Center For Cultural And Technical Interchange Between East And West, Inc.

Center For Cultural And Technical Interchange Between East And West, Inc. (doing business as East-West Center) is a Honolulu-based nonprofit organization that delivers educational and cultural exchange programs, research, and conference services to the federal government as a prime recipient on 240 federal grants and contracts, with no set-aside designations applied across its footprint. The organization operates as a tax-exempt corporate entity, primarily as a federal grant recipient rather than contractor, with 95% of awards structured as prime grants and contracts and 5% as sub-awards.

The East-West Center's federal work centers on three concrete capability streams: (1) international educational and cultural exchange programming anchored by congressionally mandated initiatives such as the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), the U.S. South Pacific Scholarship Program, and professional leadership seminars serving Asia-Pacific participants; (2) conference and event services, including multilateral summit planning, journalist fellowship programs, and regional dialogue forums; and (3) research and analysis on U.S. foreign policy objectives in the Indo-Pacific region. Representative work includes a $14.6 million cooperative agreement from the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (CFDA 19.015, Cultural, Technical and Educational Centers program) awarded December 19, 2025, to support East-West Center operations through September 30, 2027, with $7.3 million in additional FY 2026 funding; a $250,000 cooperative agreement from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (CFDA 19.124, East Asia and Pacific Grants Program) awarded June 1, 2026, to implement two Global Competitiveness and Trade Facilitation Franchise Workshops in Auckland, New Zealand and Koror, Palau; a $220,526 purchase order from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs awarded January 28, 2026, for multilateral summit planning services with completion September 30, 2026; and a $219,996 project grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (CFDA 45.163, Promotion of the Humanities Professional Development program) awarded October 1, 2024, for research on knowledge production and sharing related to contemporary Asian cultures.

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward the State Department. The top five funding agencies account for 55% of awards by count: the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs leads with 50 awards, followed by the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs with 36 awards and $281 thousand combined potential value, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with 19 awards, the Bureau of Public Affairs with 17 awards, and the National Endowment for the Humanities with 17 awards. By potential value, the ranking diverges meaningfully — NASA Shared Services Center anchors 8 awards carrying $2.2 million combined potential value (approximately 42% of the total portfolio value), while the Department of the Army Pacific Command holds 6 awards worth $575 thousand. The State Department's bureaus collectively dominate the award count but carry lower individual award values, reflecting the grant-funded nature of congressionally mandated educational programming. A small fraction of work flows through parent vehicles: an Indefinite Delivery Contract (W912CN19D0011) hosts 3 task orders valued at $73 thousand, and a single Blanket Purchase Agreement (DG133R02SE0788) carries 1 task order.

Activity has grown substantially in 2024, with 18 awards that year compared to 8 in both 2022 and 2023, though 2025 and 2026 show only 6 and 2 awards respectively in the source snapshot. Eight awards with combined potential value of $221 thousand reach completion within the next twenty-four months, creating modest recompete exposure. The organization's sub-award footprint is minimal — twelve sub-awards as of the snapshot, including work under University of Montana as lead grantee on Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Academic Fellowships, University of Hawaii on climate data research, and University of Nebraska on the Young South Asian Leaders Initiative. The combined portfolio carries $461.2 million in obligations across $5.2 million in combined potential value, indicating mature, long-standing grant relationships with high funding certainty for congressionally mandated programs. Work is performed in Honolulu, Hawaii, with overseas performance in the Asia-Pacific region (New Zealand, Palau, Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and other ASEAN nations).