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Tag Archives: Corporation for National and Community Service
September 4, 2012, 4:48 pm
Social Innovation Fund Director to Leave This Month
Paul Carttar, director of the federal government’s new Social Innovation Fund since April 2010, will step down at the end of this month, the Corporation for National and Community Service said.
Idara Nickelson, the corporation’s chief investment officer, will become the fund’s new director,  Wendy Spencer, the agency’s chief executive, said in an e-mail to associates.
Mr. Carttar, a nonprofit expert with a wide range of experience in philanthropic, academic, government, and business, was the first director of the Social Innovation Fund, a grants program championed by President Obama to provide money to help nonprofits expand effective social programs.
Housed in the national-service agency, it has a budget of $45-million this year, with additional money provided by nonprofits and foundations.
Ms. Spencer said Ms. Nickelson, who has also served as the corporation’s…
July 31, 2012, 8:26 pm
Social Innovation Fund Awards $42-Million
The Social Innovation Fund, a federal program designed to help nonprofits expand effective programs, has awarded more than $42-million to 11 groups in its third round of annual grants, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced today.
The fund, which gives money to grant makers that in turn award it to innovative nonprofits, has allotted $11-million to four new groups and $33.9-million to seven existing grantees.
The newcomers, which will each receive $2-million over two years:
• The Capital Area United Way, for early-childhood programs in the greater Baton Rouge area.
• The GreenLight Fund, for programs to help improve the academic performance of low-income young people in Boston, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay area. GreenLight seeks out the best programs and finances their work in select cities. (See a profile of the fund from The…
June 19, 2012, 9:22 am
Washington State National-Service Leader to Head AmeriCorps
William C. Basl, executive director of the Washington Commission for National and Community Service, has been named director of AmeriCorps, the national-service program.
He will succeed John Gomperts, who left to take a job as chief executive of America’s Promise Alliance, a children’s-advocacy network.
Mr. Basl has headed the commission, which manages AmeriCorps programs in the State of Washington, for 18 years. Before that, he founded the Washington Service Corps, a state youth-service program.
Mr. Basl will report to Wendy Spencer, the new head of the Corporation for National and Community Service. He joins AmeriCorps at a time when its future is uncertain because of Congressional budget battles.
See a Chronicle article about those and other challenges facing AmeriCorps.
Send an e-mail to Suzanne Perry.
February 13, 2012, 1:50 pm
Obama Would Give National-Service Budget Small Boost, But End Some Programs
President Obama today proposed increasing the budget for the Corporation for National and Community Service by 1.3 percent next year, to almost $1.1-billion—providing enough money to keep the number of AmeriCorps members at current levels.
In his budget for the 2013 fiscal year, the president said he would also increase spending on the Social Innovation Fund, a grants program to expand effective nonprofit social projects, to $50-million, up from just under $45-million in 2012.
However, the president wants to eliminate two “lower priority” programs that the agency operates—the Volunteer Generation Fund, which provides money for projects to help charities recruit and manage volunteers, and the Nonprofit Capacity Building Fund, which provides grants to organizations to provide training and management help to small and medium-sized charities.
Both of those programs were created …
February 9, 2012, 8:48 am
Prominent Democrat No Longer Up for National-Service Board
President Obama has withdrawn the nomination of a high-profile pick for a seat on the Corporation for National and Community Service board—John Podesta, a prominent Democrat who was President Clinton’s chief of staff and co-chair of Mr. Obama’s transition team.
Mr. Podesta, founder of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with close ties to the White House, was among seven people that the president nominated in June 2010 to fill vacancies on the national-service board. The nominations were approved by a Senate committee in July but have still not been confirmed by the full Senate.
Andrea Purse, vice president for communications at the Center for American Progress, said in a statement: “Like many of Mr. Obama’s other nominees, Mr. Podesta got tired of waiting for the Senate to act and got busy with other projects and asked for his nomination to be withdrawn. 
January 12, 2012, 8:32 am
Budget Cut Could Curtail Oversight of National-Service Programs
The inspector general’s office at the Corporation for National and Community Service has warned Congress it will have to lay off at least three-fourths of its 33 staff members and sharply curtail its activities because of a “severe and damaging” budget cut.
Congress cut the office’s budget from $7.7-million to $4-million in the 2012 spending bill it approved last month.
“This budget reduction caught me and my executive staff by surprise,” Kenneth C. Bach, the corporation’s deputy inspector general, wrote in a letter this week to more than a dozen House and Senate members.
He said the 48-percent cut was in “stark contrast” to the 3-percent reduction in the corporation’s overall budget—and “will substantially inhibit me from performing my duties.”
The inspector general’s office monitors federal volunteer and national-service programs, including AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and…
January 10, 2012, 4:12 pm
Former Nonprofit Leader Named to Top White House Job
President Obama today appointed a former nonprofit leader, Cecilia Muñoz, to be his top domestic-policy adviser.
Ms. Muñoz, who replaces Melody Barnes as director of the Domestic Policy Council, is an immigration expert who worked for 20 years at the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group, most recently as senior vice president of research, advocacy, and legislation. She left that position in 2009 to become Mr. Obama’s director for intergovernmental affairs.
In her new position, Ms. Muñoz will oversee the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, the White House unit that has the most contact with nonprofit leaders. It works with the Corporation for National and Community Service to promote volunteerism, national service, and the Social Innovation Fund, a grants program to help nonprofits expand effective programs.
The office also operates the White…
January 9, 2012, 2:46 pm
Target Executive Elected to Head National-Service Board
The Corporation for National and Community Service board has elected Laysha L. Ward, president of community relations for Target, its new chair.
Ms. Ward, who was appointed to the board in 2008, replaces Mark Gearan, president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who has left the panel.
For the moment, Ms. Ward is heading a skeletal operation. The federal agency’s bipartisan board, which is supposed to have 15 members, has shrunk to six, and some positions have been vacant for more than two years. President Obama nominated people to fill seven seats about 18 months ago, but they have not been approved by the Senate.
The troubled agency, which runs AmeriCorps and other national-service programs, has also been operating without a permanent chief executive since Patrick Corvington resigned unexpectedly last April.
A Senate committee has approved President Obama’s nomination to …
December 20, 2011, 11:11 am
Former National-Service CEO Says Politics Drove Him Away
Patrick Corvington
When Patrick Corvington announced in April he was leaving his post as head of the Corporation for National and Community Service after just 14 months on the job, many people speculated about the circumstances behind his abrupt exit.
At the time, Mr. Corvington said he was leaving to take an unspecified “opportunity in the nonprofit community”—and corporation and White House officials declined to comment beyond that.
After learning that Mr. Corvington now works for Habitat for Humanity International, serving in a new senior position that oversees the organization’s volunteer programs, The Chronicle contacted him to ask about his new position and about his departure from the national-service agency.
In an interview, Mr. Corvington said he…
December 14, 2011, 3:32 pm
Nominee to Head National-Service Agency Passes First Hurdle
President Obama’s pick to head the Corporation for National and Community Service has moved one step closer to getting the job.
Wendy Spencer, a longtime volunteerism advocate, was approved for the position by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. The full Senate must now vote to confirm the nomination.
Mr. Obama tapped Ms. Spencer in October to fill the position vacated by Patrick Corvington, who resigned unexpectedly in May after 14 months in the role. She now leads Volunteer Florida: the Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service, which administers AmeriCorps grants in the state and coordinates donations and volunteers after disasters.
A spokeswoman for the Senate committee said it is not clear when the Senate will vote on the nomination.
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