2025 Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Philippines | FY25 PHL AWE

Opportunity Information: Apply for FY25 PHL AWE

The 2025 Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) Philippines grant opportunity is a U.S. Mission to the Philippines initiative seeking one implementing partner to run a nationwide, hybrid entrepreneurship program for women. AWE is a U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs program launched in 2019 that supports the broader U.S. National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality, and it has reached roughly 25,000 women entrepreneurs across more than 80 countries. In the Philippines, AWE has been active since 2020 through the U.S. Embassy's American Center Manila and has already produced hundreds of graduates, including women from internally displaced communities, fisherfolk sectors, and survivors of violence and disasters, as well as innovators working in sustainability, agriculture, and technology. The new FY2025 award focuses on continuing and institutionalizing this momentum through multiple local cohorts anchored in specific cities and connected to existing American Spaces and AWE alumnae networks.

At the core of the program is AWE's hybrid training model, which combines the DreamBuilder online curriculum with structured in-person or live-facilitated support. DreamBuilder is an entrepreneurship learning platform developed through a partnership involving Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management and Freeport-McMoRan. Participants learn foundational business concepts online, then reinforce that learning through cohort-based discussions, mentoring, and practical activities led by experienced facilitators, local mentors, and U.S. Exchange Alumni. The implementing partner is expected to strengthen local entrepreneurship ecosystems by building partnerships with organizations such as NGOs, universities, chambers of commerce, and other institutions that can provide mentoring, venues, speakers, networking connections, and opportunities for participants to showcase their ventures (for example, through pitch competitions, entrepreneurship fairs, and trade fairs). While the DreamBuilder content is only available in English and Spanish, the opportunity notes that mentoring and facilitation can be conducted in local languages, which is relevant for accessibility and local reach.

The grant requires the implementer to run eight separate AWE cohorts, each with about 25 to 30 women entrepreneurs, and to place those cohorts in predetermined locations to ensure continuity with the existing AWE footprint and graduate engagement. The required cohort sites are Bacolod, Baguio, Bohol, Cebu, Manila, Puerto Princesa, Quezon City, and Zamboanga del Sur. A key structural requirement is that at least five of the eight cohorts must be managed via sub-awards in partnership with the U.S. Embassy's American Corners (part of the American Spaces network) and AWE alumnae, embedding delivery capacity at the community level and intentionally building sustainability by empowering local implementers. The recipient must also manage a subgrant distribution approach where 80 percent of subgrant funding is released after submission of a detailed timeline and work plan (including a marketing strategy), and the remaining 20 percent is released after the final report is submitted with detailed project results.

In terms of design and delivery, proposals must lay out a three- to four-month program of activities for each cohort within a 12-month performance period, and must include a calendar that covers the full year. The activity mix is expected to be robust and practical, typically combining online learning milestones with in-person or synchronous engagement such as meetups, lectures, seminars, pitch events, consultation or office hours (the notice references "grade consultation hours"), and trade fairs, plus mandatory launch and graduation ceremonies. Applicants also need to clearly define the target participant profile and recruitment process, including how participants will generate a "ripple effect" in their communities, meaning the program is not only about individual business growth but also about encouraging participants to share skills, create local role-model effects, and strengthen local networks that advance women's entrepreneurship beyond the cohort itself.

Staffing and community engagement are central to the requirements. Each cohort must have at least two qualified facilitators, and the application must describe who they are (or what qualifications they will have) and why they are well-suited to guide entrepreneurs through the curriculum and experiential components. The program must intentionally integrate past AWE graduates as mentors and/or resource persons, both to showcase tangible outcomes of the program and to inspire and guide new participants. Beyond individual mentoring, the implementer is expected to present a comprehensive partnership plan that creates collaborative activities with institutions such as local government units, universities, chambers of commerce, and think tanks, positioning AWE not as a one-off training course but as a connected pipeline to broader support systems, market exposure, and continued learning.

Monitoring and evaluation is treated as a required, built-in management function rather than an afterthought. The proposal must include a detailed monitoring and evaluation plan with key performance indicators, baseline or reference points for measuring progress, data collection methods, and clear reporting and feedback mechanisms. In practice, this implies that the implementer should track both participation and completion (for example, DreamBuilder module completion and attendance), learning outcomes (skills gained, business plan readiness), and post-program results (business launches, revenue or customer growth indicators where feasible, partnerships formed, pitch participation, and continued engagement in alumnae networks), while also collecting qualitative feedback to improve cohort delivery across the different sites.

The award is a discretionary U.S. government grant made through a cooperative agreement, meaning the funder typically expects closer programmatic coordination than in a standard grant. The opportunity number is FY25 PHL AWE, with CFDA listing 19.022. The agency is the U.S. Mission to the Philippines, and the opportunity anticipates a single award with an award ceiling of USD 35,000. The original application closing date is January 13, 2025 (as listed). Eligibility is broad and includes not-for-profit organizations (including NGOs and think tanks), public and private educational institutions, individuals, and public international organizations and governmental institutions, giving the Embassy flexibility to select an implementer with strong on-the-ground capacity, credible entrepreneurship programming experience, and the ability to manage sub-awards and multi-site delivery across the required locations.

• The U.S. Mission to the Philippines in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "2025 Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Philippines" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.022.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-12-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-01-13. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $35,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for FY25 PHL AWE

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