The Monthly Roll - Tampa Bay November 2013 - v1i1 | Page 8

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Bring BEST Volunteers to Your Community!
Already slammed with a busy fall and upcoming holiday season?
Fret not - there's more time to bring BEST Volunteers to
your Community!

Proposals are now due on Monday, December 2, 2013 at 12:00 Noon
Volunteer Florida’s BEST Volunteers program will build the capacity of nonprofit organizations to recruit,
manage and support skills-based volunteers — including veterans and military families, unemployed and
under-employed individuals and boomers – through a series of comprehensive trainings and mini-grants. The
program will utilize the power of volunteerism to strengthen nonprofits’ capacity; help skills-based volunteers
to utilize existing talents and garner new skills, which could also be a pathway to employment; and meet
critical community needs.
Funding for BEST Volunteers is provided as part of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)
Volunteer Generation Fund, which is designed to focus upon the need to recruit, manage, and retain more
volunteers to address pressing social challenges. Florida was one of 17 states to receive a Volunteer
Generation Fund grant. Totaling approximately $4 million in federal funding, these investments help
strengthen volunteer recruitment and retention, expand the nation’s volunteer pool, and create a sustainable
infrastructure of volunteer connector organizations to increase the impact of volunteers in solving local
problems.

Purpose of Funding:
Volunteer Florida proposes to strengthen the capacity of volunteer connector organizations to recruit, manage,
support and retain skills-based volunteers to serve in high quality volunteer assignments. The BEST Volunteers
program will use evidence-based principles of service as a strategy and volunteering-as-a-pathway-to-work
research to help meet escalating needs and affect change in the lives of those who serve, as well as those
being served. BEST Volunteers will target skills-based volunteers, including veterans and military families,
unemployed and under-employed individuals and baby boomers. The benefits to this approach are three-fold:
service organizations, which are especially stretched in this recovering economy, will have increased capacity;
skills-based volunteers will utilize existing skills and garner new skills, which may also be a pathway to
employment; and critical community needs will be met. The BEST Volunteers program will provide subgrants
and conduct relevant, comprehensive training, with emphasis on increasing the number of skills-based
volunteers, service hours, and types of activities. The BEST Volunteers program will strengthen the capacity of
volunteer connector organizations receiving subgrants by providing an in-depth strength-based assessment to
identify resources, challenges and areas of need.
Sub-grantees will receive a comprehensive, multi-phased training curriculum, funding for program
enhancements, ongoing technical assistance and coaching to establish a Skills-Based Volunteer program.
Volunteer Florida will make available up to $315,000, to a maximum of twenty-one (21) sub-grants of $10,000
in grant funds and $5,000 in training support for the Volunteer Generation Fund (VGF) initiative, Build-EngageSustain-and-Transform (BEST) Skills-Based Volunteer Program. The FY2013 Volunteer Generation Fund grant is
a ONE year grant.
Go to this website to download the RFP (PDF) ----? tinyurl.com/nefcrct
Application Due Date: - Monday, December 2, 2013 at 12:00 Noon
For more information, visit the BEST Volunteers web site at:www.volunteerflorida.org/BESTvolunteers