AmeriCorps uses a multi-stage process, which may include review by panels of experts, AmeriCorps staff review, and approval by the Chief Executive Officer or the Board of Directors, or their designee.

The Board of Directors has general authority to determine the selection process, including priorities and selection criteria, and has authority to make grant decisions. The Board may delegate these functions to the Chief Executive Officer.

The selection process includes:

(a) Determining whether your proposal complies with the application requirements, such as deadlines and eligibility requirements;

(b) Applying the basic selection criteria to assess the quality of your proposal;

(c) Applying any applicable priorities or preferences, as stated in these regulations and in the applicable Notice of Funding Availability; and

(d) Ensuring innovation and geographic, demographic, and programmatic diversity across AmeriCorps' national AmeriCorps portfolio.

In evaluating your application for funding, AmeriCorps will assess:

(a) Your program design;

(b) Your organizational capability; and

(c) Your program's cost-effectiveness and budget adequacy.

In evaluating applications, AmeriCorps assigns the following weights for each category:

Following the scoring of proposals under § 2522.440 of this part, AmeriCorps will seek to ensure that its portfolio of approved programs includes a meaningful representation of proposals that address one or more of the following priorities:

(a) Program models: (1) Programs operated by community organizations, including faith-based organizations, or programs that support the efforts of community organizations, including faith-based organizations, to solve local problems;

(2) Lower-cost professional corps programs, as defined in paragraph (a)(3) of § 2522.110 of this chapter.

(b) Program activities: (1) Programs that serve or involve children and youth, including mentoring of disadvantaged youth and children of prisoners;

(2) Programs that address educational needs, including those that carry out literacy and tutoring activities generally, and those that focus on reading for children in the third grade or younger;

(3) Programs that focus on homeland security activities that support and promote public safety, public health, and preparedness for any emergency, natural or man-made (this includes programs that help to plan, equip, train, and practice the response capabilities of many different response units ready to mobilize without warning for any emergency);

(4) Programs that address issues relating to the environment;

(5) Programs that support independent living for seniors or individuals with disabilities;

(6) Programs that increase service and service-learning on higher education campuses in partnership with their surrounding communities;

(7) Programs that foster opportunities for Americans born in the post-World War II baby boom to serve and volunteer in their communities; and

(8) Programs that involve community-development by finding and using local resources, and the capacities, skills, and assets of lower-income people and their community, to rejuvenate their local economy, strengthen public and private investments in the community, and help rebuild civil society.

(c) Programs supporting distressed communities: Programs or projects that will be conducted in:

(1) A community designated as an empowerment zone or redevelopment area, targeted for special economic incentives, or otherwise identifiable as having high concentrations of low-income people;

(2) An area that is environmentally distressed, as demonstrated by Federal and State data;

(3) An area adversely affected by Federal actions related to managing Federal lands that result in significant regional job losses and economic dislocation;

(4) An area adversely affected by reductions in defense spending or the closure or realignment of military installation;

(5) An area that has an unemployment rate greater than the national average unemployment for the most recent 12 months for which State or Federal data are available;

(6) A rural community, as demonstrated by Federal and State data; or

(7) A severely economically distressed community, as demonstrated by Federal and State data.

(d) Other programs: Programs that meet any additional priorities as AmeriCorps determines and disseminates in advance of the selection process.

AmeriCorps posts discretionary funding opportunities addressing AmeriCorps' selection preferences and additional requirements on our website at www.nationalservice.gov and at www.grants.gov in advance of grant competitions

(a) AmeriCorps may give special consideration to a national service program submitted by a State commission that does not meet one of AmeriCorps' priorities if the State commission adequately explains why the State is not able to carry out a program that meets one of AmeriCorps' priorities, and why the program meets one of the State's priorities.

(b) A State may apply priorities different than those of AmeriCorps in selecting its formula programs.

(a) If you are a State commission applying for State competitive funding, you must prioritize the proposals you submit in rank order based on their relative quality and according to the following table:

(b) While the rankings you provide will not be determinative in the grant selection process, and AmeriCorps will not be bound by them, we will consider them in our selection process.

(a) AmeriCorps will seek to ensure that our portfolio of AmeriCorps programs is programmatically, demographically, and geographically diverse and includes innovative programs, and projects in rural, high poverty, and economically distressed areas.

(b) In applying the selection criteria under §§ 2522.420 through 2522.435, AmeriCorps may, with respect to a particular proposal, also consider one or more of the following for purposes of clarifying or verifying information in a proposal, including conducting due diligence to ensure an applicant's ability to manage Federal funds:

(1) For an applicant that has previously received an AmeriCorps grant, any information or records the applicant submitted to AmeriCorps, or that AmeriCorps has in its system of records, in connection with its previous grant (e.g. progress reports, site visit reports, financial status reports, audits, HHS Account Payment Data Reports, Federal Cash Transaction Reports, timeliness of past reporting, etc.);

(2) Program evaluations;

(3) Member-related information from AmeriCorps' systems;

(4) Other AmeriCorps internal information, including information from the Office of Inspector General, administrative standards for State commissions, and reports on program training and technical assistance;

(5) IRS Tax Form 990;

(6) An applicant organization's annual report;

(7) Information relating to the applicant's financial management from AmeriCorps records;

(8) Member satisfaction indicators;

(9) Publicly available information including:

(i) Socio-economic and demographic data, such as poverty rate, unemployment rate, labor force participation, and median household income;

(ii) Information on where an applicant and its activities fall on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's urban-rural continuum (Beale codes);

(iii) Information on the nonprofit and philanthropic community, such as charitable giving per capita;

(iv) Information from an applicant organization's website; and

(v) U.S. Department of Education data on Federal Work Study and Community Service; and

(10) Other information, following notice in the relevant Notice of Funding Availability, of the specific information and AmeriCorps' intention to be able to consider that information in the review process.

(c) Before approving a program grant to a State commission, AmeriCorps will consider a State commission's capacity to manage and monitor grants.

You must ensure that the selection criteria you use include the following criteria:

(a) The quality of the national service program proposed to be carried out directly by the applicant or supported by a grant from the applicant.

(b) The innovative aspects of the national service program, and the feasibility of replicating the program.

(c) The sustainability of the national service program.

(d) The quality of the leadership of the national service program, the past performance of the program, and the extent to which the program builds on existing programs.

(e) The extent to which participants of the national service program are recruited from among residents of the communities in which projects are to be conducted, and the extent to which participants and community residents are involved in the design, leadership, and operation of the program.

(f) The extent to which projects would be conducted in one of the areas listed in § 2522.450(c)(1) through (5) of this subpart.

(g) In the case of applicants other than States, the extent to which the application is consistent with the application of the State in which the projects would be conducted.

(h) Such other criteria as AmeriCorps considers to be appropriate, following appropriate notice.

Yes. Formula funds are not an entitlement.

(a) Notification. If AmeriCorps rejects an application submitted by a State Commission under part 2550 of this chapter for funds described in § 2521.30 of this chapter, AmeriCorps will promptly notify the State Commission of the reasons for the rejection of the application.

(b) Revision. AmeriCorps will provide a State Commission notified under paragraph (a) of this section with a reasonable opportunity to revise and resubmit the application. At the request of the State Commission, AmeriCorps will provide technical assistance to the State Commission as part of the resubmission process. AmeriCorps will promptly reconsider an application resubmitted under this paragraph.

(c) Redistribution. The amount of any State's allotment under § 2521.30(a) of this chapter for a fiscal year that AmeriCorps determines will not be provided for that fiscal year will be available for redistribution by AmeriCorps to the States, Territories and Indian Tribes with approved AmeriCorps applications as AmeriCorps deems appropriate.

If you are an AmeriCorps national and community service program, you calculate your AmeriCorps cost per MSY by dividing AmeriCorps' share of budgeted grant costs by the number of member service years you are awarded in your grant. You do not include child-care or the cost of the education award a member may earn through serving with your program.