Grant Information

Service to Success Competitive Grant Request for Proposal

The Service to Success program is a competitive grant funding opportunity through the Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Office of Public Service (OPS).

The purpose of the Service to Success Grant is to create, strengthen, and expand career pathways aligned to public service opportunities. A service to career pathway, for the purposes of this opportunity, is defined as a public service program that provides sustained service opportunities to members/participants while also providing training, support, and exposure to a specific career opportunity. These opportunities may include a low or no cost way for members/participants to earn credits, credentials, certifications, or license in a specific career field that public service members can earn through the course of their service.

This Request for Proposals (RFP) seeks to fund programs that support the transition of individuals from public service, including AmeriCorps, VISTA, NCCC, etc. into sustainable career pathways. Programs are intended to align service-based experience with industry-recognized careers by building intentional bridges from service programs into the workforce. Funds may be used to expand access to public service to career pathways (e.g. recruit more public service participants, add additional certifications to existing pathways, more career placements, etc.) and to fund innovations that create new education or workforce partnerships and/or create innovative service to career pathways (e.g. establish new pathways from service to careers, engaging new sectors in service to career). Where possible, programs will align with one of the following workforce priority areas: health/elder care, education, civil or public service, climate and environmental careers, food security/agriculture.

If an awarded organization is unable to expend the award or complete the grant execution, DEED reserves the right to reallocate awarded funds to other organizations who have been awarded Service to Success grants, have demonstrated satisfactory grant performance, and have the ability to utilize additional funds.

If awarded, DEED reserves the right to require changes to the awarded proposal at time of grant agreement negotiations.

Request for Proposals

Deadline

Applications must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. Central Time, on May 1, 2026. No paper submissions will be accepted. Late applications will not be accepted. Applications should be submitted online at https://deedmn.formstack.com/forms/servicetosuccess

Questions, Technical Assistance and Information Sessions

All questions regarding this RFP must be submitted by email to publicservice.DEED@state.mn.us. All questions and answers will be posted weekly at: https://mn.gov/deed/about/contracts/open-rfp.jsp and Office of Public Service webpage.

Deadline for questions to be submitted is Thursday, April 23 at 4:00 p.m. Central Time.

An optional informational webinar about the Service to Success grant was held on Tuesday, April 7 2026 at 10:00 a.m.

For technical assistance for the grant application portal, submit questions to GMS.DEED@state.mn.us.