Central to AWIU’s mission is its commitment to strengthening the work of women across the world through grants. At its inception in 1968, AWIU issued grants for individual women, which enabled them to travel to the United States for study. In recent years, with such great changes in travel and communications, AWIU’s grant program now focuses upon issuing micro-grants to women’s groups, or groups which enhance the wellbeing of women within a developing country. For example, in 2019 AWIU’s grant program supported sixteen small NGOs, centering on Africa, South Asia, and Central America. Projects include supporting elementary education for girls in India, to sustainable cassava cultivation in Malawi, to seeding a thread bank and vocational training for an indigenous women’s cooperative in Guatemala.