NEW YORK - The global nonprofit organization Echoing Green is launching a search for visionary leaders who want to start new organizations to create lasting social change. Through the prestigious two-year Echoing Green Fellowship, emerging social entrepreneurs have the chance to receive $60,000 in seed funding and technical assistance to launch organizations that address the root causes of society's most difficult problems.
Winners are selected based on a rigorous application process that includes developing organizational plans and participating in a series of in-person interviews before panels of veteran business and nonprofit leaders in New York City. Judges evaluate applicants' leadership and entrepreneurial skills, the degree to which their ideas are innovative and the potential of their organizations to deliver long-term social change.
"Echoing Green is looking for visionary leaders with bold ideas for social change," said Dr. Cheryl Dorsey, Echoing Green's President and a 1992 Echoing Green Fellow. "We take risks on new leaders with innovative solutions because the greatest risk is overlooking an idea that can change the world."
Echoing Green identifies, funds and supports some of the world's most extraordinary emerging social entrepreneurs and the organizations they launch. Through a two-year fellowship program, Echoing Green helps these leaders develop new solutions to society's most difficult problems in diverse fields including education, health, housing, civil and human rights, the environment, economic development and the arts.
Founded in 1987, Echoing Green has invested $22 million to help 400 leaders create positive change in 30 countries. Since Echoing Green's inception, fellows' organizations have raised nearly $1 billion in additional funding, delivering a return on investment (ROI) of 44 times Echoing Green's seed funding. Seventy-seven percent of organizations launched by Echoing Green Fellows are still thriving today and eighty-five percent of all fellows stay in leadership positions within the social sector.
To apply for the 2005 Echoing Green Fellowship, visit www.echoinggreen.org. The application deadline is December 1st, 2004. For more information, call 212.689.1165 or email info@echoinggreen.org.
From fostering the development of the criminal justice defense systems in China, Vietnam and Cambodia to providing affordable health insurance to freelance workers in New York City, Echoing Green Fellows have launched model organizations around the world. Leaders from any nation, working in any program area are eligible to apply for the fellowship.