Project Partner FAQs

AmeriCorps, a federal agency, brings people together to tackle the country’s most pressing challenges through national service and volunteering. AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers serve with organizations dedicated to the improvement of communities. AmeriCorps helps make service to others a cornerstone of our national culture. Find out more about AmeriCorps.

CivicSpark Fellows provide capacity-building support through research, planning, and implementation project activities. CivicSpark Fellows can support a wide range of initiatives, as long as they are eligible and can be completed by a Fellow within the service year. For eligibility details, review our eligibility information here.

For sample projects, please visit our impact page and our current projects here.

Applications for the 2024-25 service year have reopened! You can view a sample application here, and apply here. Our partner application deadlines are as follows:

Partner Applications Close: January 17, 2025

Yes, but with some constraints. CivicSpark Fellows can be placed with public agencies, non-profits, Tribal governments, or state agencies. CivicSpark Fellows cannot serve directly with a for-profit organization, however, private companies can sponsor CivicSpark Fellows to deliver capacity building services to eligible public agencies.

Yes, CivicSpark is very interested in building relationships with Tribal partners and increasing the number of projects we support with Tribal governments. Interested Tribal governments are encouraged to get in touch to discuss their project ideas or to visit our partner page to learn more and apply.

Yes! We have several coalitions and networks that host fellows every year. We are happy to work on larger projects that will create lasting impacts for multiple local governments and communities.

Please review our eligibility information here.

Check out our partner responsibilities here.

During the 2024-25 service year, we are offering three options. Exact start dates:

• Full-time, 11 month fellowships (September 2024-August 2025): 1,700 service hours
• Three-quarter time, 7.5 month fellowships (January-September 2025): 1,200 service hours
• Half-time, 6 month fellowships (March-September 2025): 900 service hours. 

For Fellows serving 1700 hours, Fellows will serve over the course of 11 months with at least 1300 of those hours dedicated to project service. Fellows’ additional time, approximately 250 – 300 hours, is dedicated to professional development activities with up to 100 hours for community volunteer engagement.

Three-quarter time Fellows will serve about 1200 hours over the course of 7.5 months with at least 920 of those hours dedicated to project service.

Half-time Fellows will serve about 900 hours over the course of 6 months

All host agencies must provide a dedicated work space and office resources (phone, computer, etc.) for their Fellows. This does not need to be a full private office; it can be a cubicle, shared work space, or other arrangement, as long as the Fellow has a designated place to work on a daily basis. If the Fellow will be serving in a hybrid setting, partners will need to provide sufficient resources (computer, access to servers) to complete service remotely. 

CivicSpark operates on a cost-share model, where AmeriCorps (a federal agency) provides funding for every fellow we place with a partner, and the partner pays a matching contribution. We also rely on philanthropy and external sponsors to cover some of our operating costs. For more information on the fiscal contribution for the 24-25 service year, see our main partner page.

The fiscal contribution is billed upfront as a lump sum unless your agency requires an installment payment plan. 

Partially – rates for the program are all-inclusive and cover the Fellow’s living allowance, workers compensation and liability insurance, Fellow benefits, and programmatic operating costs including professional development and CivicSpark staff support for Fellows. The fiscal contribution only covers a portion of the total cost to run the program.

Participating organizations are required to identify the funds for the project, but projects can be funded by a third party who is supporting the service project. If your organization is being sponsored by a third-party, you will be responsible for securing the funds and working with CivicSpark staff and the sponsor in the contract process. CivicSpark staff are not able to support searching for or securing funds for organizations.

CivicSpark is a great resource to leverage for outside funding. Because of its flexible design, there is an opportunity to focus the service on a suite of projects that align with available resources. For example, a regional foundation interested in supporting public health might support a vulnerability assessment. Local utilities might support a business energy audit project. If there is an open RFP for climate related work, CivicSpark could be built into responses as a supporting mechanism for completing the project.

We can accept your application and engage with you on a tentative basis, but we also have to fill our cohort and will prioritize those organizations that have funding secured.

No. While CivicSpark Fellows are allowed a limited number of hours to support grant writing and fundraising for partners as part of their project work, AmeriCorps regulations prohibit direct fundraising for the program itself. CivicSpark Fellows are allowed to help local agencies identify possible future funding sources though (no more than ~120 hours, or 10% of their project time), and work completed by CivicSpark Fellows may be used to better prepare an agency to access existing funding sources.

It depends. AmeriCorps has a policy of deferring to other federal agencies with regard to commingling of federal funds. If the funding agency approves the use of funds for AmeriCorps, it is allowable. Please contact us if you have questions about the use of federal funds as match.

No. CivicSpark Fellows are covered by the CivicSpark insurance.