Deadline: 14 February 2020

The U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, Branch Office Tel Aviv’s Public Diplomacy Section (“PD”) of the U.S. Department of State is seeking proposals for its Public Diplomacy Small Grants Program.

Public Diplomacy Section (PD) invites proposals for programs that strengthen cultural ties between the U.S. and Israel through cultural and exchange programming that highlight shared values and promotes bilateral cooperation. All programs must include an American cultural element, or connection with American expert/s, organization/s, or institution/s in a specific field that will promote increased understanding of U.S. policy and perspectives.

Focus Areas

PD small grants are focused on projects that clearly support their mission priorities:

• foster conditions more conducive to a lasting peace,
• deepen U.S.-Israel economic ties and open doors of economic opportunity, and
• foster Israeli understanding of U.S. policy.

Priorities

• Programs that help create conditions more conducive to a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
• Programs that strengthen the entrepreneurship and economic development ecosystem in Israel, and expand access to that ecosystem among minority communities, women, and disadvantaged communities.
• Programs that promote greater understanding of U.S. policy, best practices, and culture among Israeli audiences.
• Programs that improve instruction and student academic achievement in English language proficiency and/or science, technology, environment, architecture/art, and math subjects (STEAM).
• Programs that improve connections between Israel’s various minority communities, and/or between peripheral communities and the center, and/or that strength social cohesion among all diverse communities of the Israeli society.
• Programs that engage alumni of U.S. Embassy-sponsored cultural exchange programs.
• Programs that increase public understanding of the U.S.-Israel security partnership.

Target Audiences

The Embassy strongly encourages proposals that bring together diverse groups from across Israeli society who customarily have little to no interaction. Proposals should describe both the primary and secondary audiences for the program, including numbers anticipated to be reached. Primary audiences are those who will participate directly in the program, while secondary audiences are those who will be reached by the project’s primary audiences, as a result of their participation. For example, in a teacher training program, the primary audience would be the teachers who will be trained, while the secondary audience would be their students. Specific audiences who are considered a priority for grants funded under this APS are:

• Minority, peripheral and/or marginalized communities
• Young leaders, in either the 13-18 year old or the 18-45 year old age ranges
• Entrepreneurs, and those involved in strengthening the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Israel
• Women and girls
• Alumni of U.S. Embassy-sponsored cultural exchange programs
• Leading decision-makers in various sectors of Israeli society
• English language teachers and educators
• Math and science teachers

Funding Information

Total available funding: approximately $300,000 is anticipated to be available in each of the three funding cycles, pending availability of funds.

Eligibility Criteria

The Public Affairs Section encourages applications from U.S. and Israeli:

• Registered not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/nongovernmental organizations, or individuals, with programming experience
• Non-profit or governmental educational institutions

Please note that coalitions of non-profit organizations are encouraged to apply as the impact of their projects may go further than that of projects conducted by one non-profit organization.

For more information, visit https://il.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/APS-Embassy-Jerusalem-FY20-1.pdf