Senior Corps Grant Application Supporting Statement

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1. Justification

A.1 Need for Information Collection

The Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation or CNCS) awards grants to states, institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, Indian tribes, and U.S. Territories to operate AmeriCorps State, AmeriCorps National, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps VISTA, and Senior Corps programs. This information collection comprises the questions applicants answer to apply to be a Senior Corps sponsor organization for RSVP, the Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), and the Senior Companion Program (SCP).

The information collection will realign the application for RSVP Re-competition. In addition, the information collection will divide the application into two separate sets of instructions; one for RSVP and another for both FGP and SCP.

The application revision will also support the implementation of the Corporation’s agency-wide Performance Measures. A standard set of agency-wide Performance Measures has been submitted for OMB clearance. Implementation of the agency-wide Performance Measures will streamline information collection for applicants by allowing them to select from a specific list of measures instead of writing unique measures for each application.

It is requested that the new expiration date be three years from the clearance date for this information collection revision.

A.2 Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used.

Applicants respond to the questions included in these instructions in order to apply to be a sponsor for RSVP, FGP, or SCP. In addition, sponsoring organizations applying for year two or three of a three-year project period use these instructions as a guide to make any necessary updates to their applications.

A.3 Minimize Burden: Use of Improved Technology to Reduce Burden

The Corporation will be eliciting and accepting grantee’s responses to these questions electronically via eGrants, the Corporation’s secure online grants management system.

A.4 Non-Duplication

There are no other sources of information by which CNCS can meet the purposes described in A.2 (above).

A.5 Minimizing for economic burden for small businesses or other small entities.

This collection of information does not impact small businesses because they are not eligible to serve as grantees or as placement sites for the volunteers. There is no economic burden to any other small entities beyond the cost of staff time to collect and report the data. This is minimized to the degree possible by only asking for the information absolutely necessary to measure progress towards CNCS’ strategic initiative benchmarks.

A.6 Consequences of the collection, if not conducted, conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.

CNCS will be unable to collect, analyze and report on the performance measures for RSVP, FGP, and SCP without approval of this collection. Without these results, CNCS will not have a mechanism to substantiate the return on federal investment or to report key benchmarks included in the CNCS Strategic Plan. In addition, CNCS will not have the information necessary from applicant organizations to conduct a thorough grant application review and grantee selection process without this information collection.

A.7 Special circumstances that would cause information collection to be collected in a manner requiring respondents to report more often than quarterly; report in fewer than 30 days after receipt of the request, submit more than an original and two copies; retain records for more than three years; and other ways specified in the Instructions focused on statistical methods, confidentiality, and proprietary trade secrets.

There are no special circumstances that would require the collection of information in any other ways specified.

A.8 Provide copy and identify the date and page number of the publication in the Federal Register of the Agency’s notice. Summarize the comments received and the actions taken in response to comments. Specifically address comments received on cost and hour burden.

The 60-day Notice soliciting comments was published on March 20, 2012 on page 16213. No public comments were received.

A.9 Payment to Respondents

There are no payments or gifts to respondents.

A.10 Assurance of Confidentiality and its basis in statute, regulation, or agency policy.

The information requested on the Senior Corps Grant Application is collected pursuant to 42 U.S.C 12592 and 12615 of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 as amended, and 42 U.S.C. 4953 of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 as amended. Purposes and Uses - The information requested is collected for the purposes of reviewing grant applications and granting funding requests. Routine Uses - Routine uses may include disclosure of the information to federal, state, or local agencies pursuant to lawfully authorized requests. In some programs, the information may also be provided to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to determine the existence of any prior criminal convictions. The information may also be provided to appropriate federal agencies and Department contractors that have a need to know the information for the purpose of assisting the Department’s efforts to respond to a suspected or confirmed breach of the security or confidentiality or information maintained in this system of records, and the information disclosed is relevant and unnecessary for the assistance. The information will not otherwise be disclosed to entities outside of the Corporation for National and Community Service without prior written permission. Effects of Nondisclosure - The information requested is mandatory in order to receive benefits.

A.11 Sensitive Questions

The information collection does not include questions of a sensitive nature.

A.12 Hour burden of the collection

The total hour collection burden is estimated at 7,590 hours. This estimate is based on the following:

Total Respondents:

FGP: 335.

SCP: 228.

RSVP incumbents: 735.

New RSVP applicants: 220

Frequency: Once each year.

Average Time per Response:

5 hours each

A.13 Cost burden to the respondent

Not applicable.

A.14 Cost to Government

There are no additional costs to the Government.

A.15 Reasons for program changes or adjustments in burden or cost.

The 60-day Federal Register Notice estimated the hour burden at 16.5 hours per applicant. The burden is now estimated at 5 hours per applicant. The decrease in burden is due to technology enhancements related to the eGrants Performance Measures module and Performance Measure requirements to reduce the number of total work plans for each applicant. This change adjusted the total hour burden from 17,820 hours to 7,590 hours. The adjusted burden is indicated in the 30-day Federal Register Notice.

A.16 Publication of results

The Executive Summaries for RSVP continuation applications and FGP and SCP applications will be posted to the CNCS website. In the interest of open government and transparency in grant making, the following information pertaining to competitive applications will be published on the CNCS website within a period not to exceed 90 business days after all grants are awarded: list of all compliant applications submitted, Executive Summaries of all compliant applications submitted, and SF424 Facesheet and Program Narrative for successful applications.

A.17 Explain the reason for seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection.

Not applicable.

A.18 Exceptions to the certification statement.

There are no exceptions to the certification statement in the submitted ROCIS form.