Corporacion Centro Cultural Colombo Americano De Cartagena

Corporacion Centro Cultural Colombo Americano De Cartagena, doing business as El Colombo Americano, is a Cartagena-based nonprofit international organization that acts as a federal grant recipient delivering cultural and educational programs that advance U.S.-Colombia bilateral understanding. The organization is designated as a minority-owned and Hispanic American-owned business and operates exclusively as a prime grant recipient — it holds no contract vehicles and performs no subcontract work.

El Colombo Americano's federal grant footprint centers on the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which has funded ten awards spanning bilingual cultural events, youth empowerment programming, and facility upgrades. The Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs has issued six awards for initiatives including surf-training clinics for emerging athletes from Caribbean Coast communities and meal coordination for diplomatic missions. The Bureau of Public Affairs rounds out the customer set with five awards. These three State Department bureaus account for 95% of recent awards. The organization has received $301 thousand in total obligated federal funding across twenty-two grant awards since 2010.

Representative grant work includes support for the 2026 Colombo American Song Festival (awarded May 8, 2026, completion May 7, 2027) and funding for facility upgrades and cultural programming at the "Gran Manzana" branch location (awarded August 8, 2025, completion August 30, 2026). A July 2024 grant from the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs funded an eight-day youth surfing program serving fifty emerging athletes from Caribbean Coast communities, pairing surfing clinics with environmental projects and participation in the national surfing championship. Earlier awards covered American Spaces support funding for the organization's global network (August 1, 2023 award) and meal coordination for the Comfort Mission diplomatic visit in November 2022 (November 11, 2022 award).

Activity has been episodic — two awards in 2022, one in 2023, two in 2024, one in 2025, and one in 2026. Two awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, positioning potential recompete opportunity in that window. The organization's grant profile is stable within the State Department's cultural diplomacy and educational exchange portfolio, with no federal contract exposure or subcontracting activity.