IIE received the GoAbroad Foundation's Innovation in Philanthropy award for the IIE Emergency Student Fund and Scholar Rescue Fund during the NAFSA Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado. Each year, GoAbroad hosts the prestigious Innovation Awards during the annual NAFSA Conference to recognize innovative organizations, individuals, and projects in the field of international education. In 2015, the Innovation in Philanthropy category was added, sponsored by the GoAbroad Foundation, in order to highlight many of the great philanthropic efforts in international education.

Since its inception in 2002, the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund has assisted 643 scholars from 55 countries, placing them at over 350 host partner institutions in 41 countries around the world. The IIE Syria Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis is a network of colleges and universities providing scholarships for Syrian students who have had their education disrupted by the conflict. This network has provided support to more than 300 Syrian students. To date IIE has awarded more than 140 emergency grants to Syrian students through the Emergency Student Fund, and the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund has awarded 130 fellowships to Syrian professors and researchers, placing them at nearly 70 safe-haven universities and research centers in 12 countries.