Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Ukraine by Training Ukrainian Start-up Owners on Sustainable Financing | PAS UKRAINE 2020 017

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAS UKRAINE 2020 017

The U.S. Department of State, through the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, announced a grant competition (PAS UKRAINE 2020 017) to support a program that strengthens innovation and entrepreneurship in Ukraine by teaching start-up owners how to secure and manage sustainable business financing. The core idea is to help early-stage Ukrainian entrepreneurs move beyond short-term funding fixes and build practical, longer-term financing strategies that make their ventures more resilient. The opportunity prioritizes entrepreneurs and activities connected to eastern, southern, and southeastern Ukraine, and it is designed to improve the overall climate for start-ups by increasing founders' real-world financing skills and their ability to communicate credibly with funders.

The selected grantee is expected to design and deliver an intensive, multi-module workshop for a small cohort of competitively selected Ukrainian start-up owners, generally ages 20 to 35, who have recently launched a business. The workshop curriculum must cover the mechanics of business financing and a range of financing approaches and models, including crowdfunding, donations, investor engagement, and loans, along with concept pitching and the practical responsibilities that come with taking outside money, such as accountability to investors and lenders. A key requirement is that training teams include an equal representation of American and Ukrainian trainers and speakers with relevant expertise in sustainable financing and business development. The workshop should be hands-on and output-oriented, meaning participants are expected to leave with tangible deliverables such as short- and long-term sustainable financing plans tailored to their own ventures. The workshop must also culminate in a final event where participants demonstrate what they learned, reinforcing the program's focus on applied skills rather than theory.

In parallel with the in-person cohort workshop, the program must create a free, publicly available virtual training course on sustainable business financing for the broader Ukrainian entrepreneurial community. This online course should mirror the workshop topics in a shorter, more accessible format, and it should be designed to be easy to understand and engaging for a general audience of innovators and founders. Like the workshop, the online training is expected to feature balanced participation by American and Ukrainian speakers. America House Kyiv is designated as the host venue for all in-person and online training sessions, and America House Kyiv and/or a U.S. Embassy platform will host the final publicly accessible virtual course. Promotion and outreach would be supported through America House Kyiv and U.S. Embassy social media channels, and the project must follow U.S. government branding requirements.

A central theme of the grant is relationship-building between Ukrainians and Americans. Applications are expected to show how the program will deliberately create networking and collaboration opportunities, both among Ukrainian participants and between participants and American and Ukrainian trainers or guest speakers. In other words, the program is not only a training initiative but also a people-to-people engagement effort intended to deepen U.S.-Ukraine ties in the business and entrepreneurship space.

Proposals must demonstrate an informed understanding of Ukraine's start-up and business financing environment and show awareness of relevant Ukrainian laws and regulations that could affect fundraising, lending, investor relations, or business operations. Budgets are required to include interpretation and translation into Ukrainian to ensure accessibility. The embassy also indicates a preference for proposals that include strong cost-sharing, signaling that applicants who can bring matching funds or in-kind support may be more competitive.

Monitoring and evaluation are treated as required program components rather than an add-on. Applicants must show they can track delivery and measure results using clear performance and impact indicators aligned to the program goals. The evaluation approach should specify what data will be collected to confirm the program is on track, how it will be collected (for example, pre- and post-surveys, interviews, focus groups, and media monitoring), whether it will be quantitative, qualitative, or both, and how it will be organized and reported. The evaluation plan must be presented as a logic model, and the budget must include the costs needed to carry out the evaluation properly.

The target audience is young founders from the priority regions, with an explicit expectation that outreach and selection processes include underrepresented groups such as women, persons with disabilities, and LGBTI individuals. While the program is open to start-ups generally, it highlights priority sectors where participation may be especially encouraged: creative industries, technology, food and restaurants, agriculture, and healthcare.

Administratively, this was structured as a discretionary grant opportunity with an award ceiling of $50,000 and an expectation of one award. Eligible applicants are U.S. nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education). The original posting was dated August 6, 2020, with an original closing date of September 10, 2020. A sample timeline in the notice sketches a flow from announcing and selecting workshop participants, to delivering the workshop and developing the online course, to launching the course and then conducting evaluation activities over subsequent months. Due to COVID-19, proposals were required to include a contingency plan that would allow the program to shift fully online if in-person programming became infeasible.

• The Department of State, U.S. Mission to Ukraine in the arts (see cultural affairs in cfda), business and commerce, humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda) sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Ukraine by Training Ukrainian Start-up Owners on Sustainable Financing" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.040.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 06, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 10, 2020. (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 $50,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.

Apply for PAS UKRAINE 2020 017

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