International Funding Resources

Mark Rodgers, DSWDominican University

Ford Foundation Ford’s trustees and staff try to advance human welfare by making grants to develop new ideas or strengthen key organizations that address poverty and injustice, and also promote democratic values, international cooperation and human achievement. Proposals are accepted and reviewed in the office located closest to the beneficiaries of the work being proposed. Grant recommendations originate in those offices and grants for under $200,000 may be approved locally. Grant recommendations for $200,000 or more are considered in New York, generally at biweekly meetings of staff and foundation officers.Ford receives about 40,000 proposals each year and makes about 2,500 grants. Ford considers requests for grants, recoverable grants, loans and loan guarantees. Requests range from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars and are accepted in categories such as planning grants, project support, general support and endowments.

www.fordfoundation.org/about/guideline.cfm

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a

private, independent grantmaking institution dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition. Through the support it provides, the Foundation fosters the development of knowledge, nurtures individual creativity, strengthens institutions, helps improve public policy, and provides information to the public, primarily through support for public interest media.

www.macfdn.org/programs/index.htm

Henry M. Jackson FoundationThe Foundation seeks to promote dialogue between the academic and policy worlds, between the public and private sectors, and between citizens and their government. Due to the Foundation's limited financial resources, priority will be given to programs in the International Affairs and Human Rights program areas.The Foundation makes grants only to non-profit, tax-exempt organizations certified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and to public entities qualifying under Section 170(c). Grants are not made for unrestricted operating expenses or to cover operating deficits; nor for capital expenditures, except in exceptional circumstances.

www.hmjackson.org/guidelines.html

NAFSA: Association of International Educators

Institutional Grants: NAFSA serves the field of international education—professionals in international education, institutions of higher education, and international and U.S. study abroad students by providing the grant opportunities such as:

The Collaborative Training Grant Program provides grant awards between $2,000 and $10,000 for the development and implementation of innovative international education training activities and/or products. This new program and the projects it will fund represent the collaborative efforts of NAFSA, U.S. institutions of higher learning, and international education-related organizations interested in training international educators, faculty, staff, community members, and volunteers who work with international and/or U.S. study abroad students.

Cooperative Grants Program has provided seed funding for 977 creative programs involving more than 460,000 U.S. and international students and scholars, community members, faculty, and campus staff.

www.nafsa.org

Institute of International Education (IIE)

IIE designs and implements programs of study and training for students, educators, young professionals and trainees from all sectors with funding from government agencies, foundations and corporations.

IIE also conducts policy research and provides advising and counseling on international education and opportunities abroad. Programs included in IIE are the Fulbright and Humphrey Fellowships and the People, Energy and Development program administered for USAID.

www.iie.org/

Fulbright OpportunitiesThe primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the United States Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions also contribute financial support through direct cost-sharing, as well as through tuition waivers, university housing, and other benefits.

Overseas, the Fulbright Program is facilitated by bi-national Fulbright commissions and U.S. embassies.

The Department of State, Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, provides budget, administrative and staff support for the program, and negotiates agreements covering educational exchanges with foreign governments. In countries where no Fulbright Commission exists, the Bureau coordinates management of the Fulbright Program with United States embassies and posts.

www.iie.org/FulbrightTemplate.cfm?Section=Other_Fulbright_Opportunities

Bureau of Cultural Affairs

The Bureau stresses forming educational partnerships with overseas educational institutions.

Specific regions or continents are emphasized each year.

Fulbright ProgramsFulbright Teacher Exchange Program (FTEP) provides opportunities for qualified educators to participate in direct exchanges of positions with colleagues from other countries for six weeks, a semester, or a full academic year. In exchanging positions with foreign teachers or administrators, program participants have the opportunity to live and work in the cultures of their host countries, an experience which has benefits for the teachers, their schools, and their communities.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program is an IIE-administered Fulbright exchange program that brings accomplished professionals from designated countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Eurasia to the United States at a midpoint in their careers for one year of study and related professional experiences. Fellowships are granted competitively to candidates primarily in the fields of public administration, economic development, environmental management, education, law and human rights, public health and communications/journalism.

The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a U.S.-based global philanthropy committed to enriching and sustaining the lives and livelihoods of poor and excluded people throughout the world.

The Foundation supports rigorous long-term experiments to determine the viability of various approaches to economic or social challenges. In the United States, examples of our support include the New Hope Project, an employment initiative in Milwaukee that demonstrated the value of family-sustaining wages and benefits to workers and their children; and the Comer School Development Program, one of three programs now supported by the U.S. Department of Education as being effective in improving urban public schools.

www.rockfound.org

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

NED supports projects that promote political and economic freedom, a strong civil society, independent media, human rights and the rule of law.Fellows: The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program.enables democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change.Grants: Funding decisions are made on a quarterly basis by the NED Board of Directors. In addition to evaluating how a program fits within the Endowment's overall priorities, the Board considers factors such as the urgency of a program, its relevance to specific needs and conditions in a particular country, and the democratic commitment and experience of the applicant. The Endowment is especially interested in proposals that originate with indigenous democratic groups. It is also interested in nonpartisan programs seeking to strengthen democratic values among all sectors of the democratic political spectrum.

www.ned.org/grants/grants.html

Sasakawa Peace FoundationThe mission of the foundation is to contribute to the welfare of humankind and the sound development of the international community, and thus to world peace, by conducting activities fostering international understanding, exchange, and cooperation, as well as efforts to promote these activities. To undertake surveys and research, develop human resources, invite and dispatch personnel, organize international conferences and other forums, and conduct other activities fostering international understanding, exchange, and cooperation.

Grants: Private nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education and related organizations are eligible.

www.spf.org/e/grants/index.html

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNESCO is the only UN body with a mandate to support national capacity-building in higher education. The Organization plays a leading role in the worldwide reflection on higher education reform. It also provides a platform for dialogue on how best to adapt education systems to the emergence of knowledge societies and the new social, cultural and economic challenges of an increasingly globalized world.

UNESCO builds international and regional networks to assist with a range of issues in higher education: academic mobility, international exchanges of excellence, research on education systems and knowledge production, curriculum innovation, leadership roles for women educators, teacher development, and the defense of quality in higher education qualifications.

http://portal.unesco.org

Social Science Research CouncilSSRC fellowship and grant programs provide support and professional recognition to innovators within fields, and especially to younger researchers whose work and ideas will have longer-term impact on society and scholarship. These programs often target the spaces between disciplines, where new perspectives emerge and struggle for acceptance, thus ensuring the production of knowledge and expertise on key topics, regions, and social challenges.

The programs promote the diversification of knowledge production, strengthening research by ensuring that it remains open to (and challenged by) a range of perspectives, backgrounds, and nationalities.

www.ssrc.org/fellowships/

International Research & Exchange Board (IREX)

IREX contributes to college and university communities. IREX offers institutions of higher education and their students, faculty, and administrators opportunities for rigorous academic work, networking, and innovation. IREX also supports linkages between quality academic research and governmental policymaking. Areas of expertise include the following:

Curriculum development

Faculty development

Research programs

University management

University partnership development

www.irex.org