22 U.S.C. § 8303 — Office of Volunteers for Prosperity

(a) Functions. The VfP Office works toward the VfP Program's goals (listed in subsection (b)) in seven ways. It runs the VfPServe Program, which gives matching grants to skilled professionals to help cover the travel and living costs of volunteering abroad with nonprofits. It promotes short-term and long-term international volunteering by skilled Americans, including by connecting them with nonprofits. It helps U.S. nonprofits recruit and manage more skilled American volunteers for assignments in developing countries. It recognizes skilled American volunteers and the organizations that send them. It helps nonprofits and U.S. corporations find resources and opportunities for skilled Americans to volunteer internationally. It encourages U.S. corporations to set up international volunteer programs for their employees. And it encourages highly skilled Americans to volunteer internationally to promote health and prosperity around the world. (b) VfP Program objectives. The Program should aim to: eliminate extreme poverty; reduce world hunger and malnutrition; increase access to safe drinking water; achieve universal education; reduce child deaths and childhood diseases; fight preventable diseases including HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis; support girls' education and job skills and empower women toward independence; create sustainable business and entrepreneurial opportunities; and increase access to information technology. (c) Volunteers for Prosperity Service Incentive Program. The VfP Office may give matching grants covering travel and living costs to any organization whose members have skills relevant to the goals in subsection (b), as long as the organization matches the grant dollar-for-dollar — either through the group the volunteer is serving with, or by raising private money. The Office cannot give a stipend to a volunteer unless the nonprofit sending that volunteer certifies it does not discriminate, in any project getting federal money (including this stipend), based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, political affiliation, or political beliefs. Money under this program also cannot fund service that directly benefits a for-profit business, a labor union, a partisan political organization, or a religious organization's efforts to convert people, hold worship, or carry out other explicitly religious activities. (d) Funding. The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) must give the VfP Office the money Congress appropriates under section 8304 of this title, so the Office can pursue the subsection (b) goals by carrying out the subsection (a) functions. The Office may use that money for staff and other resources to build up and run the VfP Program, under USAID's supervision. (e) Coordination. The VfP Office must coordinate its work with other public and private efforts that also send skilled professionals to serve in developing countries. (f) Report. The VfP Office must send Congress an annual report on what it has done.