FY 2026 Study of the U.S. Institutes Madeleine K. Albright Young Women Leaders Program

FY 2026 Study of the U.S. Institutes Madeleine K. Albright Young Women Leaders Program

The FY 2026 Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI) Madeleine K. Albright Young Women Leaders Program is a U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) cooperative agreement for U.S. organizations that can run a full exchange-admin capacity. The NOFO (DFOP0018387) is for one total cooperative award of about $1,500,000, with an anticipated September 2026 award date and program activity in Summer 2027. The competition closes on June 26, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Washington, DC time. It is distinct from direct individual fellowships: this opportunity funds an implementing organization, not a student application.

At a high level, the winner(s) will run four short-term “Albright SUSIs,” each around 20 foreign undergraduate students, for roughly five weeks each in the U.S., totaling about 80 participants across themes and locations. The program is built as part educational residency + field exposure, and it explicitly includes follow-on engagement after participants return home.

Program snapshot

What this program funds and what it does not

This opportunity is not a travel scholarship to an individual student. It is a systems and program-administration award. If your institution is trying to send one participant to a U.S. exchange, this is probably the wrong instrument unless you are an implementing partner that can coordinate a full chain of program components.

The NOFO specifies that the award recipient is responsible for designing, planning, selecting U.S. sites, and implementing all four cohorts. That includes subawards to educational institutions, participant logistics, safety protocols, and reporting after delivery. It also includes operational responsibilities like DS-2019 paperwork, health and safety procedures, participant forms, pre-departure orientation, field-experience coordination, and post-program alumni engagement.

The core program structure is constrained:

• Four Albright SUSIs, two on Economic Prosperity and Growth, two on Governance and Security.
• Each cohort is about five weeks: around four weeks of academic residency at an accredited U.S. college or university plus approximately one week of field experience in a different region.
• A single proposal is considered per applicant organization.
• The intended summer activity period is in 2027 with completion by around August 15.

Important distinction: this is a 2026 NOFO with 2027 delivery, not a repeated 2027-only solicitation. If you are advising an organization, treat it as a planning-and-readiness grant for the next academic year planning cycle, not an immediate student-level grant process.

Why this fits some organizations and not others

The opportunity is best for organizations that already act as “exchange platform operators,” not brands launching their first program. The NOFO makes this explicit in several ways:

• Required applicant types are U.S. nonprofits and nonprofit public/private higher-ed institutions.
• Applicants must show at least four years of international exchange program experience to be competitive/equity eligible at this funding scale.
• It requires a complete Federal grant registration stack (UEI + SAM.gov active registration) before submission.

In practical terms, a strong candidate is usually one of these:

1. A nonprofit operator already managing exchange programming with documented participant safety/compliance systems.
2. A university consortium that can route participants through multiple campuses and manage visas, travel, and insurance.
3. A nonprofit think-tank/education organization with strong overseas partnerships and policy-heavy programming.

Organizations with limited HR infrastructure, weak controls around compliance, or no grants administration staff are likely to spend more effort fixing process gaps than writing narrative quality.

Fit signals to evaluate internally

Ask early:

• Do we have approved Grants.gov/GrantsGov registration chain and AOR workflows already tested?
• Can we commit project management staffing across planning, academic direction, logistics, reporting, and risk response?
• Can we prove at least four years of comparable exchange delivery?
• Do we currently hold relationships that can support four U.S. institutions and an alumni engagement model across 80 participants?

If any answer is “no,” this may still be feasible, but you will need a stronger consortium approach and explicit mitigation in the proposal.

Eligibility and submission requirements

Official eligibility baseline

The NOFO and Simpler listing set out these confirmed requirements:

• U.S. nonprofit organizations (including think tanks and civil society NGOs),
• U.S. nonprofit public/private educational institutions,
• active SAM.gov UEI and registration,
• no mandatory cost share,
• only one proposal per legal applicant organization.

Because this is a federal program, compliance is as important as program design. The NOFO also requires:

• SF-424, executive summary, narrative, SF-424A, detailed budget and budget narrative,
• full application submitted via Grants.gov only,
• strict timing: no post-deadline forgiveness, late files are automatically ineligible.

Submission mechanics that often fail

This submission is mostly technical in nature and fails fast at the portal level if not prepared:

• Grants.gov registration and organization setup can take weeks. The NOFO guidance warns that registration may take up to four weeks; start early.
• The program states there are no exceptions after the deadline; “it arrived after 11:59 p.m.” is a technical ineligibility.
• Applicants should use the proposal package as one integrated system: narrative, budgets, key personnel, and supporting materials should be consistent.
• ECA will review technical compliance before merits. Ineligibility at this stage can happen quickly.

Timeline to remember

• May 2026: NOFO posted and last updates in this cycle.
• June 26, 2026 11:59 p.m.: deadline.
• Sep 1, 2026: anticipated award date (if selected and funded).
• Summer 2027: four cohorts delivered.

A practical internal timeline is backward from the deadline by 8–10 weeks for registration and 6–8 weeks for draft review, with at least one full week reserved for Grants.gov upload rehearsal.

How to design a competitive application

Review criteria are not vague. The panel uses five equal-weight criteria:

1. Program idea and objective quality.
2. Institutional record and capacity.
3. Follow-on activities.
4. Monitoring and evaluation plan.
5. Cost-effectiveness and cost share posture.

If two bids tie, lower indirect cost rate may be used as tie-break only.

Application strategy that usually increases competitiveness

1) Lead with implementation realism. This is a direct program-delivery grant. Reviewers are looking for a coherent architecture, not generic language about exchange diplomacy. Build a realistic work plan for each week of each SUSI cohort: orientation, class schedule, field visit, health protocol, alumni bridge.

2) Prove exchange operations readiness. Show evidence of similar program execution, not just vision. Include staffing plan, risk-response workflow, and reporting cadence.

3) Treat M&E as a core deliverable, not appendix. ECA expects MODE framework alignment and a monitoring approach that can produce data used for performance decisions. Include target indicators, collection methods, survey strategy, and follow-up schedule.

4) Build a post-program bridge. “Follow-on activities” are part of review criteria and program administration. Explicitly map 6–12 month alumni engagement options, not just immediate post-program reporting.

5) Keep budget logic transparent. Given the one-award structure, budget should read as executable: staffing, participant support, travel logistics, host campus operations, safety contingency, accessibility/inclusion measures, and M&E costs.

6) Match theme design to participant profile. The two themes require distinct pedagogy. Economic Prosperity and Growth proposals should show measurable skill pathways; Governance and Security proposals should show practical workshops and policy-oriented learning outcomes.

What the NOFO expects during implementation

The NOFO’s recipient responsibilities are detailed and extensive. If your organization cannot absorb this scope, this is a major mismatch.

Implementation obligations include planning and managing all four cohorts, contracting subawardees, handling participant logistics and travel coordination, preparing visa-related documents, running pre-departure orientation, ensuring accommodation/health/safety planning, reporting progress weekly if needed, creating alumni databases, and submitting regular financial/program reports.

There are also important administration obligations tied to policy compliance:

• Disability accommodations and safety planning for foreign participants,
• required forms and data handling,
• branding compliance,
• crisis communication and incident reporting,
• tax and compliance obligations.

This is intentionally a high-accountability program. For applicants who usually run smaller events, partnering with experienced institutions and including clear division of responsibilities in the proposal is essential.

Practical FAQ

1) Is this only for women?

No. The title includes “Young Women Leaders,” but the NOFO text says foreign undergraduate students, men and women, ages 18–25 can participate.

2) Is this a one-time award or recurring?

The NOFO says one up to $1.5M award in FY 2026 and notes an intent to renew for one more fiscal year pending performance and funding availability, but no guarantee is stated. Treat this cycle as open-ended renewal language, not automatic recurring funding.

3) Can nonprofit universities apply directly?

Yes, if they are U.S. nonprofit public/private educational institutions and meet eligibility and registration requirements.

4) Is cost share mandatory?

No minimum or maximum cost sharing requirement is stated, but the review criteria still consider cost-effectiveness. Additional institutional contributions can strengthen viability.

5) Who selects participants?

Applicant organizations administer the program, while ECA and U.S. missions nominate/select participants as per diplomatic channels. Organizations should not assume direct applicant-led participant hiring; they oversee implementation.

6) Can a submission with partial documents be fixed after deadline?

No. Late or technically incomplete submissions are at high risk of being treated as ineligible. Build a full pre-submission checklist and hold a full dry-run in advance.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Submitting before clarifying whether your legal entity is the correct applicant type and SAM-registered.
• Treating the opportunity as a student-level grant narrative and not as an implementing-organization competition.
• Underestimating the M&E burden (the MODE indicators and reporting structure should be integrated in the proposal narrative and budget).
• Weak operational staffing plan without named responsibilities and backup capacity.
• Ignoring follow-on engagement strategy even though long-term engagement is explicitly requested.
• Assuming one grant submission is enough without considering that each technical issue in uploads can invalidate the package if not synchronized.

If your organization is deciding whether to apply, use this rule: if you cannot confidently describe roles of Project Director, academic director, and logistics coordinator with clear accountability, delay and rebuild capacity before submission.

Required preparation checklist

1. Complete SAM.gov and Grants.gov registration checks immediately.
2. Retrieve and read the official NOFO and associated Proposal Submission Instructions.
3. Confirm that your institution has four-year exchange experience and can cite it in concrete terms.
4. Draft a 24-hour operational timeline that covers all cohort phases, not just class content.
5. Define staffing: project director, academic director(s), administrative lead, risk/safety coordinator.
6. Pre-draft budget by workstream and align each line item to an objective.
7. Build MODE-aligned performance indicators, baseline questions, and reporting cycle.
8. Prepare a written follow-on alumni engagement model with measurable outputs.
9. Run a dry-run submission through Grants.gov with your AOR before final filing week.
10. Submit with sufficient buffer before June 26, 2026 to avoid portal transmission failures.

Why this is a premium opportunity for the right applicant

Among 2026/2027 opportunities, this one is unusual in that it combines prestige (Fulbright ecosystem) with explicit operational rigor and a large single award. In a strong year, a successful proposal here can position an organization as a preferred exchange partner for later cycles, because this is not only a funded pilot but also a capability test under ECA oversight.

If your organization is already handling exchange compliance, this NOFO can fit. If not, treat it as a near-term capacity-building project before the next cycle.

Official links

• Opportunity listing (official page)
• FY 2026 Albright SUSI NOFO (official PDF)
• Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Organizational Funding Opportunities
• Grants.gov applicant registration
• Grants.gov application instructions