USAID Branding

The New USAID Branding Policy

USAID's framework legislation, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, section 641, requires that all programs under the Foreign Assistance Act be identified appropriately overseas as “American Aid.”

In 2004 the Agency started a branding campaign to ensure that the American people are credited for the foreign assistance they finance. Our new tagline clearly communicates our aid is “From the American People.”

The USAID logo was updated to make it easier to read and reproduce. The typeface was changed to a sans serif, and the Agency name was repositioned around the shield to increase clarity; the handclasp was redrawn to be gender neutral and anatomically correct. These minor updates improved the overall communication, yet maintained the integrity and long heritage of this important U.S. symbol. A brand name and tagline also were added to ensure people understand the assistance is provided by U.S. taxpayers.


The Agency has separate, and different, branding policies and marking requirements for our implementing partners: one for Acquisition Awards to contractors, and one for Assistance Awards to US NGOs receiving grants and cooperative agreements. Click on www.usaid.gov/branding/ to get the latest information.

Our Brand Heritage

_{(Section reproduced from USAID Graphic Standards Manual, First Edition, January 2005)}

Found in the most remote corners of the globe, the USAID handclasp is one of the best known U.S. emblems throughout the world. It has become a symbol of the United States’ long history of aiding those in need.

Labeling was first required during the Marshall Plan when Congress became concerned that the Soviet Union was taking credit for the poorly marked U.S. foreign aid donations to European countries.

This original 1948 design was adapted from the Great Seal of the United States with the words,“For European Recovery Supplied by the United States of America,” in the center. It was translated into the languages of the recipient countries.

But the slogan became obsolete when military aid was added to the economic program, and when some Near East and Asian countries were added to the roster of recipients under President Truman’s Point IV Program. In 1951, the slogan became,“Strength for the Free World from the United States of America.”

In several countries, the slogan could not be translated into local dialects, so different designs and slogans were used. Moreover, the wide variety of containers needed made it necessary to have a range of labels, decals, metal plates, tags, and stencils in all sizes. As a result, the value of the overall message was lost due to a lack of uniformity.

In 1953, Eleanor Gault, an employee in the Marking and Labeling Office of the Mutual Security Agency—a USAID predecessor—revised the emblem. During her research, Gault discovered that “clasped hands” have been recognized as a sign of unity, goodwill, and cooperation for centuries. She concluded that clasped hands,“could serve to identify the aid as part of the mutual effort with mutual benefits shared by our country and friends around the world.”

In the early 1990s, a completely new logo was developed. It combined a modern image of the globe and U.S. flag, with USAID prominently displayed. This image, however, was viewed as too radical a change, and it was soon rejected.

The Agency returned to the shield in the mid-1990s as the primary symbol of U.S. foreign assistance, but moved the stars and stripes to the lower third of the design and added USAID to the top. Color also was removed from the handclasp to ensure no specific race was identified.

In 2001, the Agency seal with,“United States Agency for International Development,” in a circle around the shield was adapted as the official marking to ensure people understood the assistance provided was from the United States Government.




^{Last updated: 3 October 2006}