This Notice of Funding Availability (Notice) announces the availability of funding for fiscal year 2011 awards for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service 2012. The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) provides grants to organizations to plan and carry out projects that bring Americans together to serve in their communities in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is administered by CNCS, whose mission is to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.
As the nation’s largest grantmaker for service and volunteering, CNCS plays a critical role in building the capacity of America's nonprofit sector and expanding the reach and impact of volunteers in addressing pressing community challenges. Last fiscal year, CNCS engaged an estimated 5.5 million Americans in service, the largest total in its history. CNCS’s core programs are AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and Senior Corps.
For this Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service Notice of Federal Funding Availability, CNCS will award grants and work with organizations referred to as “Intermediaries” in this Notice. CNCS especially seeks multi-state, national (10 or more states) or comprehensive regional initiatives (a minimum of ten projects in a multi-state region – for example, the Corporation’s clusters).
Grantees must competitively subgrant a portion of the federal funds to eligible organizations to plan and carry out direct service activities on the 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday weekend. Activities in your portfolio maybe part of a continuum of year-round service and contribute to advancing overall programmatic impact and organizational capacity.
In alignment with CNCS Strategic Plan, applicants are encouraged to identify potential subgrantees that focus on CNCS’ strategic areas: Education, Healthy Futures, Environmental Stewardship, Veterans and Military Families, Economic Opportunity, and Disaster Services. Service emphasis should be focused in the above listed areas as follows:
- Education: Improve graduation rates for students and improve grade-level performance.
- Healthy Futures: Improve the health and wellness of individuals in the areas of obesity prevention, aging in place and access to health services.
- Environmental Stewardship: Reduce consumption of fossil fuels.
- Veterans and Military Families: Increase economic, education and health opportunities for veterans and military families by leveraging national service, including engaging Veterans and Military Families in activities reflecting the life and teachings of Dr. King
- Economic Opportunity: Improve financial stability, access to affordable housing and employment opportunities for economically vulnerable families.
- Disaster Services: Increase capacity of communities to serve vulnerable populations in the event of a disaster and improve communities in disaster-affected areas.
In the Martin Luther King Jr. competition this year, special consideration will be given to applicants proposing to support and engage Veterans and Military Families in activities reflecting the life and teachings of Dr. King.
CNCS embraces the Obama Administration’s emphasis on open government and is moving toward greater openness and transparency in grant making. This notice includes a description of the review and selection process. In addition, the following information pertaining to this competition will be published on CNCS’ website at (https://nationalservice.gov/about/open/grants.asp), within a period not to exceed 90 business days after all grants are awarded. That information will include:
- A list of all compliant applications submitted.
- Executive summaries of all compliant applications prepared by the applicants as part of the application.
- Copies of the SF424 and Program Narrative submitted by applicants.
All grantees of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service grants will be required to release, at a minimum, the following information about their subgrantee competitions:
- A description of the subgrantee selection process.
- Names of external reviewers.
- For all applicants awarded subgrants, a detailed profile of the organization and the application and/or description of proposed programs that formed the basis of the award.
Original Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) has been amended