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The Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation) announces the opportunity for approximately $500,000 annually to fund one or more three-year cooperative agreements. Depending on the opportunity for future appropriations, the funding level for this agreement may increase significantly over the course of the award period to as high as approximately $3,000,000 annually. The award will be made to one or more entities depending on the expertise required.
The purpose of this grant is to fund training and technical assistance (“TTA”) in Training and Conference Management. The selected TTA provider(s) will support the Corporation in building the capacity of local programs and organizations that use service and volunteering to meet community needs, including service-learning. The Corporation sponsors conferences, meetings, workshops, pre-service orientations and training institutes for members, sponsoring agencies and grantees, and convenes practitioners on certain topics during the course of a year. The successful applicant will provide training and support for conferencing to the Corporation, its grantees and sub-grantees that operate programs funded by the Corporation through national service laws.
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Frequently
Asked
Questions:
What is the new deadline for submitting an application?
Monday, January 30, 2006
What is the best way to gauge and budget for estimated levels of conference planning and logistical support?
Applicants can use a combination of scenarios to develop their budgets for a 12 month period such as:
“AmeriCorps*VISTA will conduct a minimum of 50 regional events this fiscal year, in addition to a number of state-based workshops, often run concurrently, and needs travel and logistical support for approximately 7,000 VISTA participants and VISTA sponsors. The provider will contract with hotels or other training sites and arrange travel for VISTA participants and sponsors to attend Pre-Service Orientations, Sponsor Orientations and other designated training events (eg state-based in-service workshops). The provider will handle the travel costs of some of the attendees…”
"The Learn and Serve America grantee meeting brings together program specific constituents for updates on program changes and skill building. The Conference Provider will provide logistical, administrative and programmatic support for the meetings."
Develop a budget narrative justifying each line item and cost included in the budget. You must provide a full explanation that explains the item, its purpose, and shows how you calculated the cost. Organize the budget narrative in the same order as the budget form. Budgets should include:
SUPPORT EXPENSES
- Personnel Expenses – For each staff person charged to the project, enter in Col. 1 each person’s full-time equivalent (FTE) annual salary. (100% FTE is normally 40 hours/week. Thus, if an employee works half-time or 20 hours/wk for the project and is paid $10,000 from project funds, the FTE annual salary would be $20,000.) In Col. 2, enter the FTE percentage of time devoted to the project. (For example, if the employee works 10 hours per week for the project, you would enter 25%.
- Personnel Fringe Benefits – Cost of fringe benefits to which employees are entitled are calculated on the same percentage time indicated in Column 2, Section A for each individual.
- Project Staff Travel - Columns 4 and 5 can only include travel costs for staff listed in Section A who directly support grant activities described in the Project Narrative. In the Budget Narrative explain anticipated travel and the basis for cost calculations.
- Equipment – Provide narrative justification for costs of equipment. Include a list of items to be purchased in the Budget Narrative. Equipment is defined as tangible non-expendable personal property having a useful life of more than one year AND an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit.
- Supplies – Provide narrative justification for costs of supplies.
- Contractual and Consultant Services - Include all contractual services such as clerical support, training consultants, equipment repair and maintenance, or bookkeeping services.
- Other Support Costs – Include all other allowable operating costs not included in categories A-F, and describe in the Budget Narrative.
- Administration/Indirect Charges – Enter indirect charges, applicable to operating expenses. In the Narrative, describe the type of rate (provisional, predetermined, final or fixed) in effect during the funding period, estimated amount of the base to which the indirect rate was applied, and total indirect expense
Who should apply for this NOFO?
The Corporation is seeking organizations with the expertise in conferencing to deliver skill building workshops on conferencing and the capacity to provide conference support services to help the Corporation for National and Community Service convene meetings of grantees and help develop the agenda and provide logistics support. If your organization has expertise in conference management and logistics and you think you might be able to help the Corporation with our conferences and meetings then please go to our website at http://www.nationalservice.gov/ and click on funding opportunities and you can read the entire NOFO. Should you have other questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me back
Why do the application instructions say 2005?
The Corporation grant application process must use application instructions approved by the Office of Management and Budget. This Notice of Funding Opportunity was approved as part of the 2005 application instruction package and is therefore required to use that application. However, any changes or updates needed were incorporated into the NOFO document. Therefore, the instructions in the NOFO document superseded those written in the application instructions. .
I am having trouble submitting my application in eGrants, who can help me?
You should first contact the eGrants Help Desk immediately if a problem arises while you are creating your account, preparing, or submitting your application. The eGrants help desk can be reached at 888-677-7849 or email at egrantshelp@cns.gov. In the event of prolonged unavailability of the eGrants system on the date of submission, the Corporation reserves the right to extend the eGrants submission deadline. A notice will be placed in eGrants and on our website, notifying all users of the extended deadline. In this case, applicants would need to submit applications via eGrants by the new deadline. If you are unable to submit your application using eGrants a paper application along with a diskette or CD Rom with an exact duplicate of your application must be received at the Corporation for National and Community Service, 1201 New York Avenue, NW, Attn: TTA NOFO, Washington, DC 20525 by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, January 25, 2006. If there are differences between the paper application and the diskette/CD Rom, we will use the diskette/CD Rom version.
There is also an Agency contact for electronic access problems.
Agency Contact:
James Willie
Grant Review & Policy Specialist
jwillie@cns.gov |
Forms
