justification

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 0970-0401)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Investigation and Analysis of Assets for Independence (AFI) Program Application Barriers and Challenges

PURPOSE: To identify opportunities for improvement to the AFI program grant application process, the Office of Community Services (OCS) is gathering feedback about this process.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Respondents will include prospective and/or current grantees who meet the selection criteria for each of the segments that have been identified. The table below provides a summary of the segments that will be recruited and the pool size (i.e., population) available for recruitment.

Segment	Definition	Pool Size
Applicant organizations that have not received funding	Organizations that have submitted an application since September 2013 but were not funded; includes some former grantees whose initial grant periods had ended.	16
Prospects/non-applicant organizations	Organizations that reached out to the AFI Resource Center two or more times since September 2013 but never submitted an application.	348
AFI grantees who have drawn down over 80% of their current grant funds (A proxy for higher-capacity organizations)	Current grantees; Most recent Open-Active grant start date 2014 or after; Percentage of eligible grant funds drawn down >80%.	27
AFI grantees awarded <$100,000 in funding (A proxy for lower-capacity organizations)	Current grantees; Most recent Open-Active grant <$100,000; Most recent Open-Active grant start date 2014 or after; not included in segment 3.	18
AFI grantees who have been awarded funding more than one time (A proxy for higher-capacity organizations)	Current grantees; Multiple grants; Most recent Open-Active grant start date 2014 or after.	58
Organizations from segments 1-5 located in rural communities	Current grantees and prospects with mailing zip codes in an area with low population density (up to 1,000 people per square mile).	137, of which 30 are current grantees
Organizations from segments 1-5 located in urban communities	Current grantees and prospects with mailing zip codes in an area with high population density (more than 6,000 people per square mile).	77, of which 17 are current grantees
Executive Directors from segments 1-5	Includes individuals from organizations listed in Segments 1-5, for whom contact information exists in our databases for a person with any of the following titles: Associate/Assistant Executive Director, CEO, COO, Deputy Executive Director, Executive Director, Executive Vice President, President	135
Financial institutions	Financial institutions (credit unions, community banks, national banks) partnering with triad participants	Expected to be no more than 15
Funders	Funders (community foundations, government) partnering with triad participants	Expected to be no more than 15

For segments 1-7, the target participant is the individual from the organization who had the most contact with the AFI Resource Center while planning their AFI Application. Segment 8 will include Executive Directors from participating organizations, and segments 9-10 will involve leaders from financial institutions and funders that have worked closely with AFI Grantees.

After this initial data collection phase, follow-up conversations will be conducted to collect feedback on recommendations. In this follow-up phase, no more than nine participants will be contacted, thus they are not included in this request.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[] Focus Group [X ] Other: Triads and interviews

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name:____Gretchen Lehman________________

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [x] No

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No NA

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No NA

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [x] No

BURDEN HOURS

Table

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Segment 1	9	90 minutes	13.5 hours
Segment 2	9	90 minutes	13.5 hours
Segment 3	6	90 minutes	9 hours
Segment 4	6	90 minutes	9 hours
Segment 5	6	90 minutes	9 hours
Segment 6	6	90 minutes	9 hours
Segment 7	6	90 minutes	9 hours
Segment 8	4	60 minutes	4 hours
Segment 9	4	30 minutes	2 hours
Segment 10	4	30 minutes	2 hours
Totals			80 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost* to the Federal government is _$60,860______.

*This is a one-time cost.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [x] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

Recruitment for segments 1 – 8 will be conducted using existing databases of current AFI grantees and organizations that have contacted the AFI Resource Center. Potential participants in segments 9 and 10 will be requested through a snowball/referral sample from segment 1 – 8 participants. Outreach will be performed using email; therefore, our sample will be organizations that respond to the outreach emails and indicate they are willing to participate. All potential participants in the segment pool will be sent the outreach email.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[x] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [x] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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