A Guide to Pre-Service Training
This guide was developed specifically to address the needs of AmeriCorps*State, National, and Tribes and Territories programs in designing and delivering pre-service training to AmeriCorps members.
Basic Family Budget Calculator
The Family Budget Calculator lets you determine the income needed for particular types of families to make ends meet. Because costs of goods and services vary across the U.S., the calculator customizes the budgets for every U.S. community: 400 in all.
Creating Change: How Organizations Connect with Youth, Build Communities, and Strengthen Themselves
This booklet explores the complex links between youth development, community engagement, and social justice. The Innovation Center has been studying these links through partnerships with local and national organizations, universities, foundations, and businesses. We are learning what works in big cities, small towns, and rural communities. The stories in this book highlight the work of our partners to engage, empower, and strengthen young people and their communities.
Creating Regional Equity for Children and Families
Families living in areas of concentrated poverty, particularly families of color living in central cities, lack access to life opportunities available to others in their regions. This paper, prepared for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, begins with an analysis of how sprawling, fragmented regions limit the access of families and children living in poverty to opportunities such as housing, education, and health.
Low-Income Families in the States: Results from the Family Resource Simulator
This web-based tool calculates resources and expenses for a hypothetical family that the user “creates” by selecting city and state, family characteristics, income sources, and assets. The user also selects which public benefits the family receives when eligible and makes choices about what happens when the family loses benefits (e.g., does the family seek cheaper child care after losing a subsidy?).
MACA Poverty Simulator
Understanding the day-to-day reality of poverty is important for everyone involved in fighting poverty – from policymakers to service providers. MISSOURI’S COMMUNITY ACTION POVERTY SIMULATION (CAPS) is a unique tool that helps people begin to understand what life is like with a shortage of money and an abundance of stress.
Matrix Evaluation Model
The Matrix Outcomes Model provides a set of complimentary assessment, case management and evaluation tools. The Institute for Community Collaborative Studies has evolved the Matrix Model with community partners who continue to refine the language, structure, and guidelines of the tool as they apply it to their programs.
NCCP State Family Economic Security Profiles
NCCP's 50-state profiles now provide more information! For data about what your state is doing to assist low-wage workers and their families, see these new Family Economic Security Profiles.
National Service State Profiles
These reports are a powerful testament to the incredible scope and reach of national service – the more than 1.5 million Americans who meet community needs, mobilize volunteers, and strengthen our democracy by serving in Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America each year. A glance at these profiles shows how national service is touching not only our large urban centers but also the smallest corners of rural society, bringing valuable help and compassion to those most in need.
NPAction Resource Links Directory
The NPAction Resource Links Directory is a human-edited compendium of tools and references, contributed by nonprofits for nonprofits. This set of 2000+ (and growing) links includes nearly everything a nonprofit advocate might need to find, from African-focused grant makers to congressional schedules to "Z" best places to find progressive media resources.
Public Policy Grantmaking Toolkit
Northern California Grantmakers has recently launched an online Public Policy Grantmaking Toolkit to demystify advocacy grant making and encourage more foundations to support it. Beyond providing the basics of what it calls "public policy grantmaking," this Web-based toolkit offers numerous case studies of grant makers nationwide engaged in the activity, what it identifies as best practices, and information on how funders can evaluate their public policy grant making.
Reaching a consensus among online volunteers
Reaching agreement is oftentimes a difficult process -- one that can be intensified when dealing with a remote volunteer pool. Volunteer Coordinator, Rosanna Tarsiero, shared suggestions for helping online volunteers reach consensus with the CyberVPM listserv in February 2005.
Real Collaboration: A Guide for Grantmakers
Real Collaboration is a guide for grant makers that makes recommendations on how program officers can make better, more effective use of collaboration among grantees.
Recruiting older adults as volunteers in intergenerational programs: 16 tips
Successful recruitment of older adults requires a well-thought out plan, including consideration of desirable characteristics, motivation, fears, recruitment message, relationship building, and timing. This effective practice offers insight from the Center for Intergenerational Learning at Temple University (PA), and was submitted in January 2005 by Jason Scott, Associate Training Officer at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
SAMHSA's Grant-writing Manual
Developing Competitive SAMHSA Grant Applications
Sample Logic Model - 2005
Are you an ACF grantee? If you answered yes, YOU will want to become familiar with the logic model being used by ACF staff.
Simplified Family Credit (SFC) Calculator
Estimate your tax cut under the Simplified Family Credit
State Data Tool: 50-State Demographics Wizard
Build custom tables with state-level statistics on education, employment, family structure, race/ethnicity, and the relationship between these variables and family income using NCCP's 50-State Demographics Wizard. Data are drawn from NCCP's 50-State Demographics Database and are calculated by NCCP from data in the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
State Data Tool: 50-State Policies Wizard
Build custom tables with data on sources of assistance for low-income families and children, such as CCDF subsidies, state and federal child and dependent care tax credits, and other policies, using NCCP's 50-State Policies Wizard. Data are drawn from NCCP's 50-State Policies Database, which compiles the most recent 50-state information on policies that affect low-income families and children.
State Data Tool: Child and Dependent Care Tax Credits--Federal and State
View NCCP's individual state profiles and cross-state comparison tables on federal and state Child and Dependent Care Tax Credits.
State Data Tool: Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Subsidies
View individual state CCDF subsidy profiles and cross-state comparison tables on the Web site of the National Center for Children in Poverty. Data are drawn from NCCP's 50-State Policies Database, which compiles the most recent 50-state information on policies that affect low-income families and children.
State Data Tool: Family Resource Simulator
Model the impact of child care assistance and family child care choices on the resources and expenses of a hypothetical family using NCCP's Family Resource Simulator. The Simulator is a web-based tool that shows how state and federal policies interact and affect low- to moderate-income families as parental work effort and earnings increase. Simulators are currently available for eight states.
State Data Tool: Income Converter
Use NCCP's Income Converter to make comparisons among income figures, the federal poverty level, and state median incomes. Enter one of the following values--annual income, percent of the federal poverty level, or percent of state median income--and the Income Converter will return the other two values.
State Level Data Online by AECF
This system contains state-level data for over 75 measures of child well-being, including all the measures regularly used in our popular KIDS COUNT Data Book. This easy-to-use, powerful online database allows you to generate custom reports for a geographic area (Profiles) or to compare geographic areas on a topic.
Texas Family Resources Simulator
You can now use NCCP's Family Resource Simulator to see how much parents need to earn to cover basic expenses in 7 major Texas cities, and to illustrate how well Texas policies reward employment. NCCP thanks the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources and the Center for Public Policy Priorities for their assistance. Simulators for 9 other states are also available.
The 2005 Earned Income Tax Credit Outreach Kit
By promoting the Earned Income Credit (EIC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC), you can help low- and moderate-income workers take advantage of the tax benefits they’ve earned. In 2004, nearly 21 million workers claimed more than $37 billion in Earned Income Credits alone. Many of them also received a substantial boost from the Child Tax Credit. These tax credits continue to be vital work supports for employees in low-wage jobs, helping many to make the transition from public assistance into the labor force.
The Due Diligence Tool: For use in pre-grant assessment
The Due Diligence Tool provides grant makers with a complete guide to the pre-grant due diligence process. The Due Diligence Tool also includes worksheets and interview questions grant makers can use to create or refine their own due diligence process.
The Effective Practices Collection
Find effective practices for service programs
The Resource Center: Tools and Services for Volunteer and Service Programs
The Resource Center is your one-stop shop for online tools and training resources to strengthen your volunteer or service program. Sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service and administered by ETR Associates
The RM Institute: Social Impact Assessment
The following training on social impact assessment comes from a training conducted for the United Nations in Sri Lanka on July 20-24 of 2003.
The Spirit Rises—Reflections on the 2004 CFED IDA Learning Conference
"...The field has broadened beyond IDAs to encompass a continuum of products and services designed to build assets for the poor…"
The World Bank Group: Impact analysis: social tools
This section reviews the available social methods for measuring the poverty and social impact of policy reform. Many of these tools gather qualitative information that can complement or replace the data gathered by quantitative economic surveys. When used together, the two sets of methods provide a more complete picture of the impact of reform.
Tips for Effective Service-Learning Projects in Out-of-School Time Programs
Young people can find great satisfaction and wonderful learning opportunities in planning and participating in community service. Out-of-school time programs can be the perfect setting for service-learning. Regular service projects are transformed into service-learning by emphasizing the academic and social skills involved in planning and performing projects and by engaging children and youth in reflection on their work. Following are tips and project ideas to help you incorporate service-learning.
Toolkit for Program Sustainability, Capacity Building, and Volunteer Recruitment/Management
This toolkit is intended to help either a current or potential AmeriCorps grantee develop a program that is sustainable, builds organizational and local capacity, has the full involvement of community volunteers, and produces outcomes beyond those accomplished by AmeriCorps members alone. It will lead you through the processes for developing a sustainability and capacity building plan and applying a variety of methods, approaches, and strategies to carry out that plan.
Toolkit: A User's Guide to Evaluation for National Service Programs
The User's Guide was developed for Corporation programs before 2003 and focuses on empowerment evaluation. The Corporation is now requiring Corporation programs to conduct performance measurement. However, many of the concepts are the same and the information in this User's Guide may still be helpful for many programs.
Tools for Nonprofits
The following are the most useful sites we have found on the Web for individuals starting, managing and funding a nonprofit organization.
Training and Technical Assistance Resource Guide
The information in this resource guide is intended to assist National Service Programs and State Commissions in accessing national training and technical assistance (T/TA) resources and information. It is a collaborative effort of the T/TA Unit of the Corporation for National and Community Service and The Resource Center, operated for the Corporation by ETR Associates.
True Sustainability: A New Model to Aid Non-profits in Developing Self-Sustaining Revenue Streams
"Not-for-profit, or non-profit, is not synonymous with “unprofitable.” In fact, this is not only a misnomer, but has impeded many non-profits from succeeding in their mission and being good stewards of the resources entrusted to them by donors."
U.S. Census Bureau - Poverty Home Page
View the basic facts about poverty, the most recent reports, and more.
Understanding the role of staff during disaster deployment and recovery
During disaster recovery, having a set of best practices already in place can save lives. This effective practice presents key points to consider when assigning responsibilities to program staff as outlined by the Center for Mental Health and Safety. Excerpted from the document, Operation Blue Roof and Beyond: Protocol on the Deployment of AmeriCorps Teams for Disaster Recovery, the practice was submitted by Deborah Burr in January 2005. Although the text is based on the experiences of Florida State Parks AmeriCorps' deployment of hurricane Charley of 2004, it is intended as a reference for any AmeriCorps program or other volunteer organization, and can be modified for relevancy in any disaster situation.
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