September 1, 2020

The Honorable Christopher Coons
218 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Coons:

Re:  Friendly Amendments to Senate Bill 3964 (CORPS Act) to help America respond and recover from the COVID-19 crisis by expanding the capacity of communities to successfully engage volunteers and scaling the non-commercial digital infrastructure necessary for effective cross-sector volunteer mobilization and coordination

Specifically we propose amending S. 3964 ––

1. by authorizing $350,000,000 in fiscal year 2020 to support COVID-19 relief and recovery with grants through an expanded Nonprofit Capacity Building Program section 198S of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12653s)
2. by adding the “expansion of the digital infrastructure necessary to effectively mobilize and coordinate volunteers at scale” to the COVID-19 ‘Emergency Priorities’ to be set forth in Section 122(f) of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12572(f) for fiscal years 2020 through 2023

Scaling America’s Capacity to Mobilize and Coordinate Volunteers

We the undersigned care deeply about National and Community Service and represent a growing cross-sector coalition of leaders committed to helping nonprofits, businesses and public sector leaders respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency by scaling America’s capacity to effectively mobilize and coordinate volunteers.  

We support strengthening the volunteer engagement capacity of local organizations, accelerating the digital transformation of the nonprofit sector and investing to bring America’s proud history of volunteering into the 21st century at a moment when our county and our communities need it most.

On behalf of those we serve we write to offer friendly amendments to the CORPS Act (S. 3964) to ensure that it is able to fulfill its purpose “to support opportunities for all individuals in the United States to engage in service.” 

Why National Service Needs to be About All Americans

COVID-19 has devastated communities across the country and intensified the racial and economic inequalities that undermine our democracy. To step up to these challenges nonprofits, governments and businesses will need to work together to elevate the ethic of national service to mobilize and coordinate the millions of volunteers our local communities will need to rebuild, reimagine and reconnect. The values of national service will be fundamental to the relief and recovery effort and we urge you to consider the extraordinary social and economic impact that will result from working together to make service more relevant and accessible to all American’s in our changing world.

Expanding America’s Capacity for Effective Volunteer Engagement

To do that, we urge amending S. 3964 to add $350,000,000 in grants available to the nonprofit sector through an expanded Nonprofit Capacity Building Program (42 U.S.C. 12653s) . These funds would be available to nonprofits and State Commissions to support and strengthen the volunteer engagement capacity of local organizations in the wake of COVID-19 and scale the public digital infrastructure necessary to effectively mobilize and coordinate volunteers across sectors, geographies, causes, companies, programs and platforms.

Investing in High-Impact Volunteering Programs

The nonprofit sector is democracy's great counter-weight against indifference and injustice and will be on the frontlines for the relief and recovery effort ahead. But social distancing and fear have decimated the traditional face-to-face volunteer programs nonprofits depend on. For reference see, The Impact of COVID-19 on Volunteering: A Two-Month Comparison.

To help communities move forward it is vital that we make these essential not-for-profit, organizations eligible for funding to invest in reimagining and rebuilding their capacity for high-impact volunteer engagement in the wake of this crisis and beyond.  Effective volunteer engagement is a strategic function that even in the best of times requires upfront and ongoing investments to unlock the extraordinary social capital and community impact that comes from volunteering. It is generally agreed in the field that high-impact volunteer programs are those with the necessary resources to invest in ten critical functions: planning & development; leadership support; resource allocation; tracking & evaluation; outreach; fundraising; effective training; onboarding & supervision; technology & communications; cross-sector collaboration & partnerships.

Scaling the Digital Backbone for Volunteering in America

To build on investments to protect and promote the nonprofit sector’s capacity to successfully engage volunteers, the $350M Nonprofit Capacity Building Program would also be available to  accelerate the digital transformation of the nonprofit sector and scale the public digital infrastructure required for communities to reliably connect volunteers with the groups and organizations that need them -- when they need them most.

There are over 330M Americans, 1.2M public charities and no coherent national technology strategy or publicly supported digital infrastructure to successfully connect them. Massive private sector investments in commercial digital infrastructure have transformed our lives as consumers, but effective volunteer engagement in not a commercial activity. COVID-19 has exposed the extraordinary human cost of leaving the public and nonprofit sectors without the technology infrastructure necessary to operate effectively in a changing world. In the aftermath of crisis this digital divide left local food banks, mentoring programs, health service providers and tens of thousands of other essential nonprofit service providers without the volunteers they depend on -- and communities without the data or digital tools they need to respond.

This is a moment to recognize that healthy democracies need bold public spaces on the web to compliment and co-exist with commercial platforms and act to make public funding available to accelerate emerging cross-sector partnerships that are harnessing open, non-commercial technologies to scale the digital backbone for effective and inclusive volunteer engagement in the wake of crisis and beyond.

America needs a strong nonprofit sector and world-class public digital infrastructure to rebuild and bring a shared culture of equity and service into the 21st century for every American.  

Stimulating and Amplifying Innovation and Cross-Sector Collaboration 

Capacity building, infrastructure support and the digital transformation of the nonprofit sector is already underway in philanthropy infrastructure circles encouraged by leading funders and advocates like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Fidelity Charitable Trustees’ Initiative, Raikes Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Independent Sector, Good Tech Fest, Microsoft Philanthropies and Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab. Federal leadership and investment will stimulate cross-sector collaboration and unlock hundreds of millions of additional dollars that are urgently needed in the field today.

As an example of the innovation and cross-sector collaboration our communities will need to recover, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a national COVID-19 digital pilot in May -- Power-Of.org. The project is a rapid prototype to experiment with new technologies available to support collaboration and strengthen the ethos and impact of giving at scale in the 21st century. But it is just a beginning.

In fact, in California, Governor Newsom and California Volunteers are leading a volunteer mobilization effort in cooperation with state agencies, local nonprofits, businesses, HandsOn Connect and VolunteerMatch to pilot the use of non-commercial API technologies to support a first-of-it-kind digital collaboration to provide the State with the backend technology infrastructure it needs to effectively scale #Californiansforall -- the Governor’s statewide call to service in response to COVID-19.

Coming Together to Serve

As a voice for service, equity and innovation we invite you to consider the urgency of this moment and the opportunity to build on the legacy of national service to invite every American to embrace the values of contributing to a cause greater than themselves. To do that we will need public leadership. That is why we invite you, and all Senators who care deeply about our democracy and the importance of voluntary service, to support the adoption of these friendly amendments to the CORPS Act (S. 3964).

A detailed document with the recommended updates is attached and available online at:

Friendly Amendments S. 3964

Conclusion

In the shadow of crisis it becomes clearer to see areas where old policies and new technologies have left the public and nonprofit sectors behind.  Democracies need bold investments to support and strengthen the capacity and the infrastructure for communities to come together through service in the wake of crisis and beyond.  

Thank you for your service to the country. We look forward to collaborating with you and your staff in time to make a real difference for communities across the country struggling to respond and recover.

Sincerely,

S. 3964

To amend the national service laws to prioritize national service programs and projects that are directly related to the response to and recovery from the COVID–19 public health emergency, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

August 10, 2020

Mr. Coons (for himself, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Booker, Mr. Graham, Mr. Reed, Mr. Rubio, Ms. Duckworth, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Ms. Harris, Mr. Cassidy, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. King, and Ms. Collins) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

Friendly Amendments

Recommended additions to S. 3964 to help America respond and recover from the COVID-19 crisis by expanding the capacity of local nonprofits hit hard by the pandemic to successfully engage volunteers and scaling the non-commercial digital infrastructure necessary for effective cross-sector volunteer mobilization and coordination

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

(a) Findings.— Section 2 of Senate Bill 3964 is amended —

(1) in paragraph (7), by striking the period at the end and inserting “and expand the capacity of local communities to effectively mobilize and coordinate volunteers.”

SEC. 5. PRIORITIZING RESPONSE SERVICES.

(a) National service priorities.— Proposed amendments to section 122(f)(5) of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12572(f)) in Section 5 of Senate Bill 3964 are amended—

(1) in clause (iv) of subparagraph (A) by adding after COVID-19 “, including the expansion of the digital infrastructure necessary to effectively mobilize and coordinate volunteers at scale”

(2) by striking “and” after the semicolon in subclause (I) of clause (ii) in subparagraph (B)

(3) by inserting “or” after the semicolon in subclause (I) of clause (ii) in subparagraph (B)

 (b) COVID-19 Nonprofit Capacity Building Program. — Section 5 of Senate Bill 3964 is amended —

(1) by adding at the end, the following:

“(d) COVID-19 Nonprofit Capacity Building Program.—Section 198S of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12653s) is amended —

(1) by striking the period at the end of the first sentence in subsection (b) and adding, “, and to eligible nonprofits to support and strengthen their capacity to effectively engage volunteers to serve their community.”

(2) by adding “volunteer engagement,” to subsection (b) after the words “organizational development assistance, including”

(3) by adding to subsection (b) after the third sentence, “To support COVID-19 relief and recovery the Corporation shall also make grants to eligible nonprofits and State Commissions to support and scale the capacity of every community to effectively mobilize and collaborate with volunteers. Grants may include the development, adoption and maintenance of the non-commercial digital infrastructure necessary to connect volunteers with the organizations that need them at scale. Grants may also include the costs generally associated with high-impact volunteer programs including; planning & development, leadership support, resource allocation, tracking & evaluation, outreach, fundraising, effective training, onboarding & supervision, technology & communications, cross-sector collaboration & partnerships.”

(4) by striking the word “intermediary” from subsection (c) and replacing it with the word “eligible”

(5) by adding an “s” to the last use of the word “grant” in subsection (c)

(6) by striking the period after subsection (c) and adding, “in total per State.”

(7) by striking the word “intermediary” twice from subsection (d) and replacing it in both instances with the word “eligible”

(8) by striking from subsection (e)(1) “intermediary nonprofit organizations seeking to become intermediary nonprofit grantees in” and replacing it with, “eligible nonprofits serving”

(9) by adding “to an intermediary nonprofit” to subsection (e)(2) after the word “grant”

(10) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the following:

“(3) COVID-19 Considerations.— In determining whether to make a grant to either an eligible nonprofit, or an eligible intermediary nonprofit, the Corporation shall consider —

(A) the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on traditional volunteering programs and the urgent need for communities to more effectively collaborate across sectors to mobilize and coordinate volunteers to respond and recover

(B) the costs and challenges of successfully mobilizing and engaging volunteers in a world altered by crisis, social distancing and fear

(C) the extraordinary social impact of volunteers and the necessary infrastructure and operational costs required to effectively engage and lead them”

(11) by striking three references to “intermediary nonprofit” in subsection (f) and replacing with “eligible” in all instances

(12) by striking subsection (g)””

SEC. 7. INVITING PARTICIPATION.

(a) Platform For National Senior Service Corps.— Proposed amendments to Title IV of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 in Section (7)(b)(3) of S. 3964 are amended—

(1) by inserting “non-commercial API” before the word “gateway” in subsection (a) of section 421

(b) Chief Technology Officer of the United States.— Section 7 of S. 3964 is amended—

(1) by adding at the end the following:

“(e) Chief Technology Officer of the United States.— Section 191(a)(3) of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12651) is amended —

(1) by inserting “Chief Technology Officer of the United States,” after “the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,”

SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIATIONS.

(a) Nonprofit Capacity Building Program.— Proposed amendments to Section 501(a) of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12681) in Sec 9 of S. 3964 are amended —

(1) by adding at the end the following:

“(g) Nonprofit Capacity Building Program.— Section 501(a)(4) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 12681) is amended by adding at the end:

“(G) Nonprofit Capacity Building Program.—Of the amount authorized under subparagraph (A) there shall be made available to carry out in addition to any amount appropriated before the date of enactment of the Cultivating Opportunity and Response to the Pandemic through Service Act, an additional amount of $350,000,000 for fiscal year 2020.””