This brief describes the reporting practices used by the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), the burden associated with the reporting process and the limitations of the resulting information for understanding how CSBG funds are used by eligible entities. CSBG provides flexible funds to states, territories, and tribes to support services that alleviate the causes and conditions of poverty and promote self-sufficiency, particularly by planning, coordination, and organization of local services, innovation, and community participation. Key findings include:
- CSBG reporting covers all services provided by the non-governmental organizations that receive CSBG funds, not only those specifically funded by CSBG. This may inflate the impact of the CSBG, since these funds make up only 5 percent of total funding for entities that receive it, and represent just $63 for every individual served.
- CSBG reporting is extremely burdensome. Past reporting required over an estimated 500,000 annual burden hours across states, tribes, and eligible entities to complete, and at an estimated cost of nearly $16 million.
- A new CSBG reporting protocol is currently being phased in to cut reporting burden nearly in half, though the direct use of CSBG funds in relation to services will still not be captured.
- Use of CSBG funds could be better documented through increasing transparency and having reporting requirements focus on what activities are directly funded by CSBG rather than describing all services provided by entities that receive CSBG funds.
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