Sneak Preview: Alternatives to AmeriCorps Matching Requirements Sought

(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) Aiming to advance racial equity and ease the burdens for underserved communities when applying for federal financial assistance, the Corporation for National and Community Service, now operating as AmeriCorps, is seeking public comments on its grantee matching requirements.

The uniform guidance addresses cost sharing and matching for all federal awards in §200.306(b). When cost sharing is required, the eligibility section within a notice of funding opportunity may set a certain percentage or amount and clearly specify what types of cost sharing — such as cash, in-kind and/or third-party contributions — are allowed and address any restrictions (see ¶343 in the Federal Grants Development Module).

AmeriCorps Seniors and AmeriCorps State and National grant programs have match requirements, as established by Congress, as do the agency’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and the Volunteer Generation Fund programs. In accordance with Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, AmeriCorps, in a recent Federal Register notice, aims to gather public input on ways to make the matching requirements less onerous for underserved communities.

In particular, AmeriCorps requested responses to the following questions:

• What are the benefits, if any, of matching requirements?
• What evidence, if any, supports or does not support the use of matching requirements?
• What changes related to match requirements and alternative match schedules, if any, might be needed in order to: (1) encourage more applicants to apply; (2) make grantees more successful; and (3) allow applicants and grantees to reach underserved communities?
• What changes, if any, to the criteria or timing for alternative match and/or match waiver requests and approvals might: (1) encourage more applicants to apply; (2) make grantees more successful; and (3) allow applicants and grantees to reach underserved communities?
• What alternative approaches to the existing matching requirements would help meet the intended policy goals of community engagement and investment?

(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)

Join us for our following Thompson Grants event:
Federal Grants Forum | June 15-17, 2022 | Denver, Colo.