Founded in New York City on September 10, 2009, Cities of Service is a bi-partisan coalition of the mayors of large and small cities from across our country who have responded to the Edward M. Kennedy Service America Act, coming together to find new and innovative ways to harness the power of volunteerism to solve our nation’s most pressing challenges. The coalition has grown rapidly since its inception and now includes more than 80 Mayors representing more than 43 million Americans.

On January 18th, 2010, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley joined Rockefeller Foundation President Dr. Judith Rodin to announce the ten winners of the first-ever Cities of Service Leadership Grants. The $200,000 grants, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation,allow each city to hire a Chief Service Officer, a senior city official dedicated to developing and implementing a citywide plan to increase volunteerism and target volunteers to address their city's greatest needs. The Chief Service Officer acts as a force-multiplier, leveraging local resources and creativity to expand the capacity to engage citizens in addressing local challenges.

Due to the extraordinary response from cities to the first request for proposals, Cities of Service has announced a second round of Cities of Service Leadership Grants. Funded jointly by the Rockefeller Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the $200,000 grants will be awarded to an additional ten cities. This will further expand the network of Chief Service Officers working on behalf of mayors and their cities, and accelerate and strengthen local leadership just as federal investment in service and public discussion about service reach new heights.

Cities of Service Leadership Grants are administered by The Fund for Cities of Service, a 501(c)(3) formed to support the mayors’ coalition.

Who Can Apply?

To be considered for the two-year Cities of Service Leadership Grants, a city’s mayor must be a member of the Cities of Service coalition. Coalition members have signed a Declaration of Service, thereby committing to:

• Develop a comprehensive service plan and a coordinated strategy focused on matching volunteers and established community partners to the areas of greatest local need;
  
  
• Work with other mayors and elected officials to advance strategies and best practices that accelerate the service movement and produce measurable results;
  
  
• Encourage other mayors to join this national effort to engage our citizens; and
  
  
• Ensure that the voice of cities is heard in federal legislative, policy, and program discussions related to service, which will help the country achieve the ambitious goals of the Serve America Act.

The Coalition is open to all mayors who agree to these provisos. Mayors interested in joining the Cities of Service coalition should visit: www.citiesofservice.org for registration. 

While the Coalition is open to all mayors, cities interested in applying for the Cities of Service Leadership Grant must have at least 100,000 residents according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 Population Estimate and be home to at least one community college or a four-year public or private university.

The Application

Applications must be submitted by the city’s Office of the Mayor.  Applications from nonprofits or other external groups on behalf of a mayor will not be accepted. The grant application should:

1. Grant Narrative (5 pages maximum)

• Outline a plan to assess existing service levels and stakeholders within the city by December 30, 2010. This landscape analysis should establish a benchmark to be used for comparison purposes moving forward. Administration experts, nonprofit organizations local universities, local funders, and other key stakeholders should be convened to complete the assessment, and the application should lay out the stakeholders’ roles in the development of the plan.
  
  
• Explain how the city will produce a coordinated citywide plan - by December 30, 2010 - that will include detailed and specific initiatives to increase service. The planning process should involve administration experts, nonprofit organizations, local universities, local funders, and other key stakeholders. To be clear, the application is not meant to be your service plan. It is your step-by-step strategy to develop your service plan.
  
  
• Describe how the city will meaningfully engage local universities in the development and implementation of the service plan. The development and implementation of the service plan can and should include universities at a variety of levels, including university leadership, academic and research support, and student participation. It is not sufficient to only present strategies to increase the number of student volunteers. Although capacity-building is crucial, there are additional ways to partner with colleges and universities at all stages of the process.
  
  
• Lay out the process by which the city will appoint a Chief Service Officer who reports directly to the mayor or a deputy mayor or other appropriate designee by September 10, 2010. If it makes more sense for the Chief Service Officer to sit in another government department/agency, please explain in the application why this is so. It’s more important that the CSO be a senior official than sit in a particular office. You must demonstrate that the status your CSO will have within the administration is commensurate with other high-ranking officials. Your application should include an organizational chart delineating the reporting structure for the CSO AND the average salaries of similarly senior employees within the Mayor’s Office.
  
  
• Identify at least two existing local high priority areas in which to target volunteerism, and demonstrate how the city will use service to advance existing or enhanced work in these challenge areas, including proposed outcomes and plans for measurement. These should be content (not geographic) areas, and can be an extension of existing administration priorities. For example, one of New York City’s high priority areas is public health. Four service initiatives were developed to address public health issues. One of the initiatives, Flu Fighters, used service as a key strategy in responding to the H1N1 inoculation crisis. NYC Service partnered with the City’s Health Department to recruit community members to educate the public, dispel myths, provide referrals and build support. The City leveraged its pipeline of NYC Service volunteers to act as an extension of City government, reaching thousands of children and parents with planning information and additional professional medical capacity to administer immunizations. 

2. Existing Service Efforts (1 page maximum)

Applications should also include a separate 1-page summary of existing service and volunteer efforts led by the mayor and/or the city. This summary should describe the purpose of each project, program, or initiative as well as the role played by the mayor and/or city in its development and implementation. If available, please provide data on the impact of the service initiatives that have been undertaken. This summary should demonstrate the mayor’s past commitment to service and volunteerism.

3. Letters of Support (5 letters maximum)

Applications should be accompanied by five letters of support from organizations that represent the diversity of the local population and have broad reach within the community. You must include a letter of support from a local college or university, and special consideration will be given to applications which include letters of support from local funders. These letters should be written to Cities of Service and not addressed to any one individual. The five letters of support should be included in your application submission but do not count towards the page limits outlined above. Do not include any more than five letters of support.

Terms of the Grant

Grants will be awarded in the amount of $100,000 each year for a period of two years, to be used for the Chief Service Officer’s compensation. Given that the cost of living may differ across cities, grantees are free to allot the annual award appropriately to both salary and benefits or solely to salary, provided that the city agrees to cover the cost of benefits. The Chief Service Officer’s salary should be appropriate for that of a senior staff member. 

Funds are intended solely for the salary and benefits of the Chief Service Officer. If an applicant city can demonstrate that the funding exceeds the salary and benefits of the CSO, they may include a proposal for allocation of the additional funds to activities and expenses that further the development and/or implementation of the comprehensive service plan.

In addition to their local responsibilities, Chief Service Officers will also spend a small portion of their time serving as a primary point of contact with the national Cities of Service coalition and as a liaison to local and regional Cities of Service members, service organizations, and other key stakeholders. The CSO’s state, regional, and national duties will include, but are not limited to:

• Working with other cities in the Cities of Service coalition to develop and implement cooperative information-sharing efforts.
• Serving as a resource to city intergovernmental staff, local and regional legislators on service policy.
• Working with Cities of Service and state commissions to recruit additional mayors to the coalition.
• Working to activate regional mayors for events, collective service efforts, public education, and advocacy efforts.  In this capacity, the CSO would also assist in research, education, and advocacy activity related to the coalition’s legislative agenda.

Selection

Grant recipients will be notified by June 30, 2010. The first installment of the grants will be distributed upon the hiring of the Chief Service Officer, which must be completed by September 10, 2010, though recipient cities are encouraged to do so earlier.  By December 30, 2010, grantee cities must have conducted an assessment of existing service levels and stakeholders and have concluded a citywide planning process to produce a comprehensive service plan. The final report that outlines the comprehensive service plan must be produced by March 30, 2011. Again, grantee cities are encouraged to do so earlier. By June 30, 2011, grantee cities must also have submitted a progress report and put into operation a website or other appropriate technological tool to facilitate residents’ participation in service.

In addition to the strength of the application, the Fund for Cities of Service will consider geographic diversity in the grant selection process.

To support your efforts to draft a proposal we have compiled information on the common characteristics of successful applications from the first round of grants, a resource available exclusively to member mayors. Applicant cities who have not yet joined Cities of Service should do so to receive this helpful guide.

Applications are due by 5:00pm EST on April 10, 2010 and should be submitted electronically to CitiesOfService@cityhall.nyc.gov. All documents should be single-spaced with 1-inch margins and use a standard typeface (Times New Roman or Arial) of no smaller than 11-point size.

Any questions regarding this grant application may be directed to CitiesOfService@cityhall.nyc.gov.