Serve CT FY2026 AmeriCorps Connecticut PLANNING GRANT Application Guidance.pdf
Notes:
IMPORTANT: An update to this guidance is pending as of March 12, 2026. Please review carefully before proceeding.
The week of March 9, 2026, state service commissions including Serve Connecticut received new AmeriCorps State and National guidance that significantly and immediately alters from prior years’ practice how state service commissions must apply for and receive FY2026 AmeriCorps State Formula funding allocations.
The week of March 9, 2026, state service commissions including Serve Connecticut received new AmeriCorps State and National guidance that significantly and immediately alters from prior years’ practice how state service commissions must apply for and receive FY2026 AmeriCorps State Formula funding allocations.
This is a welcome improvement to the timeliness and efficiency of the AmeriCorps State funding process that benefits both state service commissions and the programs we fund -- in that it will assure that our Formula funding allocation will be awarded in the spring, as opposed to late summer as in prior years.
This change does, however, necessitate immediate changes to our open FY2026 AmeriCorps Connecticut funding application process.
Please read the following carefully:
- Serve Connecticut has extended its FY2026 AmeriCorps Connecticut Formula Funding application deadline to 11:59pm, Wednesday, April 15, 2026, from the originally schedule March 31, 2026, deadline.
- Effective immediately, FY2026 AmeriCorps Connecticut Formula Funding applicants (new/recompete, continuation, and planning) will no longer submit funding applications in the federal eGrants management platform. To facilitate the new Formula award process, AmeriCorps is no longer permitting state service commissions to manage Formula subapplications using the eGrants platform.
- Applicants who have started an FY2026 AmeriCorps Connecticut subapplication in eGrants must cease work on it immediately. It will no longer be available for editing. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes!
- Serve Connecticut is in the process of creating a secure Commission-level online submission portal for FY2026 AmeriCorps Connecticut Formula Funding applicants (new/recompete, continuation, and planning) to submit funding applications.
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Content: Unchanged. The new submission portal will mirror the federal funding application, collecting the same data and supplemental documentation in the published FY2026 Notice of Funding Opportunity and associated guidance.
- This includes all program and planning grant narratives as well as applicable modules such as the Logic Model, the Performance Measure Module, and the Budget Narrative (cost-reimbursement and fixed amount versions).
- The portal will also permit easy uploading of supplemental documents as applicable, including evidence and evaluation documents, and access to the Financial Management Survey.
- Requirements: Unchanged. The compliance requirements, scoring and assessment criteria, certifications and assurances, and internal/external review processes described in the published FY2026 Notice of Funding Opportunityand associated guidance will apply to all funding applications submitted in the Commission-level online submission portal.
- Timeline: New. The new Commission-level online submission portal will be published and provided to you with instructive guidance by Friday, March 20, 2026.
- Technical Assistance: New. Serve Connecticut will conduct a special technical assistance webinar to walk through the new guidance and answer any questions Monday, March 23, 2026, 1:00-2:30pm. We will record the webinar and publish the recording and slide deck for later review.
We apologize for this mid-stream procedural change and appreciate your patience and flexibility as we move through this unanticipated shift.
We are eager to receive and review your AmeriCorps program and planning grant proposals and will endeavor to make this new process as clear and efficient as possible.
And, as mentioned above, we are pleased that AmeriCorps, the agency, has worked to improve timely state access to AmeriCorps State Formula funds, which streamlines our local grant award process!
Please refer questions to Serve Connecticut Director of Programs Kate Scheuritzel at Kate.Scheuritzel@ct.gov.