By Suzanne Perry

The Corporation for National and Community Service issued its final notice today on how it plans to spend the Social Innovation Fund, paving the way for organizations to prepare their grant applications.

The notice includes several changes to an outline that the agency issued last month on how it would award the $50-million in grants designed to help nonprofit groups expand promising approaches to social problems. Notably, the agency cut the minimum grant award from $5-million to $1-million—responding to concerns that it would be difficult for some applicants to produce the required matching funds for the higher amount.

The corporation­—which received more than 200 comments on its proposal outline­—will provide about seven to 10 grants of $1-million to $10-million each to existing grant-making organizations. Those groups, in turn, will award annual grants of at least $100,000 to nonprofit groups for projects in the areas of economic opportunity, youth development, and healthy living. Both the grant makers and the nonprofit groups must provide equal matching funds.

Corporation officials, speaking on a conference call, also responded to concerns about the requirement that grant makers award money to groups with “rigourous evidence of their impact.” Some critics worry that the language—which gives preference to evaluations like experimental-design studies, which compare groups of people getting particular services with others who don’t­—could rule out innovative projects that have not yet been able to demonstrate their impact in such a structured way.

Stephen Goldsmith, chairman of the corporation’s board, said it’s critical that the Social Innovation Fund and other programs demonstrate that they are making a difference. “It’s just crystal clear we can’t continue to be funding social programs the way we’re funding them without more evidence of success,” he said.

At the same time, he and Marta Urquilla, senior adviser for social innovation, said the notice outlines different stages of evidence that can be used­­­—preliminary, moderate, and strong—in different situations, and groups will not be expected to produce the “strongest level of evidence” in their first year. Mr. Urquilla said the corporation’s approach to evidence would be clarified in a “frequently asked questions” document that will be posted on the Web site.

The notice also:

• Eliminates an earlier preference for grant makers that have already identified the nonprofit groups that would receive their grants. It says all grant makers must conduct a grants competition within six months of receiving their social-innovation money (although they may apply with some pre-selected groups if they were chosen on a competitive basis).

• Says national nonprofit groups that provide grants only to their local affiliates would not qualify for social-innovation money. Their affiliates might qualify, however, if they provide grants to a “diverse portfolio” of groups.

The Council on Foundations was among the groups that expressed concern about the original $5-million minimum grant. That, it said in its comment, “will preclude participation by many community foundations that would otherwise be exceptionally well-suited to act as geographic intermediaries.”

Mr. Goldsmith said the lower minimum would allow a wider variety of groups to apply, including grant makers in rural areas.

Organizations that want to apply for social-innovation money must submit a letter of intent by March 1, with applications due by April 8. The awards will be announced by July.