Congress Agrees to $50-Million for Social Innovation Fund, Cuts Volunteer and Capacity-Building Fund 12/10/09

Congressional negotiators have agreed to allocate $50-million in the 2010 fiscal year for the new Social Innovation Fund, which will provide grants to help promising nonprofit groups expand effective programs - the full amount requested by President Obama. However, in a deal http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/FY10_LHHS_Conference_Summary.pdf yesterday on the Corporation for National and Community Service budget, a House-Senate conference committee decided to trim spending on two other programs designed to help nonprofit groups - the Volunteer Generation Fund and the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program. The Capacity Building program will begin its first year with $1 million in funding, well below what was hoped for by nonprofit advocates, including CAN, who have lobbied for several years to create the program, but nevertheless a new step in the right direction for government support of nonprofits.