AmeriCorps Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service Grants 94.014

The Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps) awarded 11 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service grants totaling $8.25 million in federal funding on October 1, 2026, with three-year performance periods ending September 30, 2029. Assistance Listing 94.014 supports nonprofit and government organizations that mobilize volunteers to observe MLK's federal holiday through community service projects, encourage sustained civic engagement among participants, and address immediate local needs or systemic equity issues. The program is exclusively Project Grants and has distributed $10.7 million in federal funding across 45 awards since 2017, with combined total funding of $40.9 million when including recipient cost-share contributions. Recent awards show an accelerating cadence: 11 awards in 2026, up from 4–5 per year in prior recent years. All awards across the portfolio have been funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service Office of Grants Management.

Award amounts range widely by geography and project scope. Recent October 2026 awards include $1.69 million to an applicant in one state, $777 thousand to another, and multiple awards between $334 thousand and $500 thousand. All recent 2026 awards impose a 70 percent statutory match requirement on recipients, with budgeted cost-share typically at or slightly above the regulatory floor. Awarded projects span food assistance, shoe distribution to impoverished populations, volunteer literacy tutoring, community beautification, emergency preparedness training, and youth volunteer mobilization across metropolitan areas and rural communities nationwide. Samaritan's Feet engaged 1,400 volunteers to distribute new shoes in 13 cities; The Mission Continues mobilized 1,500 veterans for infrastructure and blight removal in 40 metropolitan areas; and Youth Service America organized 25,000 K-12 student volunteers in school-based service across multiple states.

The FY 2026 opportunity (Solicitation AC-04-01-2026) closed on April 30, 2026, after posting April 1, 2026. It accepted applications from 501(c)(3) nonprofits, tribal governments and organizations, city and county governments, state governments, and public and private higher education institutions. No current open opportunity is in the source as of mid-October 2026; the next solicitation cycle typically follows an annual posting pattern in spring.