Funding Wizard

The U.S. Embassy Colombo Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) is pleased to announce a funding opportunity through the Public Diplomacy grants program for Administrative Support for two (2) American Spaces in Sri Lanka: one (1) in Kandy, and one (1) in Colombo. American Spaces are a nationwide network of PDS-funded cultural centers that are part of the American Spaces program, a global network of over 600 U.S. Department of State-sponsored cultural centers. The American Spaces conduct youth-oriented educational and cultural programming. The award recipient will be responsible to oversee administrative aspects of the American Spaces program, to include staffing of selected corners, training logistics, and equipment and facility maintenance. The recipient will also assist in implementing American Spaces programming with significant Public Diplomacy Section input and assistance.

Program Requirements:Based on funding availability, this program will provide opportunities to smaller organizations and individuals who may not have the infrastructure to compete in our formal NOFO process. These organizations and individuals should have the capacity to lead and develop programs aligning with our mission goals: promoting peace, democracy, reconciliation and human rights, promoting economic empowerment, good governance and rule of law, and promoting Sri Lanka as a free, open and secure partner. The local primary partner, as the primary recipient of this award, will have the capacity to assist and offer financial and program planning skills to these organizations and individuals who will be the local implementing partners, to submit proposals and budgets in a simplified format in English, Sinhala and Tamil. The local primary partner will solicit and accept applications six times per year and vote on applications every two months in conjunctions with PAS. PAS reserves the right to screen all submissions and have substantial involvement and final say and approval on any grant application. The local primary partner will monitor the progress and success of the program with regular quarterly reporting to PAS. The local primary partner will be responsible for all aspects of the program. Submitted proposals should include programmatic and financial details on the following:1. Announcement of SMALL & MIGHTY funding opportunities. Under this project, the local primary partner will organize, administer, and provide outreach to solicit grant applications from NGOs and individuals who will be local implementing partners. That includes, but is not limited to, soliciting and administering a web-based application process for sub-awards creating one-page grant applications to host on-line with budget template in an iterative proposal process with appropriate U.S. Embassy branding on all items and pages.2. Create formalized application review process. The local primary partner will create a transparent application review process to share details of all local implementing partners received, with the U.S. Embassy grants evaluation team. The grant evaluation team will consist of two PAS staff members who will vote with the local primary partner to select and rank order applications every two months for funding, as disbursement of funds become available.3. Administer small grants on behalf of the Embassy. This cooperative agreement is providing smaller grants on behalf of the Embassy and must continue to reflect mission goals and priorities in the selection of awards. We are seeking an established local primary partner in a cooperative agreement in order to seek out local implementing partners for sub awards with preference given to new local implementing partners who have not previously received USG funding. If applicable, the local implementing partners should submit the following with their initial application. Official Permission letters from the relevant authorities to carry out the project activities; if applicable MOUs/Agreements, and/or letters of support: with any sub-contractors, implementing partners, etc. involved in the project.4. Offices throughout Sri Lanka. It is a requirement that the local primary partner will have the ability to work in all three languages, have offices throughout the country, and work with all ethnic communities to solicit and select applications. There must be transparency in receipt of submissions, selection criteria, and feedback provided to local implementing partners.5. Traditional and/or social media plan for amplification and advertisement of the program activities and outcomes. The local primary partner will be required to ensure robust social and/or traditional media coverage throughout the program including announcement, awards and results. The local implementing partners are welcome to collaborate with PAS social media team to maximize their project impacts through social media.6. Monitoring and evaluation plan. The local primary partner should have tools to measure their capacity development along the way.7. Calendar of awards. Select local primary partner in September 2020. Announce “Small & Mighty” to public in September 2020 with call for proposals by October 2020 (providing sufficient time for funds transfers to local primary partner), and first award funded by November of 2020.