20211006 Vgf Ssb

Submitted to:
AmeriCorps
250 E. St., SW

Washington, DC 20024

Submitted by:
ICF Incorporated, LLC

9300 Lee Highway

Fairfax, VA 22031
https://www.icf.com

May 3, 2021

Supporting Statement for Paperwork
Reduction Act Submissions

Volunteer Generation Fund Bundled Evaluation

Part B. Collection of Information
Employing Statistical Methods

For this evaluation, most of the data collection will involve qualitative interviews or focus groups of small samples. We will administer one survey of all organizations that have participated in volunteer management training/capacity building to examine their experiences, perceived impacts.

B.1. Respondent Universe

The universe of projects to be included in this data collection is shown in Exhibit B-1. Since the full universe of projects will be included, no statistical sampling methods will be implemented.

Exhibit B-1. Estimated size of universe to be sampled

Population	Universe: grantee/individual organization	Sample: grantee/individual organization
Organizations participated in volunteer management training/capacity building	14/9600	14/9600

B.2. Statistical Methodology

B.2.1. Statistical Methodology for Stratification and Sample Selection

For the organization survey, we will include all organizations that have participated in volunteer management training or capacity building (~9600) from 14 grantees received AmeriCorps Volunteer Generation Fund grants in 2022-2023. These grantees were identified by ICF through an extensive grant application review and the organizations will be further identified by the grantees and or their program implementers.

B.2.2. Estimation Procedure

We will generate descriptive statistics for each item in organization survey. Descriptive analyses including means, frequencies, standard deviations will help to answer questions about program design, implementation, and the resulting outcomes.

B.2.3. Degree of Accuracy Needed for the Purpose Described in the Jurisdiction

All the statistics produced will be descriptive. No inferential statistics will be used.

B.2.4. Unusual Problems Requiring Specialized Sampling Procedures

No unusual problems are anticipated.

B.2.5. Use of Periodic (Less Frequent Than Annual) Data Collection Cycles

The organization survey will be administered one time in fall 2022.

B.3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates and Deal with Issues of Non-response

For organization surveys, the list of organizations will be provided to ICF by participating grantees and/or their program implementers. The list will include names and emails.

Before each data collection, participating grantees will email a pre-notification and encourage all perspective respondents to participate in the survey. Within one week of the pre-notification, ICF will follow up with a recruitment email providing a link to the
15-minute survey URL programmed by Qualtrics. Before responding to the survey, participants will be asked to read the consent form describing the purpose of the survey.

The form assures that participation is voluntary and that responses are confidential and provides contact information for the study lead and Institutional Review Board (IRB). After providing consent, participants will proceed to answer the survey. Respondents will be given one week to respond to the survey. The research team will continue to monitor the completion. We will send two reminders on a weekly basis to non-respondents. Respondents will be sent a “thank you” for their participation.

We estimate the response rate will be around 20%. Organizations that receive the volunteer management training are not direct AmeriCorps grantees (i.e., State Commissions). The estimate is grounded in the experience of conducting survey of nonprofits that are not grantees of the agency.

For example, in the Social Innovation Fund National Assessment, we achieved 35% for non-selected applicant organizations and 12% for the nationally representative sample of non-profits. A non-response bias analysis will be conducted using auxiliary data, including demographics, from the sampling frame. Any strong predictors of non-response may be candidates for building a response propensity model, which could then be incorporated into the non-response adjustment as part of the survey weights for this group.

B.4. Tests of Procedures and Methods

The survey design, data collection procedure, and analysis approaches have been reviewed and approved by the AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation. In addition, as described in Section A.8., the research plan has been reviewed by an external Technical Working Group consisting of six nationally recognized experts in evaluation of national services and a Field Working Group consisting of six program leaders in AmeriCorps. Finally, the survey instrument, consent form, and recruitment letter were reviewed and approved by ICF IRB.

B.5. Names and Telephone Numbers of Individuals Consulted

Agency Unit

• Amy Borgstrom, Associate Director of Policy, COO Immediate Office, AmeriCorps, 202-606-6930 

• Mary Hyde, Director, Office of Research and Evaluation, AmeriCorps,
  202-606-6834

• Lily Zandniapour, Research & Evaluation Manager, Office of Research and Evaluation, AmeriCorps, 202-606-6939

• Jehyra M. Asencio-Yace, Research Analyst, Office of Research and Evaluation, AmeriCorps, 202-956-9736

Contractor

• Xiaodong Zhang, Project Director, ICF, 703-251-0883

• Jing Jun, Senior Analyst, ICF, 703-225-2328