Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund by the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

Deadline: 23 April 2014

The US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) has launched the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) 2014 to to harness the leadership capacity of exchange program alumni worldwide. This is an opportunity for more than one million current alumni of United States government-sponsored exchange programs to form partnerships with one another and tackle a broad range of global issues at the local, national, regional, and international levels.

AEIF awards up to $25,000 to winning teams of alumni to fund their innovative projects based on issues such as education, gender, the environment, development, women’s training, entrepreneurship, interfaith understanding, and many more.

Alumni can request from $5,000 to $25,000 in support of their project.

Themes for AEIF 2014 –

    Empowering Women
    Outreach to Underserved Communities
    Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment
    Expanded Access to Education
    Environmental Protection
    Government Transparency
    Freedom of Expression
    Conflict Resolution
    Citizen Security
    Promoting Civil Society

Timeline –

    23 April – Application Deadline
    6 May – Finalists are announced, and alumni can log in to vote for their favorite projects
    27 May – Final Proposals Deadline
    Last June – AEIF 2014 winners announcement

Eligibility Criteria –

    Each team must have at least 5 members who are current or former participants of a U.S. government-sponsored exchange program.
    U.S. citizens can be team members but, because awards are distributed through U.S. Embassies and activities must be carried out abroad, no U.S. citizen can serve as a team leader on any project.
    Each team must have at least 3 non-U.S. citizen alumni team members.
    Each team can have up to 2 U.S. alumni team members.
    Each team must include at least one alumnus/na from a State Department-sponsored exchange program.
    Multi-country alumni cooperation is encouraged where it serves the needs of a project. This is not a requirement.
    An alumnus/na may not serve as a team leader on more than one project per category. An alumnus/na may, however, be a team member of several projects under the same category. An alumnus/na may serve as a team leader of multiple projects only if the projects fall under different project categories. No one may be a team leader or a team member for more than three projects.
    Proposals must be submitted in English.

For more information, please visit Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund.