U.S. Embassy & Consulates
in South Africa

U.S. Mission South Africa Public Diplomacy Funding Opportunities

The U.S. Mission to South Africa, Public Diplomacy (PD) section of the U.S. Department of State supports projects and activities that strengthen ties between the United States and South Africa.  We seek projects that highlight shared values and promote bilateral cooperation and meaningful exchange by connecting South Africans to Americans.  Unlike development-oriented programs, we seek to projects that are conceived from a public diplomacy perspective, which means that they promote partnerships and information and knowledge exchange between Americans and foreign publics and institutions to enable more effective, mutually beneficial cooperation with the United States.  It also means that we seek projects that broaden and deepen dialogue and empower cooperation between American citizens and institutions, including civil society and educational organizations, and their South African counterparts.

Current Funding Opportunities

Ambassador’s Special Self Help (SSH) Program 2023

• Full announcement
• Deadline for submissions: 23H59 SAST, August 18, 2023.

 

Additional Resources

Grants Information Session

• We recently held a virtual grants information session for potential applicants.  Click here for a link to the video and to post any follow up questions.

Grant Application Forms

• SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance  (PDF, 145KB)
• SF-424A Budget Information for Non-Construction Programs (PDF, 132KB)
• SF-424B Assurances for Non-Construction Programs (PDF, 65KB) (N.B. Applicants with an active SAM.gov registration do not need to submit this form.)
• Suggested budget template (Excel spreadsheet, 54KB)
• Alternative budget template for proposals $25,000 or less (Excel spreadsheet, 25KB)

 

Paying for SAM.gov registration: real or scam?

Kindly note that the U.S. government does not charge a fee to register in the System for Award Management (SAM) system. The U.S. government does not use social media to directly contact you. No government staff will call or text you to solicit business.

There is no payment that is required for you to register and maintain your entity registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) system.

We advise for you to be vigilant on all messaging networks for proposals from company(s) offering to help you register or activate your registration in SAM for a fee.  No government staff will request money to renew or activate your registration or to be eligible for an award. If you receive an unsolicited email claiming, or implying, affiliation with the government (or which a reasonable person could confuse with an official message from the government), you can:

• Forward the email to the Federal Trade Commission, specifically its Unsolicited Consumer Emails (UCE) program at spam@uce.gov

Please see below for additional resources about verification:

• Do I need to pay a fee to register or keep my SAM.gov entity registration active? Click here!

• How do I know if an email is a legitimate U.S. Government email? Click here!

• What are phishing and spear phishing emails and how do I recognize them? Click here!