WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Corporation for National and Community Service’s (CNCS) Social Innovation Fund (SIF) today announced that AARP Foundation received $3 million in investments, the results of a highly competitive open grant competition. The investment, announced at the SIF’s Annual Grantee Convening, in Washington, D.C., will help expand innovative, evidence-based solutions to challenges facing low-income older adults in communities across the country

Five years into the program launched by President Obama in 2009, the Social Innovation Fund and its non-federal partners have committed to invest more than $700 million in effective community solutions. Including the grants announced today, the SIF portfolio now represents a $229.3 million federal investment in partnership with 27 intermediaries co-investing in 217 nonprofits in 37 states and Washington, DC. This modest federal investment is expected to leverage more than $540 million in non-federal match commitments.

AARP Foundation, in partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Social Innovation Fund, will use a competitive grant program to identify community colleges in five states to build on preliminary evidence of AARP Foundation’s BACK TO WORK 50+ model. This model focuses on increasing measurable outcomes for low-income women 50+ related to the critical interplay between training for and obtaining a job with family-sustaining wages; and building the financial capability to make sound decisions that reduce debt, rebuild savings and pave the way to greater financial stability.

The AARP Foundation/SIF initiative will build on its initial community college pilot sites located in New Mexico, Central Texas, Alabama, South Carolina and Northern Florida, dedicating resources to evaluate the program.

“We are excited about this new class of Social Innovation Fund grantees because they are among the most cutting edge grant-makers in social innovation,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. “The investment in these organizations will not only bolster local programs’ capacity to serve more individuals in need, but also provide communities with programs that work.”

“Higher education has long been a resource for older adult women,” said AARP Foundation President Lisa Marsh Ryerson. “We believe that collaborating with these important institutions will allow us to collectively build a model to be even more effective in helping this often ignored population secure work and reach financial stability.  With this generous grant we can set the stage to scale the program across the community college system while adapting the model to other systems in underserved communities.”

This new class of grantees represents several firsts for the SIF, and addresses the major funding priorities of this competition to reemphasize innovation, expand opportunity for those in greatest need and champion collective impact over incremental programmatic gains. The 2014 cohort includes the SIF’s first two community foundation grantees, expansion to high-needs populations in the Southeast, Southwest and Northern California, and programs focused on older women facing economic hardship, childhood hunger and Opportunity Youth (youth 16-24 disconnected from school and work). And, in an overwhelming response to a new funding priority, all seven grantees will be leveraging, and testing, a Collective Impact model, where communities work collaboratively across sectors to identify challenges, set goals and track progress together.

“Five years ago the Social Innovation Fund was created to find solutions that work, and make them work for more people – signaling a shift in the way the government and philanthropy invest in community solutions. Five years later, we’ve become a national solutions accelerator and amplifier, investing hundreds of millions of dollars, along with our private sector partners, to prove, improve and scale solutions that work. This newest class of grantees will take our work to new heights and deeper depths, with a greater emphasis on collective impact and data-driven mobilization, and an urgent focus on big bets to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing our communities,” said Michael Smith, Director of the Social Innovation Fund.  

In the next several months AARP Foundation will hold an open competition to select innovative, effective community colleges to receive three- to five-year grants to implement and rigorously evaluate the BACK TO WORK 50+ model. Selected subgrantees will work closely with AARP Foundation and the SIF to implement rigorous evaluation plans that will increase levels of evidence and lead to replicable models and meaningful lessons for the broader social sector.

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About AARP Foundation

AARP Foundation is working to win back opportunity for struggling Americans 50+ by being a force for change on the most serious issues they face today: housing, hunger, income and isolation. By coordinating responses to these issues on all four fronts at once, and supporting them with vigorous legal advocacy, the Foundation serves the unique needs of those 50+ while working with local organizations nationwide to reach more people, strengthen communities, work more efficiently and make resources go further. AARP Foundation is AARP’s affiliated charity. Learn more at www.aarpfoundation.org.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service and champions community solutions through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads the President's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.

About AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of nearly 38 million, that helps people turn their goals and dreams into real possibilities, strengthens communities and fights for the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare, employment and income security, retirement planning, affordable utilities and protection from financial abuse. We advocate for individuals in the marketplace by selecting products and services of high quality and value to carry the AARP name as well as help our members obtain discounts on a wide range of products, travel, and services. A trusted source for lifestyle tips, news and educational information, AARP produces AARP The Magazine, the world's largest circulation magazine; AARP Bulletin; www.aarp.org;AARP TV & Radio; AARP Books; and AARP en Español, a Spanish-language website addressing the interests and needs of Hispanics. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates. The AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. AARP has staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Learn more at www.aarp.org.

Contact:
Hillary John
Charlotte Castillo
(202) 434-2560
Media@aarp.org