Opportunity Information: Apply for SFOP0010305
The FY 2024 Youth Ambassadors Programs grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number SFOP0010305) is a U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) competition run through ECA's Office of Citizen Exchanges, Youth Programs Division. It supports the design and delivery of three separate regional Youth Ambassadors exchange programs (formerly called Youth Leadership Programs) that partner with select countries in three regions: East Asia and Pacific (EAP), Europe and Eurasia (EUR), and the Middle East and North Africa (NEA). The intent is to bring groups of international youth to the United States for a structured, four-week exchange that builds practical civic knowledge and leadership skills while strengthening cross-cultural understanding. Each region is treated as its own program track, and ECA expects to make three awards total, essentially one award per region.
At the core of every proposed program is a four-week, U.S.-based exchange focused on civic education, leadership development, respect for diversity, and community engagement. Applicants are expected to build programming that exposes participants to U.S. civic life and democratic practices through workshops, meetings, site visits, community-based learning, and leadership activities, while also creating real opportunities for participants to practice what they learn. A key feature is that the exchange is not meant to end when participants return home: the grant also supports follow-on service projects that youth implement in their home communities, translating the exchange experience into tangible local impact. In other words, the program is structured to produce both learning outcomes during the U.S. visit and measurable community engagement outcomes afterward.
The opportunity includes a few region-specific requirements. For the EAP and NEA programs, proposals should include engagement of approximately 3 to 5 adult mentors who participate in programming alongside the youth participants, which adds an intergenerational or coaching component that can help sustain project planning and leadership development after the exchange. For the NEA exchanges, competitively selected U.S. secondary school students are expected to join the international participants during the U.S.-based activities, which makes the NEA track explicitly binational in the exchange setting and increases peer-to-peer interaction and mutual learning between U.S. and foreign youth.
Funding is provided through a cooperative agreement, meaning the U.S. government will have substantial involvement in the execution of the program compared to a standard grant. The maximum award amount listed is $650,000, and the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding under CFDA 19.415, with the activity category listed as "Other." The application deadline was May 20, 2024, and the notice was created March 18, 2024. While the announcement signals that more details are in the full NOFO, the summary makes clear that ECA is looking for U.S. organizations that can manage end-to-end exchange delivery, including participant programming in the United States and support for post-exchange service project implementation.
Eligible applicants include U.S. public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations with IRS 501(c)(3) status (including nonprofits that are not higher education institutions). The announcement also lists "Others" as eligible, suggesting additional eligible entity types may be described in the full notice. Regardless of applicant type, organizations need the operational capacity to run an international exchange program at scale, coordinate logistics and programming across multiple U.S. sites as needed, and provide guidance and oversight for participants community service projects once they return home.
A notable administrative rule in this competition is that ECA will consider only one proposal per region from any single applicant organization. If an organization submits more than one proposal for the same region in Grants.gov, ECA will only review the submission that is closest in time to the NOFO deadline, and that submission becomes the only version considered for that region. This puts extra emphasis on careful internal coordination before submission, especially for organizations with multiple departments or partners that might otherwise submit overlapping applications.
Overall, this opportunity is aimed at organizations that can create a structured, high-touch youth exchange experience that combines civic learning, leadership practice, and sustained community impact. The most competitive proposals are likely to be those that clearly connect the four theme areas to specific participant activities, build in meaningful engagement with local U.S. communities during the exchange, and provide a realistic plan for mentoring and supporting participants as they design and carry out service projects back home, including any region-specific elements like adult mentors (EAP and NEA) and participation by U.S. secondary students (NEA).Apply for SFOP0010305
- The Bureau Of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2024 Youth Ambassadors Programs" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.415.
- This funding opportunity was created on 2024-03-18.
- Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-20. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $650,000.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others.
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