AmeriCorps grantees and sponsoring organizations that receive AmeriCorps program 

funding to implement service projects in their local communities using AmeriCorps members and 

volunteers.

What does AmeriCorps know about AmeriCorps partners? More specifically ... 

– In what ways, if any, has AmeriCorps helped build the capacity of grantees and sponsor organizations 

to achieve their missions and better serve their communities? 

• Communities are the individuals, groups, and local areas that experience or receive services from 

AmeriCorps-funded grantees or sponsors delivered by AmeriCorps members and volunteers.

What does AmeriCorps know about communities served by AmeriCorps-funded grantees or 

sponsors and their members and volunteers? More specifically ... 

– What outcomes or impacts, if any, do communities served by AmeriCorps-funded grantees or 

sponsors and their members and volunteers experience? 

– What does the research say about investments in and scaling of effective interventions?

• Society represents national service, volunteering, and civic engagement in the United States more 

broadly.

What does AmeriCorps know about national service, volunteering, and civic engagement in 

society? More specifically ... 

– What are the societal rates of volunteerism, participation in national service, and civic engagement? 

How do these rates vary by demographic characteristics?

– What new insights has AmeriCorps-funded research generated to advance the field’s understanding 

of national service, volunteering, and civic engagement?

Mathematica began this synthesis by identifying a total of 116 studies eligible for review based on the 

AmeriCorps Evidence Exchange as the primary source for compiling studies reviewed for this document. 

Studies produced through AmeriCorps ORE research grants were compiled through the grantee profiles

published on the agency’s website or obtained directly from ORE. We then used this framework and a 

structured review process to extract key information from those 116 studies, including their design and 

key findings. See Appendix A for a full list of studies reviewed and Appendix B for the rubric used to 

review the studies in this report.

It is also important to know that this report is meant to capture the state of the evidence produced or 

supported by AmeriCorps during a specific timeframe (2017 to 2022). Evidence and knowledge building 

are ongoing processes, especially as the agency continues to generate new research. As a result, themes 

discussed within this report should be viewed as characterizing the evidence as it exists at the time of this 

report, with the understanding that the interpretation of that evidence can evolve as new evidence 

emerges. 
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B. Summary of key findings

Most of the reviewed studies (95 percent) were conducted by evaluators external to AmeriCorps, and the 

most common study designs used by AmeriCorps-funded evaluators facilitate drawing causal conclusions 

about intervention impacts (43 percent). In addition, the majority of studies (71 percent) focused on the 

AmeriCorps State and National program. Of the four domains in the framework, the majority of the 

reviewed studies provided evidence that focused on the communities served by AmeriCorps-funded 

grantees or sponsors and their members and volunteers (61 percent). 

1. The state of the evidence on AmeriCorps participants

We reviewed 16 studies (14 percent of 116 studies) that examined AmeriCorps participants’ characteristics 

and the benefits participants experience through serving or volunteering with AmeriCorps. Three studies 

showed how these members possess the cultural competency to work and interact with communities of 

people who are different from themselves and showed that they enter their service term with unique 

backgrounds and motivations to serve. The 14 studies that examined benefits to participants paint a 

mixed picture on how AmeriCorps members and volunteers benefit from their service or volunteer 

experience. Only five studies of those 14 studies used a quasi-experimental design (QED) or randomizedcontrol trial (RCT) design, and of these, only three found positive impacts on AmeriCorps members’ 

employment, education, and civic engagement (Anderson et al. 2019; Frazier et al. 2018; Hudson-Flege 

2018). Two of the 14 studies focused on AmeriCorps Seniors; they were a QED and a meta-synthesis of 

extant literature on the program, provided evidence on how AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers experienced 

improved physical and psychological well-being due to their service experience (Frazier et al. 2019; 

Georges et al. 2018).

2. The state of the evidence on AmeriCorps partners

We reviewed 10 studies (9 percent of 116 studies) that examined whether AmeriCorps helped build the 

capacity of partners—grantees and sponsor organizations—to achieve their missions and better serve 

their communities. Emerging themes from two grantees’ QED evaluations suggested that AmeriCorps 

partnerships can help grantees meet their project goals (McCreary et al. 2020; Viola et al. 2018). Other 

outcomes studies highlighted how AmeriCorps partners experienced increases in their capacity to better 

serve their communities. However, these studies did not include a comparison group in the study design, 

so it is difficult to attribute these promising outcomes to partners’ AmeriCorps involvement.

3. The state of the evidence of AmeriCorps on communities

We reviewed 71 studies (61 percent of 116 studies) that examined how communities and the individuals 

within them benefit from AmeriCorps-funded interventions, the value generated from investing in 

AmeriCorps-funded interventions, or how to scale interventions to increase the scope of their impact. 

Fifty-one of those studies explored impacts or outcomes associated with AmeriCorps-funded 

interventions, most of which were in AmeriCorps’ education focus area (31 studies); the other focus areas 

(disaster services, economic opportunity, environmental stewardship, healthy future, and veterans and 

military families) had eight or fewer studies.

Our review of 15 return on investment (ROI) and benefit-cost studies (two of which also examined

outcomes or impacts) highlighted how AmeriCorps-funded interventions across the six focus areas can 
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generate additional value that exceeds the initial investments necessary for implementing the 

interventions. An additional seven studies discussed important prerequisites to successfully scale an 

intervention. 

4. The state of the evidence of AmeriCorps on national service, volunteering, and civic 

engagement in society

We reviewed 25 studies (22 percent of 116 studies) that furthered evidence on national service, 

volunteering, and civic engagement in the United States. One descriptive study helped generate new 

insights on the civic health of society with regards to the levels of formal volunteering in the United States 

and the variations in individuals’ characteristics among volunteers (AmeriCorps Office of Research and 

Evaluation 2021). Another study also identified the importance of exploring the multifaceted nature of 

civic engagement and how trends can differ based on how civic engagement is measured (Weiss et al. 

2019). Nine studies also explored factors that may affect civic engagement among individuals. Eight 

studies highlighted how participatory research can be successful in engaging individuals in the strategy 

design and research processes to help address those individuals’ own or local community needs. Finally, 

five studies highlighted how organizational practices can influence how successful organizations are in 

engaging and maintaining volunteers to support their goals.

C. Implications of the findings

Based on this report’s findings, we propose the following recommendations that can help AmeriCorps and 

its evidence-building ecosystem, which includes AmeriCorps ORE, AmeriCorps program offices, and State 

Service Commissions, to further its evidence-building efforts. 

1. The state of the evidence on AmeriCorps participants

The findings from this report detail opportunities for AmeriCorps to strengthen its efforts to build 

evidence on AmeriCorps members and volunteers:

• Consider expanding efforts to analyze data on the characteristics of AmeriCorps members and 

volunteers who apply for and serve with AmeriCorps.

• Explore avenues for collecting data from AmeriCorps members and volunteers when entering and 

exiting the program to help generate new evidence in this domain. 

• Provide additional supports to grantee evaluators to support developing new evidence on AmeriCorps 

members.

2. The state of the evidence on AmeriCorps partners

Findings in this domain offer strategies for how AmeriCorps can gather additional evidence on its 

partners.

• Explore avenues for collecting data from AmeriCorps partners at the beginning and end of their grant 

period.

• Consider linking partner survey data with other data sources.

• Consider avenues for facilitating impact studies on AmeriCorps partners.
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3. The state of the evidence of AmeriCorps on communities 

Findings in this domain offer considerations for how AmeriCorps can continue to build evidence on 

AmeriCorps’ impact on communities.

• Consider what additional supports and trainings would help build evidence in focus areas that had 

fewer studies.

• Utilize meta-analytic approaches to further identify how AmeriCorps-funded interventions impact 

communities.

• Continue efforts in developing additional ROI studies and build grantee evaluator capacity to include 

these or other cost-related analyses in the evidence they produce.

4. The state of the evidence of AmeriCorps on national service, volunteering, and civic 

engagement in society

Findings in this domain identify approaches where AmeriCorps can grow and apply the evidence on 

building national service, volunteering, and civic engagement in society.

• Continue designing future rounds of AmeriCorps ORE research grant funding that prioritize specific 

topics of interests to programs, agencies, and the field to build more evidence in those areas.

• Explore ways to help partner organizations incorporate new evidence on national service, volunteering, 

and civic engagement into their own practices and identify opportunities for service and volunteering 

that do not currently exist. As new innovations occur, seek to identify opportunities to test new 

approaches with impact studies.