Mission

The Trust for Mutual Understanding (TMU) awards grants to American nonprofit organizations to support direct exchange in the arts and the environment (and the intersection of the two) between professionals from the United States and our geographic region of 28 countries:

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

More about us

Our grantees

Who can apply?

While the Initial Inquiry may be made by an individual or institution in any of the countries in which TMU is active, the Full Proposal must be submitted by an American non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) tax status, as TMU does not make grants directly to institutions of individuals abroad.

Please contact us if any questions arise during this process.

Please note that Initial Inquiries and Full Applications are due at 5:00pm EST. Should the due dates of either the Inquiry or Full Application fall on a Saturday or Sunday, they are due on Monday, the next business day. Supporting materials for the Full Application should be received no more than two weeks following the respective deadline. We do not guarantee a notification of receipt of any supporting materials.

How to apply?

TMU reviews applications two times a year. To make the experience more user friendly, the application process is broken down into two parts:

Initial Inquiry stage: once the initial inquiry is submitted, you will be notified of the status of your project within 14 business days.
Full Application: If, after submitting an initial inquiry online, a project is then invited to submit a full proposal, you will receive notification from the Trust for Mutual Understanding via email, which will contain login credentials to the grantee portal. There you will be able to track the status of your application.