The U.S. Embassy Zagreb - Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) is pleased to announce the roll-out of the 2026 Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF). The AEIF is an annual funding opportunity designed to invest in U.S. government-funded exchange participants and programs by helping alumni develop and implement projects that promote shared interests and policy objectives and benefit local communities. We invite you to submit proposals for projects that meet the requirements of the program (discussed in Section C below). Please read this notice carefully before preparing and submitting a funding proposal.

Please also note the following: This solicitation does not constitute an award commitment by the U.S. government. A final award cannot be made until the proposal has been reviewed and approved, and an award agreement is drawn up and signed by a grants officer. The U.S. Embassy reserves the right not to issue an award after receipt of any proposal. The U.S. Embassy also reserves the right to reduce, revise, and/or increase a proposal budget in accordance with the needs of the program and availability of funds.

The winning projects will be nominated as Croatia’s candidates for AEIF (Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund) funding. This means that the selected projects will be submitted to the AEIF program for consideration and final approval. Once nominated, these projects will compete with proposals from other countries for final AEIF funding.

Please do not apply for this funding opportunity if you are not an alumnus of a U.S. government-funded exchange program.

·      Alumni who participated in a U.S. government-sponsored exchange program where the proposed project involves at least two U.S. government-sponsored exchange program alumni, and one is a specified team lead.

·      Alumni associations from countries with current U.S. representation, but such applications must specify an alumni team lead.

·      If three or more alumni are applying together, U.S. citizen alumni may be included on alumni teams, but the team must have at least two non-U.S. citizen exchange program alumni. U.S. citizen alumni cannot be team leads on project proposals.

·      Cost sharing is not required.

All organizations must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) issued via SAM.gov as well as a valid registration in SAM.gov.