Hispanic Association Of Colleges & Universities

Hispanic Association Of Colleges & Universities (HACU), a non-profit organization headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, operates as a prime contractor delivering internship recruitment, placement, and management services to the federal government, with no subcontractor footprint. HACU competes full-and-open across federal agencies without set-aside designations, positioning itself as a national talent pipeline for Hispanic-Serving Institutions and minority-serving institutions into federal workforce programs.

HACU's federal work centers on paid internship administration, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and capacity-building support for Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Representative contract work includes a $4.7 million delivery order from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for Hispanic intern human resources development under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule; a $624 thousand purchase order from the Export-Import Bank for the HACU EXIM Internship Program (time and materials, running through January 2025); and a $487 thousand BPA call from the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Minority and Women Inclusion for diversity and inclusion paid student internship programming. HACU also holds smaller task orders from the Department of the Treasury Treasury Scholars Program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Hispanic Intern Program, the Department of State's Foreign Service Youth Scholars program, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, typically ranging from $12 thousand to $70 thousand per order. The organization has placed over 15,000 interns since 1992 through its National Hispanic Internship Program (HNIP), drawing from a network of over 600 member institutions.

Customer concentration is diffuse. The top five agencies by award count account for 26% of recent prime awards and include the Department of Veterans Affairs Strategic Acquisition Center Frederick (75 awards, $22.3 million potential value), the CDC Pittsburgh location (60 awards, $2.7 million), the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service (51 awards, $539 thousand), the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration (49 awards, $1.7 million), and the Treasury Departmental Offices (31 awards, $13.5 million). By potential dollars, however, the landscape shifts: the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management National Office (15 awards, $33.9 million), Veterans Affairs (75 awards, $22.3 million), the Census Bureau (22 awards, $19.6 million), and Treasury Departmental Offices (31 awards, $13.5 million) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (15 awards, $7.7 million) dominate the top-5 dollars ranking, collectively representing 54% of combined potential value. This split signals that while HACU spreads awards across many agencies, a smaller set of customers anchor most of the dollar value—particularly multi-year cooperative agreements and larger delivery orders with interior, defense, and independent agencies.

HACU maintains a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) vehicle carrying 167 task orders worth $50.1 million combined potential value, which is the primary vehicle through which federal agencies issue orders. HACU also holds single-award indefinite delivery contracts with the Department of Justice Executive Office for US Trustees ($1 million ceiling, running through July 2028) and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Blanket Purchase Agreements with the CDC Pittsburgh ($1.8 million ceiling through March 2027), the US Agency for Global Media ($1 in nominal value, July 2023–July 2028), and the US Agency for Global Media for a separate Civil Rights Office internship BPA ($33.4 thousand, ended December 2023).

Activity has declined year over year from 34 awards in 2022 to four in 2025 and one in 2026, suggesting reduced ordering pace or contract consolidation among existing customers. Only three awards face ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months, with combined potential value of $98 thousand, reducing near-term recompete exposure.

HACU's federal grant footprint includes prime-recipient awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF CFDA 47.076) for the VOLARE Institute (Visioning, Organizing, Leading, and Advancing the Research Enterprise at Hispanic-Serving Institutions), a three-year research capacity-building effort running through February 2027 and NSF Summer Scholars internship support through February 2027; the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (CFDA 10.001) for cooperative-agreement support of HACU programs (July–September 2023 and an ongoing cooperative agreement through September 2026); the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for community college and vocational training exchanges (October 2023–September 2024); the Department of Commerce's Foreign Agricultural Service for a simulated export case-study challenge aimed at increasing student awareness of trade careers (September 2024–September 2025); the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management for the HACU National Internship Program cooperative agreement (January 2025–January 2030, most recent); and the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) for an HSI research capacity-building conference pilot at HACU's 2023 annual meeting (September 2023–February 2025). These grants position HACU as both a service deliverer to federal agencies and a capacity-building partner to Hispanic-Serving Institutions themselves.

On SCI-reportable federal service contracts (contracts above $150 thousand), HACU invoiced $315 thousand across FY2022–FY2024, with $178 thousand in FY2023 (2.6 FTEs) representing the peak year. Median government-paid hourly rates on these contracts ran $32.31/hr, with a range from $28.13/hr (10th percentile) to $34.04/hr (90th percentile), reflecting entry-to-mid-level workforce support and administrative labor pricing. HACU delivers all services through its own workforce on SCI-reportable contracts; the source records zero subcontractor engagement on prime contracts. SCI is a partial view covering only service contracts above the reporting threshold; the total federal footprint, particularly purchase orders and smaller BPA calls visible in the award detail, is substantially larger.