Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund

Project Background, Goals, and Objectives: As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this NOFO leverages the Freedom 250 milestone as a strategic opportunity to highlight American leadership, innovation, and freedom of expression. The anniversary provides a timely platform to celebrate 250 years of U.S. excellence while reinforcing contemporary foreign policy priorities, including strengthening bilateral partnerships between the U.S. and Italy, expanding commercial relations, and building citizen diplomacy ties between Americans and Italians. Proposed projects must demonstrate how Freedom 250 themes—American independence, leadership, and individual excellence—will be integrated into program activities in a visible and substantive way.

In addition, all proposals must include at least one of the following required components:

·        Convene alumni from different U.S. government exchange programs to build or expand an alumni network capable of working together on shared interests and increasing regional and global collaboration. Each proposal must include at least two exchange alumni or the involvement of a recognized alumni association.

·        Strengthen the relationship between alumni and the U.S. government by creating structured opportunities to collaborate on activities that advance shared strategic goals and address common challenges.

·        Support alumni in developing their leadership capacity and implementing community-based projects that demonstrate measurable impact and advance Freedom 250 objectives.

A few examples of previously successful projects include: a Digital Social Reading program and convening scholars through a colloquium on U.S.–Italy literary exchange and a Hackathon to power start-ups in southern Italy. These projects demonstrated that combining alumni experts with emerging leaders in their fields produced stronger and more sustainable impact than standalone public events. Building on these lessons, similar initiatives can leverage Freedom 250 to expand alumni involvement, strengthen institutional partnerships, and generate measurable academic outcomes aligned with U.S. policy goals.