Office of the Director
AmeriCorps*State and National
Each year, the Corporation allocates AmeriCorps funds to cover the costs of childcare for AmeriCorps members who qualify for the subsidy. The Corporation recently determined that we will not need all of the budgeted childcare funding for this fiscal year and can re-allocate the unneeded funds to the Formula and Competitive allotments. The attached chart shows revised allocations to each state for 2006 Formula funds, adding additional funds from this re-allotment of childcare funds.
We realize that it will be difficult at this point in the grant cycle for commissions to make revisions to plans. Therefore, we want to provide as much flexibility as possible to you. You have several options for using these additional funds:
- Request the additional funds in your August 1 submission of your Formula application. You may also request additional MSYs for these funds. There is no limit to the number of MSYs you can request.
- If you have already submitted your Formula application, you may request an amendment to add funds and MSYs by August 14, 2006.
- Relinquish the funds to the Corporation to re-allocate to other states as described in the memo sent last week.
- Submit a plan to allocate the funds to programs in the current 2006 grant cycle. Deadline for the plan is August 14, 2006.
- If you have already submitted a request for additional MSYs to the Corporation, you may revise your request to include these funds as well.
Please contact your Program and Grants Officer via e-mail by August 1st to let them know which option you choose. If you choose Option #4 and you cannot identify the specific programs that you intend to fund by August 14th, you must submit a plan for how the funds will be disseminated. Your plan must include a commitment to identify all programs in your state to receive the additional formula funding by October 31, 2006 and criteria to ensure that funds are disseminated to programs with strong capacity to fully use the additional resources.
Please remember that the additional funds are granted on the basis of a year-to-year re-allocation. There is no guarantee that funds will be available for funding a second or third year. Therefore, we caution you in requesting additional funding and MSYs to take into consideration the long-term sustainability of the programs and service provided by the members. Also, with these additional funds, you must stay within the limits on cost per member service year, a maximum average of $12,600 across your formula, competitive and education award program grants.