CEO Message on the President’s FY 2011 Budget Request

Dear Colleagues:

Today President Obama is sending his Fiscal Year 2011 budget request to Congress, including proposed funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service and its programs. You can read the complete budget request now on our budget page and some highlights are below.

The Corporation’s FY 2011 budget request of $1.4 billion will strengthen our nation’s volunteer sector, foster innovation and civic engagement, and mobilize more than six million Americans to solve critical problems through national service.

The service participants supported by this budget will improve the lives of tens of millions of our most vulnerable citizens -- reducing the number of high school dropouts, expanding economic opportunity, increasing energy efficiency, mentoring at-risk youth, combating hunger and homelessness, providing health services, caring for veterans, supporting independent living, and responding to disasters.

The request comes at a critical moment of both need and opportunity for national service. The economic downturn continues to cause hardship for millions of Americans, and many nonprofits face increased demands with declining resources. But in these tough times, there is strong momentum for citizen service – volunteering is on the rise, AmeriCorps applications have skyrocketed, and technology is providing new ways for citizens to engage and connect. The Corporation’s programs alone engaged more than 5.5 million Americans in service last fiscal year, the largest total in our history.

This request makes clear that national service continues to be a high priority for President Obama. More broadly, it represents increasing national consensus among elected officials, business and nonprofit leaders, and ordinary Americans that service that service isn’t secondary or separate from achieving national priorities; it’s essential to achieving them. The growing momentum for service is due in large part to the work you do everyday, and we thank you for your continuing commitment and dedication.

The release of the budget marks the first step in a long budget process. Later this spring we will have discussions with Congressional appropriators in the House and Senate, followed by the legislative appropriations process, including committee mark-ups, floor consideration, conference committees, and final passage. We will continue to provide you with updates as the budget moves through Congress.

Nicola Goren
Acting CEO
Corporation for National and Community Service

Highlights of President’s 2011 Budget Request for National Service

Expanding Opportunities for Americans to Serve

At a time of growing social need and increasing desire by Americans to serve, this budget will support an expansion of high impact service for seniors, students, and Americans of all ages and backgrounds by:

• Expanding AmeriCorps to approximately 105,000 members, who in turn will leverage an additional three million community volunteers for the organizations they serve.
      
• Investing in Senior Corps to harness the skills of 500,000 older Americans to serve at-risk youth, provide care to frail elderly, and help more than 60,000 nonprofit groups and agencies expand their reach and impact.
      
• Increasing support for Learn and Serve America to engage 1.6 million students in service-learning, continuing the Summer of Service, and increasing the number of disadvantaged youth participating.

Strengthening America’s Volunteer Sector

This budget will foster higher levels of innovation and impact in the nation’s volunteer and nonprofit sector by:

• Increasing support for the Social Innovation Fund to $60 million in the second year to continue investing in innovative solutions to pressing social problems.
      
• Strengthening the nation’s volunteer infrastructure with $10 million for the Volunteer Generation Fund.
      
• Increasing funding for state service commissions to build their capacity to manage growth.
      
• Expanding the training and technical assistance we offer to grantees to help them measure performance, manage growth, maintain financial accountability, and transfer knowledge about what works.

Increasing Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance

The budget makes a number of investments to strengthen management, information technology, and performance measurement including:

• Expanding the Corporation’s ability to measure performance through standardized performance metrics as called for by the Serve America Act.
      
• Supporting several major enhancements to IT infrastructure including modernization of the Corporation’s grants and financial management systems and other upgrades in hardware, network capacity, and systems.
      
• Allow the Corporation to move forward on other Serve America Act provisions that increase efficiency, including consolidated application and reporting procedures, streamlined grantmaking, and the flexibility to provide comprehensive training across all of our programs.