The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) leads international development and humanitarian efforts to save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance and help people progress beyond assistance. It is the leading development aid agency for the United States and the largest donor of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the world. USAID’s funding budget in 2017 was US$19.27 billion.
Application Tips
Do detailed research. USAID is a very large aid organization with many complexities. Make sure you understand what you are getting into before you apply.
Make sure you have the capacity to run a USAID project. USAID has many rules and procedures for monitoring, reporting, withdrawing funds, etc. Make sure you are aware of and capable of following these rules.
Start early. Even before submitting an application to USAID, you will need to register for SAM and your DUNS number. Learn more at: grants.gov
Research
USAID funding priorities and mechanisms tend to change with new administrations and world events. Still, USAID supports a wide breadth of issues including:
HIV/AIDS
Emergency response
Basic health
Government and civil society
Agriculture
Maternal and child health and family planning
Basic education
More information on how USAID allocates funding is available in the chart below:
USAID has worked in 144 countries. With each country, USAID has specific goals and strategies. You can further explore USAID grants in the map below. Note: only projects with specific locations are included in this map. Global or regional projects are not included here.
The map may take a few minutes to load.
USAID self-reports grant information to the IATI database and others as part of its transparency initiatives. The above heat map of grants comes from D-Portal.
Alta Alonzi is a writer and researcher focusing on international development funding and grassroots NGOs. She works with the fundraising consulting company Philantropia conducting research for clients ranging from small NGOs to UN organizations. She also works closely with FundsforNGOs running training webinars, contributing resource guides, and updating the Premium donor database.
Do they answer to emails from new ngos? or you suggest we wait for their call?