City Year is an education organization that places young adult volunteers in public schools and grants its staff student loans. It operates as an AmeriCorps program and receives most of its funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and AmeriCorps in the form of federal grants. ^[1] City Year has operations in 28 U.S. cities, England and South Africa. ^[2]

Operations

CNCS, the parent organization to AmeriCorps and City Year funnels money into both using federal funds and federal grants like the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. ^[3]

Once City Year employees complete a minimum 11-month tenure and leave City Year, they become eligible to apply for a federally funded Segal Education Award through AmeriCorps. ^[4]

History

In 1992, then-President Bill Clinton worked with City Year founders Michael Brown and Alan Khazei to create AmeriCorps through the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. ^[5] In 2001, Clinton organized with former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela a City Year program in Johannesburg, which was founded by 2005. ^[6] City Year opened three locations in the United Kingdom in 2010, 2013, and 2015.

In early 2019 the Milwaukee chapter of City Year hosted an annual dinner that was co-hosted by Alex Lasry, who worked in the White House for the Obama administration. ^{[7] [8]}

Partnerships

In 2017, City Year partnered with K&L Gates LLP, one of the largest law firms in the U.S. K&L Gates donates to and politically advocates for left-wing organizations. ^{[9] [10]}

In early 2019, Serve DC missed the deadline to apply for more than $3.5 million in grants for public schools and organizations, which included $2.8 million in compensation for 190 City Year staff in Washington, D.C. Samantha Jo Warfield of the CNCS noted “Whatever their explanation was, not only was it not submitted on time, but it didn’t meet the justification for extenuating circumstances.” ^[11]

In June 2019, City Year accepted sponsorship from the bank BNY Mellon. ^[12]

Donor Organizations

• Adobe Foundation
• Aramark
• AT&T
• Bain Capital
• Bank of America
• Celanese Foundation
• Cicso Foundation
• Comcast NBCUniversal
• CSX Transportation
• Deloitte
• Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
• New York Life Foundation
• Microsoft
• PepsiCo Foundation
• Red Nose Day