Funding for Entrepreneurs (and We Don’t Mean Venture Capital)

By On March 13, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Business, Entrepreneurship, Fellowships

While on our recent university tour, I was asked by several students if there are any fellowships for entrepreneurs. In fact, there are quite few.

Entrepreneurs seeking funding for their ideas, particularly ideas that border on community service, don’t necessarily need to go to Silicon Valley for venture capital. We define fellowships as competitive, short-term, funded opportunities to pursue a project, conduct research, enhance professional skills and pursue higher education. In other words, funding to do something exceptional. Here are some great fellowship opportunities for budding entrepreneurs and established startups.

  1. Venture for America Fellowship - 2 years, stipend, placement at a startup, $100K prize
  2. KPCB Engineering Fellows Program - 3 months, salary
  3. Code for America Fellowship - 11 months, salary, travel, health
  4. Detroit Revitalization Fellowship – 2 years, salary
  5. The Thiel Fellowship – 2 years, $100K
  6. Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation - 3 years, $300K
  7. Echoing Green Fellowship - 2 years, $90K
  8. Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship - startup funding, varies
  9. Unreasonable Fellowship - 6 weeks, stipend
  10. Ashoka - varies
  11. Acumen Fund Fellowship - 1 year, stipend
  12. REDF Farber Fellowship - 1 year, stipend
  13. IDEX Fellowship - 10 months, stipend
  14. Open Society Black Male Achievement Fellowship - 18 months, $70K
  15. Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation Fellowship - $10K
  16. Mind Trust Education Entrepreneur Fellowship - 2 years, salary, training, travel, mentorship
  17. IDEO Fellowship - 11 months, salary
  18. PopTech Social Innovation Fellowship - multi-day intensive program, all expenses paid
  19. Rainer Arnold Fellows Program - annual/ongoing, $10K/year
  20. Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship - 2 weeks, stipend

This is by no means a complete list of entrepreneurship fellowships, however we hope it’s enough to whet your appetite for now. We’re in the process of building a much more exciting and comprehensive database of fellowship opportunities. If you’re interested in getting an early peek, make sure to sign up for our private beta.

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PopTech Fellows Bring Science to the Masses

By On November 3, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Business, Fellowships, Social Entrepreneurship, Technology

The PopTech Fellows are a global network of thought leaders and scientists taking an interdisciplinary approach to social entrepreneurship. Each year, PopTech chooses 10-20 Fellows from all over the world working on “highly disruptive” innovations. They come from a wide variety of disciplines, to be “mashed together” to develop new ideas on how to tackle major social challenges such a poverty and climate change. The Fellows come to Washington, DC to be trained in speaking with the media about science.

An assistant Engineering professor at University of Pennsylvania, Katherine Kuchenbecker, was recently selected as one of ten PopTech Science and Public Leadership Fellows. “I do want to connect [the research that my students and I do] to things that matter to other people — not just scientists and engineers,” said Kuchenbecker. Read more.

The fellowship provides an all-expenses-paid, multi-day intensive program focused on insights and tools for accelerating and scaling “big bet” innovations, such as branding, media relations, social media, finance, leadership, digital storytelling, and design. Fellows also participate in interactive training sessions facilitated by leaders in social innovation, as well as PopTech’s renowned annual conference in Maine, where Fellows eloquently pitch their ideas to leading journalists.

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$300,000 Fellowships for Innovative Rhode Islanders

By On October 27, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Fellowships, Social Entrepreneurship

The Rhode Island Foundation has announced the Rhode Island Innovation Fellowship, a new fellowship program providing $100,000 a year for up to three years for two Rhode Islanders “to develop, test, and implement innovative ideas that have the potential to dramatically improve any area of life in Rhode Island.”

According to the Rhode Island Foundation, the fellowship will focus on the “greatest good for the greatest number of Rhode Islanders, a small idea that has big potential to be built to scale, or new approaches to longstanding, intractable challenges.” The Foundation’s six funding sectors are: arts and culture, community and economic development, education, environment, health, and human services. The fellowship appears to have a social entrepreneurship bent.

“There is no monopoly on creative thinking, exceptional ideas, or the potential of people to help solve issues affecting the lives of Rhode Islanders,” said John Carter, the philanthropist funding the fellowship. “Letitia [Carter] and I wanted to provide a platform for change – one in which everyone is invited to participate. We believe The Rhode Island Foundation is the ideal organization to carry forward our dreams for Rhode Island’s future and we are excited to embark on this adventure together.”

The deadline for applications is December 23, 2011. Read more about the fellowship.

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