Facebook Community Accelerator
Apply to the 2021 Facebook Community Accelerator
A program to help leaders harness the power of their community to turn impactful ideas into action.
We’re committing up to 7.5M USD to help communities extend their positive impact!
The 2021 Community Accelerator application opens today! This year’s program focuses on helping leaders harness the power of their community to turn ideas into action. We’ve expanded to India this year too.
During the eight month program, participants will extend their community’s positive impact through:
Funding
Facebook will work with GlobalGiving to offer you up to $50k USD to help fund your community’s initiatives, with a subset of communities eligible to receive part of $1 million USD in additional funding.
Training & Coaching: Help organizing and strengthening their community through custom training, one-on-one coaching and meaningful partnerships.
Access to New Products: Early access to new products aimed at helping leaders manage and activate their communities.
All applications are due by May 31, 2021 and selected communities will be notified in mid-July. The program will begin in August 2021.
Why is Facebook doing this?
In our discussions with community leaders over the last few years, we’ve learned that many of them are looking for support and guidance in how to grow their communities’ impact. We want to take a holistic approach to supporting these communities. So in addition to building the tools and educational resources that they need, we’re also building programmatic ways to provide training, support and funding to enable great communities to make an even greater positive impact in the world.
Who can apply?
- This program is open to communities that have a presence in Facebook Groups with leaders who are 18 years of age or older and reside in the following countries: Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, United States, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco & India. Communities must have existed for over one year and must have a minimum size of 1,000 members.
- The program will be conducted in Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico & Argentina), German (Germany, Switzerland & Austria) and English for all the other markets.
- Participants of the 2020 Community Accelerator are not eligible to apply. Participants in other Facebook programs are welcome to apply as long as they meet the program requirements.
How will you select program participants?
- We will be selecting participants through a three step process.
- The selection committee will look for communities who would benefit most from the unique programming offered and have the capacity to engage fully in the program. This includes:
- Step 1: Fill out our short application on the Community Accelerator website to express interest in participating.
- Step 2: If you qualify, we will invite you to fill out a longer written application and submit a video.
- Step 3: Finalists will be invited for an interview.
- Vibrant Community: An existing community using Facebook Groups that has an engaged member base and has existed for over one year.
- Purpose: The community and it’s leadership team has a clear purpose and vision.
- Capacity: A team that has the capacity to create meaningful initiatives that activate their members.
- Leadership: The leader(s) of the community have leadership experience, including managing teams, projects and volunteers.
- Sustainability: The community is interested in having or already has a business model to cover their costs, even if it isn’t recurring revenue.
- Commitment: A team that is committed to engage fully in each stage of the program.
- Real World Impact: The community rallies together to turn impactful ideas into action that benefit its members and larger society.
How much funding will participants receive?
Facebook will work with GlobalGiving to fund participants’ project plans & to help set them up for success in the program. Selected participants will each receive up to $50k USD for their participation in the program and to fund their community initiatives during the eight-month program and could be eligible to receive part of the $1 million USD of additional funding available to further fund their community initiatives. Up to $7.5 million USD will be awarded to program participants in total.
Link to apply: https://www.facebook.com/community/accelerator/
Join the Community Accelerator
Fill out the short application below to express interest in participating. If there’s a fit, we will invite you to fill out a longer written application and submit a video, followed by an interview for the finalists.
https://www.facebook.com/community/accelerator/apply/
