Echoing Green Fellowship

October 19 – November 2, 2021

Echoing Green works at the intersection of social justice and social innovation, connecting our expertise and global networks to emerging leaders creating long-lasting social change. We are social entrepreneurs, nonprofit advisors, business strategists, data scientists, trained facilitators, and digital connectors. We have 30+ years of experience and are the leading incubator for social impact startups. Each of us approaches our work with passion and a dedication to supporting the change our Fellows are making in the world. We value social justice, innovation, inclusivity, and community.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Echoing Green supports bold leaders from all over the world who see possibility in the face of the most existential challenges of our day. Together, we strive to build a world that has yet to exist: a future free from racism and its far-reaching consequences where all people can thrive.

This Fellowship is for people whose enterprises are at an early stage and who are experts on the challenge they’ve chosen to confront. We seek leaders who reflect the community they serve and bring deep knowledge of the issues into their work as they co-design solutions with and for their communities.

WHAT TO EXPECT

APPLICATION DETAILS

Applicant Eligibility

• Will you be 18 years or older by the time you begin the Fellowship?
  • Echoing Green Fellowship applicants must be 18 years or older by February 28, 2022.
• Are you able to communicate proficiently in English?
  • To be eligible for the Fellowship and fully participate in programming and support offerings, you must be able to communicate in English proficiently. Support throughout the Echoing Green Fellowship is offered in English.
• Are you an original founder or a leading member of your proposed organization’s original founding team?
  • We use the term “original founder” to describe people who launched or are launching an organization that is their original idea. You cannot have assumed a leadership position within the organization after its founding. To be eligible, you must be a leader with decision-making power within the organization and be either 1) a sole founder or 2) a leading founder on a team of people who created the organization.
• Are you the primary decision maker for your organization?
  • To be eligible for an Echoing Green Fellowship, applicants must be the primary decision maker and have the ultimate authority over your organization’s growth and strategic vision.
• Will you be able to work full time on your proposed organization throughout the 18-month Fellowship?
  • If selected for an Echoing Green Fellowship, you may hold other professional responsibilities, but you must work full time, defined here as 40 hours a week, on the work outlined in your Fellowship application, and it must remain as your main professional priority.

Organization Eligibility

• Does your proposed organization have a parent organization?
  • Organizations that are independent but have fiscal sponsors are eligible for the Echoing Green Fellowship as long as the fiscal sponsor has no authority over the organization’s work and decision making.
• Does your proposed organization operate independently and autonomously from your parent organization?
  • To be eligible for an Echoing Green Fellowship, you must be able to make and act on organizational decisions of your own choosing. If other organizations or entities manage or hold decision-making authority for your proposed organization, you may not be eligible. Organizations that are independent but have fiscal sponsors may be eligible as long as the fiscal sponsor has no authority over the organization’s work and decision making.
• In your personal assessment, would you describe your organization or idea in the “early stage” of its development and in need of financial and non-financial resources to become sustainable?
  • Echoing Green seeks applicants in need of funding to initiate or scale their organizations. We generally describe early-stage organizations or ideas as those that 1) have operated with full-time staff for less than five years or 2) still need resources to grow and sustain their operations. Organizations that already have all of the following in place *may* not qualify as early-stage enough for the Echoing Green Fellowship: a well-defined program model; an initial strategic plan; basic organizational infrastructure (like a bank account, payroll, job descriptions, etc.); a staffing plan; initial funding sources; and a board of directors that meets regularly to manage organizational governance. If you do not have all of these elements in place yet, you may still be in your startup phase and eligible to apply for an Echoing Green Fellowship.
• Does your organization use lobbying to further its mission or goals?
  • Per the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Echoing Green cannot distribute funds to organizations whose primary purpose is lobbying. Lobbying is defined as activities that seek to support specific political candidates, specific political parties, or urge action on specific legislative bills. Issue-area advocacy, defined as the attempt to cause political action using methods such as civic education and public campaigns, is not considered lobbying. For more details, please reference the IRS definition here: irs.gov/charities-non-profits/lobbying.
• Does your organization promote or recruit for a specific religious faith?
  • To be eligible for an Echoing Green Fellowship, the organization cannot engage in recruitment, promotion, or conversion for a specific religious faith to your constituency. If your organization’s work has a spiritual element or works with existing faith communities but does not promote or recruit on behalf of that faith, you may be eligible.
• Have you or any members of the organization’s founding or leadership team previously received an Echoing Green Fellowship?
  • For you and your organization to be eligible for an Echoing Green Fellowship, no founding team members and no people in a leadership position can be an Echoing Green Fellow.