We’re impact and scale-obsessed. Each year we select 8-10 leaders and help them (1) design high-impact scalable solutions and strategies for better, faster, bigger outcomes; (2) build the organizations to deliver them at scale; and (3) become part of a growing community of innovators in conservation and climate. Take a look at our past fellows here.

Here are the components of the fellowship in more detail:

Design and Strategy

‍The fellowship is bookended by an intensive week-long workshop to dive in on design for impact and strategy for scale. It’s a rare opportunity to focus completely on new ideas and a systematic way to apply them.

Community and Connections

We bring together a cohort of leaders with big poverty and climate solutions, alongside some great advisors and our team. Fellows join a growing community of fellows at the forefront of climate and conservation work.

Resources and Support

The fellowship comes with an unrestricted $100K grant up front. We coach all our fellows over the year on our design and strategy frameworks. All fellows are considered for longer-term Mulago funding.

We look for innovative leaders with a conservation or climate solution that works and has potential to go big. We look for impact-obsessed people pioneering effective ways to:

• protect nature and ecosystems (forests, rivers, oceans, mountains, grasslands)
• slow down climate change (drop emissions, use energy efficiently, capture carbon) or adapt to the new climate reality.

Their solutions focus on everything from tropical forests in the Amazon Basin to grasslands in Africa to fisheries in the Indian Ocean.

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Henry Arnhold Fellows have:

• A solution that can drive exponential impact over time (could be replicated and paid for at big scale) to a big conservation or climate problem.
• An organization up and running — nonprofit or for-profit — even if very small or very early and are full time working on it.
• The most senior role (usually an ED or CEO) at the organization. We’re focused on founders.

There has been a growing demand for an open application process, and we’ve decided to launch one. You can now either recommend a fellow or share the open application directly. Thoughtful recommendations are still our lifeblood—a thoughtful note from a doer or funder can make a big difference to our understanding of the idea when we review applications.

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Recommend a Fellow

Know someone ready to scale their climate or conservation impact? Fill out this quick form, and we’ll invite them to apply. We read all recommendations and link them to any eventual applications.

Deadline: August 7.

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Apply to be a Fellow

Leaders can now fill out our application form directly. We don’t want to waste their precious time and effort. The application is brief—should take no longer than an hour or two. Given what we’re looking for, less is probably better. We just want to get a good sense of the idea.

Deadline: August 28.

Our Approach to Design

All our fellows have great ideas.  And want to create big change for the better.  Our design tools take them all the way from a great idea to impact at scale.  Scale for us doesn’t simply mean growth, nor is it just a big number.  And it isn’t about an organization “scaling;” it’s about scaling the impact you want to see in the world.

We’ve found that for an organization to get to “scale” and make a big dent in a big problem it has to go through some stages 1) smart R&D to arrive at a scalable model, 2) replication by your own organization to prove scalability, and finally 3) scale via replication by others that creates the exponential growth of impact. The first part of the fellowship focuses on how to turn an idea into a systematic and replicable model. It takes them through a series of steps to get to a detailed impact model, and then serves as the vehicle of an ongoing process of iterative redesign. And then we dig into how to shepherd it through the stages to scale.  It’s a systematic approach to go all the way. You can take a look at some of the design content here.

The Retreat

The main event is a week-long retreat where fellows have the opportunity to think deeply about their path to create meaningful impact at scale. We bring together founders, experts, experienced doers, and our team. It’s fast-paced, interactive, and fun.

The engagement also helps Fellows work through the organizational and financial models – how to deliver the impact model and how to pay for it. Fellows work directly with our team to incorporate new information, lessons, and ideas into their model.

Fellows get to listen, learn and support each other through:

• Design & scale sessions that build on pre-work
• Iteration on design for impact and strategy for scale
• Honed communications
• Small group topical conversations
• A series of curated one-on-one conversations

They emerge with more clarity on the dream and a roadmap to help get them there.

• We do an extensive hunt for fellows at the start of the year. We depend heavily on our trusted network of doers and funders for referrals on who’s doing excellent work.
• We look at a lot of organizations per year for ~10 spots. It’s competitive, but we keep it low-hassle for you.

• Four members of our team independently review every application to evaluate potential fit with the fellowship.
• A series of up to three learning conversations with our team. And, we do the rest!

• We select a class of ~10 irrepressible and complementary fellows. We get back to every organization that generously took the time to fill out our application and try to provide tailored feedback to everyone we talk to.

• Once selected as Fellows, the program is comprised of two week-long in-person retreats that focus on design for impact and strategy for scale, along with critical things like effective communication of your idea.
• There’s a lot of coaching in between, on design, strategy, and communications. And lots of connections with other leaders in our network.