The Asia Foundation

The Asia Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit international development organization, operates as a federal grant and contract recipient delivering governance strengthening, civil society capacity building, economic development support, human rights advancement, and anti-trafficking programs across the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The foundation competes in full-and-open competition (no set-asides used) across its prime award footprint, which accounts for 94% of recent federal awards; it also serves as a subcontractor to larger international development primes and sub-recipient under prime grants.

The Asia Foundation's federal customer concentration is heavily weighted toward USAID and State Department regional bureaus. By award count, the top five customer agencies account for 59% of recent awards, led by USAID (54 awards), the State Department Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (38 awards), and the Department of State overall (29 awards), with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (20 awards) and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (14 awards) rounding out the active set. By potential value, concentration is even sharper: USAID Indonesia anchors the portfolio at $77 million combined potential value across five awards, followed by USAID Philippines at $22.4 million across seven awards. Together, these two USAID missions represent a material recompete and customer-concentration risk. Recent representative grants include a $7.35 million East Asia and Pacific Grants Program (CFDA 19.124) award from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (obligated through January 1, 2028) to sustain annual operations and programs with performance in Thailand; a $1 million Trans-National Crime program award (CFDA 19.705) from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (October 1, 2025 through October 1, 2027) for capacity-building in Mongolia on illegal mining and natural resource crime prosecution, with the University of South Carolina engaged as a sub-grantee beginning May 3, 2026; and a $113,155 Cooperative Agreement under the Educational and Cultural Exchange Programs (CFDA 19.022) from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (September 26, 2025 through September 30, 2026) for the ACCESS Summit to strengthen English-language proficiency and leadership development in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The foundation also holds contract task orders on an Indefinite Delivery Contract (72049721D00001) with USAID Indonesia, where three task orders carry $38.5 million in combined potential value and include on-demand short-term technical assistance delivery and program implementation support through delivery orders worth $9,022.80 and zero-dollar administrative task orders.

Activity has been volatile and recent volume is modest. The foundation received ten awards in 2022, five in 2023, sixteen in 2024, three in 2025, and one in 2026 (as of the May 29, 2026 snapshot date). Seven awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and represent recompete opportunity. The foundation's federal grant footprint spans civilian and development agencies — State Department bureaus (East Asian and Pacific Affairs, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, Democracy Human Rights and Labor, South and Central Asian Affairs, Educational and Cultural Affairs), USAID, and the Department of Justice Criminal Division — with program work including youth leadership development through the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), judicial capacity-building for violence-against-women cases in Pakistan, civil society strengthening in Sri Lanka, child trafficking research in Nepal, trafficking-in-persons reduction in Pacific Island countries, and climate resilience training. The foundation leverages sub-recipients and subcontractors to execute grant programs: recent sub-grantee partners include Pact, Inc. (civil society media strengthening in Mongolia and civil society strengthening activities in Nepal), Research Triangle Institute (environmental and natural resource activities), the University of California at Berkeley (higher-education capacity assessment in Cambodia), JSI Research & Training Institute (city co-creation work in Mongolia), and Democracy International (human rights defender protection in Sri Lanka). On the contract side, the Asia Foundation subcontracts to Creative Associates International (private sector engagement and stakeholder analysis for USAID Vietnam governance work under a modification to task order 72044024F00001) and Ard, Inc. (technical assistance on the USAID Enhance Activity).

Service Contract Inventory data reflects minimal reportable federal services invoicing: the SCI dataset shows zero invoiced revenue across FY2022–FY2024 prime records, with workforce activity ranging from 1.4 FTEs in FY2022 to 5.0 FTEs in FY2024 across the three SCI-reportable prime records in those fiscal years. SCI coverage is incomplete for the foundation's true federal services footprint, which spans grant-funded staff and contract deliverables below or outside SCI thresholds; the obligated dollars ($762.5 million across all awards) far exceed the potential-value total ($106.6 million), indicating substantial active execution against prior-year awards. The foundation operates primarily as its own delivery organization across SCI-reportable prime contracts, with zero average sub-hours share reported.