National and Community Service

Serve America Act Enacted

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act will triple the number of service volunteers -- from 75,000 to 250,000 -- and expand service opportunities for all stages of life, focusing on such targeted areas as veterans services, the environment, disaster relief, and arts education. The law creates a nationwide community-based infrastructure fund to leverage investments in service. It also sets up a volunteer generation fund to help build the capacity of nonprofits to coordinate, train and manage volunteers, and a nonprofit capacity building fund to expand organizational development assistance to small and midsize nonprofit organizations.

Status
President Obama signed the FY2010 omnibus appropriations bill (HR 3288), which includes funding authorized under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The spending bill allocates $1.149 billion to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), $50 million for the Social Innovation Fund, $4 million for the Volunteer Generation Fund, and $1 million for the Nonprofit Capacity-Building Program.

The Serve America Act (H.R.1388/S.277) was enacted on April 21, 2009. See the Corporation for National and Community Service website for information on implementation of the Serve America Act.

Additional Resources
ServiceNation -- a campaign designed to cultivate a culture of service in the United States, has spearheaded the drive for many of the principles outlined in the Serve America Act.

Incentive to Serve Act
Senators Kennedy (D-MA) and Hatch (R-UT), original sponsors of the Serve America Act, also introduced the Incentive to Serve Tax Act (S.278) as a companion measure to provide tax incentives to companies that allow their employees to volunteer their services on company time. This legislation must move separately, however, since it contains tax provisions. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) introduced the House version of the bill, HR 1644.

Last Updated: January 5, 2010

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