Announcing 2015-16 FLEX Alumni Grants Program

American Councils for International Education is pleased to announce the 2015-2016 FLEX Alumni Grants program. The FLEX Alumni Grants program is a unique opportunity funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to assist FLEX alumni project initiatives that support economic, social and civic development of their communities.

Some possible projects include:

• Community service projects;
• Projects to promote community involvement;
• Professional development activities;
• Projects to promote the knowledge and understanding of English language and of U.S. culture;
• Initiatives where alumni share skills that they learned while on the FLEX program with others.

Grants fall into two categories:

Individual grants (up to $250): to support community service projects, as well as personal or professional development projects (including attendance at and travel to conferences). Individual grant applicants who demonstrate in their proposals readiness to share their experience with others in their community upon the completion of the professional development event or conference will be given preference. Individual grants also can cover travel and administrative costs  to attend Global Village for Future Leaders of Business and Industry)

Group grants (up to $3000): to support group projects which fall within the goals of the program.  Not all parties participating in the group must be FLEX alumni, but the grant recipient and at least one other member of the group must be a FLEX alumnus/a.

Eligibility: in order to participate in this program, alumni must

• Be successful participants of the FLEX program;
• Be in compliance with the two-year home residency requirement following the program;
• Update their information in the alumni database, which may be done at any American Councils office or electronically;

Grant Application procedures:

• Access the application through ais.americancouncils.org/flexalumni and complete the registration;
• Start the grant application by including information about your project, complete project proposal, project timeline, budget, and upload resumes of  project leaders and other project members, support letters from partner organizations, , and supplementary materials;
• Submit the complete grant application package; and
• Track the status of the submitted grant application

The application deadline is Sunday March 1, 2015 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
For more information contact the FLEX Alumni Coordinator in your country/ region or email flexalumni@americancouncils.org. Proposals may be funded in part.  American Councils may request that applicants modify their budgets in order to accommodate partial funding.

Those interested in applying can learn more by listening to the FLEX Alumni Grants Opportunities Webinar held on December 2, 2014. The online training recording is available here.