Are you Ready?: A Few Last Minute Tips for 2011 Applicants
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2010-11-09 11:17
The 2011 Echoing Green Fellowship application deadline is only four days away! Did you know:
• Echoing Green has invested nearly $30 million in seed grants to close to 500 social entrepreneurs and our fellows have sparked change in forty-two countries on five continents.
• By the second year of their fellowship, our fellows have raised three times their Echoing Green grant and 58 percent of their organizations have budgets over $100,000, compared to 43 percent of peer organizations.
• By year two, 86 percent of Echoing Green Fellows hire at least one additional staff member, compared to 75 percent of peer organizations.
• Approximately two out of three organizations founded through an Echoing Green investment reaches sustainability.
How can those numbers not excite you?
I embarked on my third fellowship application cycle in October of this year. While the goals of our application outreach are similar year to year, we made a few changes in our processes leading up to the launch.
The fellowship and alumni team spent weeks sending outreach emails, holding webinars for potential applicants, and building out a brand new “Search Partner” program to spread the word about the Echoing Green Fellowship Program. We’re psyched to see the outcomes of our efforts when the application closes on November 12th.
In this current application cycle, we made a few additional changes to streamline the applicant experience. We launched a new application website, which we hope is user-friendly and easy to navigate. We also posted tips, advice, and “moments of inspiration” from our fellows on our Facebook page.
Finally, in mid-October, we hosted a couple of webinars about Echoing Green and the application process. There’s lots of information on our website, but we hope the webinars provided additional insight and guidance that is not found in the FAQs or support documents. Given that this was the first time we held such an online event, we were thrilled with an incredible turnout from applicants from all over the world including India, South Africa, Japan, and Singapore.
To the potential applicants, I have a few last minute application tips:
• Ask several people to read and evaluate your application before you hit that submit button. Vital feedback on your application draft can only help you in the long run, not only with the Echoing Green application, but with any grant application.
• Make sure your answers are clear and concise. With only 1000 characters to sell yourself as a leader of the organization, it’s important that you present your ideas in a compelling, but succinct manner.
• Do your homework. Research Echoing Green and the fellowship program to make sure you speak to our requirements for innovation and addressing the root cause of a social issue.
• Try not to wait until the last minute. With several hundred applications in the pipeline, there will be a lot of traffic on our website (especially since applications will only be accepted online).
The application deadline is Friday, November 12th at 11:59pm EST! The whole Echoing Green office and all our partners are looking forward to reading your application and learning about all the innovative ideas for change around the world.
Best of luck to all of our 2011 Echoing Green Fellowship applicants!
