AmeriCorps State and National Grants

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AmeriCorps awards grants to organizations to implement programs that utilize AmeriCorps members to engage in evidence-based or evidence-informed interventions to strengthen rural and urban communities.

For this funding round, AmeriCorps will prioritize projects with a focus on:

• Organizations serving communities with concentrated poverty, rural communities, tribal communities, and those 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, people with arrest and/or conviction records, and religious minorities
• Evidence-based interventions on the Evidence Exchange that are assessed as having moderate or strong evidence in improving outcomes for individuals living in underserved communities
• Veterans and military families, caregivers, and survivors
• Programs that provide additional benefits to AmeriCorps members aimed at enhancing member experience and bolstering member recruitment and retention such as paying more than the minimum living allowance, transportation, housing, food
• Programs that create workforce pathways for AmeriCorps members, including deliberate training, certifications, and hiring preferences or support
• Faith-based organizations
• Environmental stewardship
• Community-based programs that enhance and expand services to second chance youth and/or engage those youth as AmeriCorps members
• Programs that support civic bridgebuilding programs and projects to reduce polarization and community divisions
• Programs focused on implementing or expanding access to high-quality early learning and those that prepare AmeriCorps members to enter early learning careers

Entities eligible to apply include:

• Nonprofit organizations
• Institutions of higher education
• Local governments
• Tribes
• State service commissions
• States and territories

AmeriCorps encourages organizations that have never received AmeriCorps funding to apply.

AmeriCorps grants can be awarded on a cost reimbursement or fixed amount basis. See the application instructions for complete details and award amounts.

A first-time successful applicant is required to match 24% for the first 3-year funding period. Starting with year 4, the match requirement gradually increases every year to 50% by year 10. A table is provided in the application instructions.

Links to additional guidance and the application instructions are available on the program website.

Single-state applicant deadlines to State and Territory Commissions may be significantly before the federal deadlines, so prospective state applicants should contact the commission in the state or territory where they intend to apply as early as possible. A list of State Commission contacts is available on the program website.

Applicants in South Dakota, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands should apply directly to AmeriCorps. Potential applicants should contact americorpsgrants@cns.gov for additional guidance.