Deadline: 19 August 2016
The United Nation Agency International Development (USAID) is seeking expression of interest (EOI) for Endowment and Afghan Scholarships from financially sound, nongovernmental U.S. for-profit and non-profit organizations with a track record of experience in organizational development and/or investment management for two separate but related tasks.
Currently, USAID is providing funding under a grant agreement with an international non-profit organization to develop an Afghan women’s scholarship program. This grant agreement potentially may run through the year 2020. A major task under this agreement with USAID is to develop local Afghan capacity to establish, operate, and manage the program to award university level scholarships to Afghan women and girls.
Objectives
- Short Term: for the interested organization
- To build upon the institutional development work of the current international non-profit USAID grantee
- To continue this work as necessary to fully establish, invest, and manage an evergreen endowment in order to generate current capital gains and other income to finance the university scholarship program.
- Long Term: for the local organization
- To assume full responsibility for management of the scholarship program, awarding and managing scholarships
- Managing the periodic income generated by the endowment (but not the endowment fund itself which would be invested and managed by the interested organization in the U.S.)
Tasks
- To establish, manage, and invest a permanent, “evergreen” endowment in the U.S. for the purpose of funding university level scholarships for Afghan women on a financially self-sustaining basis. It is anticipated that up to $50 million would be made available to establish and capitalize the endowment;
- To identify and build capacity, as needed, of an Afghan institution to oversee and manage the scholarship program in Afghanistan, including financial management of the scholarship program, potentially on an ongoing basis.
Capabilities and Experience
- Endowment Investment Capabilities
- USAID desires to identify interested organizations with experience in establishing, investing and overseeing a core investment fund portfolio to generate sufficient income on a continuing basis to finance both the operations and management of a scholarship program management institution in Afghanistan and the university scholarships awarded to qualified Afghan women.
- The interested organization would perform this investment management task itself with in-house capabilities and experience or, if in-house investment capability is not present, out-source the investment function to a qualified investment manager and manage this relationship to meet the investment policy statement objectives of the endowment.
- Program Management Capabilities
- The second task embraces a core set of capabilities that relates to the scholarship program, including experience in establishing a cost-effective approach for soliciting and selecting scholarship recipients, disbursing funds to chosen educational institutions, and otherwise managing the use of scholarship funds by recipients and participating educational institutions.
- The interested organization may need to implement these and related tasks as a “bridge” until a capable Afghan institution is identified that can assume management of the scholarship program.
- The interested organization should have the capability to continue building the capacity of the local organization if one is identified prior to 2020.
How to Apply
Interested applicants can apply via website.
For more information, please visit grants.gov.