Allowable and Prohibited Activities

Created by: Candace Hollingsworth
Modified on: November 11, 2022

AmeriCorps: Allowable & Prohibited Activities

Members must spend at least 80% of their total term hours on direct service. They may spend up to 20% on education and/or training. Members may spend up to 10% on fundraising.

Direct service is work that addresses human needs, the environment and environmental education, conservation, public safety, and/or disaster relief/emergency response and on the job training for service related activities. It is working directly with people or for a community to make change, or doing work that is involved in making that direct change. It can be outreach, case management, training, teaching, tutoring, mediating, cleaning, counseling, recruiting volunteers, preparing for class, coaching, listening, cooking, serving, providing health care, food, clothing, and on and on… Direct service hours should constitute 80% or more of an AmeriCorps member’s total hours served. The remainder will be indirect service hours.

Indirect service hours, or education and training, hours are only applicable when they reflect the AmeriCorps service that the member credits to the education award s/he will receive. All orientations, including the AmeriCorps orientation, would be included if they are given after the member’s actual start date. State or regional trainings, seminars, GED or other education classes, life skills and job skills training, etc. also may count. Only up to 20% of the entire member’s credited service hours can be dedicated to education and training. If a member spends more hours on this, it cannot count on towards their term of service.

Fundraising – AmeriCorps members may spend up to 10% of their hours on fundraising activities. This time should come out of the Direct Service Hours.

All AmeriCorps service activities will take place in the United States or U.S. territories only.
Hours must be logged on a timesheet, signed/dated by the member and staff.
Any activities that are not applicable to a member’s education award hours are listed on the Prohibited Activities sheet.
If members are in residential programs, they may not count activities such as preparing meals or cleaning residential areas, or outside activities that are not part of their direct service or education as AmeriCorps hours.
The 20% education and training hours are for your entire TCN AmeriCorps grant so if some members need to log more than 20% and some less that is fine as long as, as a whole, you they don’t exceed it.

Prohibited Activities

Subgrantees must consider the allowable and prohibited activities when creating the Member Position Descriptions. All AmeriCorps staff, host agency staff and project partners/sponsors must be educated in these as well.

During one of the CNCS audits of Member Position Descriptions they found the following unacceptable/prohibited activities listed:

“One position description outlined a member’s service as conducting policy work in the office of a Member of Congress. Serving in a congressional office is a prohibited activity. The AmeriCorps member in question did not receive any credit for any of the hours spent working in the congressional office…

We also noticed some activities that merited discussion and clarification with grantees. We found:

Clerical duties assigned to AmeriCorps members. This is not allowable.
Lack of clarity related to AmeriCorps member role that raised concerns about staff displacement.
Lack of clarity about what people recruited as volunteers by AmeriCorps members would be doing.
Some activities that were allowable but were unclear about the community impact or benefit that service would produce.”

Remember, you must be specific in the position descriptions – do not include “other duties as assigned”.

Members may not engage in any of the activities above and below.

See sample position description in Section V Pre-Enrollment of the Manual.

2020 Terms & Conditions

V. SUPERVISION AND SUPPORT

C. Prohibited Activities

While charging time to the AmeriCorps program, accumulating service or training hours, or otherwise performing activities supported by the AmeriCorps program or CNCS, staff and members may not engage in the following activities (see 45 CFR § 2520.65):

Attempting to influence legislation;
Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes;
Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing;
Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements;
Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office;
Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials;
Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization;
Providing a direct benefit to—
1. A business organized for profit;
2. A labor union;
3. A partisan political organization;
4. A nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 related to engaging in political activities or substantial amount of lobbying except that nothing in these provisions shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and
5. An organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph C. 7. above, unless CNCS assistance is not used to support those religious activities;
Conducting a voter registration drive or using CNCS funds to conduct a voter registration drive;
Providing abortion services or referrals for receipt of such services; and
Such other activities as CNCS may prohibit.

In addition to the above activities, the below activities are additionally prohibited:

Census Activities. AmeriCorps members and volunteers associated with AmeriCorps grants may not engage in census activities during service hours. Being a census taker during service hours is categorically prohibited. Census-related activities (e.g., promotion of the Census, education about the importance of the Census) do not align with AmeriCorps State and National objectives. What members and volunteers do on their own time is up to them, consistent with program policies about outside employment and activities.

Election and Polling Activities. AmeriCorps members may not provide services for election or polling locations or in support of such activities.

AmeriCorps members may not engage in the above activities directly or indirectly by recruiting, training, or managing others for the primary purpose of engaging in one of the activities listed above. Individuals may exercise their rights as private citizens and may participate in the activities listed above on their initiative, on non-AmeriCorps time, and using non-CNCS funds. Individuals should not wear the AmeriCorps logo while doing engaging in any of the above activities on their personal time. All locations where members serve should post a list of the prohibited activities, when possible.

Clarification from our Program Officer (2016) on administrative and other duties:

Basically for administrative and clerical duties, members should never spend significant amounts of time engaged in these types of activities.

If a Position Description has what appears to be administrative task, the Subgrantee must provide The Corps Network with a better sense of how much time is being spent on a particular activity. However, this is appropriate for members on “lite duty” due to injury instead of suspension.
If a member’s service cannot be solely to the organization, it must meet an identifiable community need.
If a member is engaged in capacity building, the Subgrantee must demonstrate to The Corps Network how the capacity building activity allowed the program to serve more people or provide more effective or efficient service delivery to the community.

§ 2533.10 Eligible activities.

The Corporation may support — either directly or through a grant, contract or agreement — any activity designed to meet the purposes described in part 2531 of this chapter. These activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Community-based agencies. The Corporation may provide training and technical assistance and other assistance to project sponsors and other community-based agencies that provide volunteer placements in order to improve the ability of such agencies to use participants and other volunteers in a manner that results in high-quality service and a positive service experience for the participants and volunteers.
Improve ability to apply for assistance. The Corporation will provide training and technical assistance, where necessary, to individuals, programs, local labor organizations, State educational agencies, State Commissions, local educational agencies, local governments, community-based agencies, and other entities to enable them to apply for funding under one of the national service laws, to conduct high-quality programs, to evaluate such programs, and for other purposes.
Conferences and materials. The Corporation may organize and hold conferences, and prepare and publish materials, to disseminate information and promote the sharing of information among programs for the purpose of improving the quality of programs and projects.
Peace Corps and VISTA training. The Corporation may provide training assistance to selected individuals who volunteer to serve in the Peace Corps or a program authorized under title I of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 (42 U.S.C. 4951 et seq.). The training will be provided as part of the course of study of the individual at an institution of higher education, involve service-learning, and cover appropriate skills that the individual will use in the Peace Corps or VISTA.
Promotion and recruitment. The Corporation may conduct a campaign to solicit funds for the National Service Trust and other programs and activities authorized under the national service laws and to promote and recruit participants for programs that receive assistance under the national service laws.
Training. The Corporation may support national and regional participant and supervisor training, including leadership training and training in specific types of service and in building the ethic of civic responsibility.
Research. The Corporation may support research on national service, including service-learning.
Intergenerational support. The Corporation may assist programs in developing a service component that combines students, out-of-school youths, and older adults as participants to provide needed community services.
Planning coordination. The Corporation may coordinate community-wide planning among programs and projects.
Youth leadership. The Corporation may support activities to enhance the ability of youth and young adults to play leadership roles in national service.
National program identity. The Corporation may support the development and dissemination of materials, including training materials, and arrange for uniforms and insignia, designed to promote unity and shared features among programs that receive assistance under the national service laws.
Service-learning. The Corporation will support innovative programs and activities that promote service-learning.
National youth service day —
1. Designation. April 19, 1994, and April 18, 1995 are each designated as “National Youth Service Day”. The President is authorized and directed to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
2. Federal activities. In order to observe National Youth Service Day at the Federal level, the Corporation may organize and carry out appropriate ceremonies and activities.
3. Activities. The Corporation may make grants to public or private nonprofit organizations with demonstrated ability to carry out appropriate activities, in order to support such activities on National Youth Service Day.
Clearinghouses —
1. Authority. The Corporation may establish clearinghouses, either directly or through a grant or contract. Any service-learning clearinghouse to be established pursuant to part 2518 of this chapter is eligible to apply for a grant under this section. In addition, public or private nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply for clearinghouse grants.
2. Function. A Clearinghouse may perform the following activities:
  1. Assist entities carrying out State or local community service programs with needs assessments and planning;
  2. Conduct research and evaluations concerning community service;
  3. Provide leadership development and training to State and local community service program administrators, supervisors, and participants; and provide training to persons who can provide such leadership development and training;
  4. Facilitate communication among entities carrying out community service programs and participants;
  5. Provide information, curriculum materials, and technical assistance relating to planning and operation of community service programs, to States and local entities eligible to receive funds under this chapter;
  6. Gather and disseminate information on successful community service programs, components of such successful programs, innovative youth skills curriculum, and community service projects;
  7. Coordinate the activities of the clearinghouse with appropriate entities to avoid duplication of effort;
  8. Make recommendations to State and local entities on quality controls to improve the delivery of community service programs and on changes in the programs under this chapter; and
  9. Carry out such other activities as the Chief Executive Officer determines to be appropriate.
Assistance for Head Start. The Corporation may make grants to, and enter into contracts and cooperative agreements with, public or nonprofit private agencies and organizations that receive grants or contracts under the Foster Grandparent Program (part B of title II of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 5011 et seq.)), for projects of the type described in section 211(a) of such Act (29 U.S.C. 5011) operating under memoranda of agreement with the ACTION Agency, for the purpose of increasing the number of low-income individuals who provide services under such program to children who participate in Head Start programs under the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et seq.).
Other assistance. The Corporation may support other activities that are consistent with the purposes described in part 2531 of this chapter. 59 FR 13807, Mar. 23, 1994. Re-designated and amended at 75 FR 51413 and 51415, Aug. 20, 2010]

§ 2520.25 What direct service activities may AmeriCorps members perform?

The AmeriCorps members you support under your grant may perform direct service activities that will advance the goals of your program, that will result in a specific identifiable service or improvement that otherwise would not be provided, and that are included in, or consistent with, your Corporation-approved grant application.
Your members’ direct service activities must address local environmental, educational, public safety (including disaster preparedness and response), or other human needs.
Direct service activities generally refer to activities that provide a direct, measurable benefit to an individual, a group, or a community.
Examples of the types of direct service activities AmeriCorps members may perform include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Tutoring children in reading;
2. Helping to run an after-school prog