Trust for Mutual Understanding
International professional exchanges between the USA and countries of the former Soviet Union
Principal Office: USA
The Trust for Mutual Understanding funds international exchange in the arts and environment between the USA and partners in the Baltic States; Central Asia; Central, East, and Southeast Europe; Mongolia; and Russia.
The objective is to encourage international communication, understanding, and collaboration.
Professional exchanges are concentrated in two program areas: Arts and Culture; and Environment.
Grant Programs for Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Natural Resources
Environment. Exchanges include training programs, workshops, conferences, seminars, joint research projects, and efforts to aid organizations to achieve greater institutional stability. The Trust’s thematic interests include the following:
- Ecosystem and habitat conservation;
- Land-use planning projects;
- Facilitation of international contact between environmental organizations;
- Measures to preserve biodiversity; and
- Initiatives to encourage environmental sustainability.
Grants are made to nonprofit charitable organizations which have tax-exempt status in the USA. The Trust does not make grants to institutions outside of the USA. Interested organizations in the partner countries collaborate with an organization in the USA as the grant applicant.
The only eligible expenses are international travel and related direct costs of participants in international exchanges. Most grants range from US$5 thousand to US$50 thousand.
APPLICATION: Grant seekers submit an initial inquiry to the Trust. An initial inquiry can be sent by an individual or institution in any of the countries in which TMU is active. The Trust has two deadlines per year for receiving initial inquiries. The calendar timeline is posted on the website.
The applicant supplies information about the applying organization, names of the project’s institutional partners, the amount being sought from the Trust, and a brief project summary.
If the Trust determines that the proposed project is relevant and eligible, the applicant is invited to submit a full proposal.
Note: Individuals and organizations that do not have U.S. nonprofit charitable status need to submit their proposals through the fiscal sponsorship of a qualified charitable organization (i.e., project partner) in the USA.
About the program, and how to apply
Geographical Distribution of Grant Activities in Developing Countries
In the geographic framework of the Terra Viva Grants Directory, the Trust supports exchanges with the developing countries identified below.
East Asia: Mongolia
Eurasia and Central Asia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Eastern Europe and Russia: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine
Note: In addition to the developing countries listed above, the Trust supports exchanges with several countries of Eastern and Central Europe and the Baltic region, now incorporated in the EU.
Grant seekers can search the Trust’s database for lists of previous grants, organized by thematic area (culture or environment) and year.
Contact provides information for the Trust’s office in New York.
January 2021