Last updated April 2, 2024
As the vocational world is rapidly evolving, it’s increasingly important for mid-career professionals to continue advancing their skills. Mid-career fellowships offer unique, short-term (from a few weeks to 1-2 years) funded opportunities to gain skills and experience to advance one’s career. Unfortunately, it isn’t always possible for mid-career professionals with a family, mortgage, and other binding responsibilities to attend a full-time in-person fellowship. Thankfully, there are a number of remote fellowships for mid-career professionals!
In this article, we list remote fellowships for mid-career professionals that tackle social, racial, and health inequalities that focus on closing the gender gap for female politicians, combating poverty in the United Kingdom, professional development for non-profit executives, and more! Remember that some programs vary in in-person components, travel expense coverage, and age/experience level requirements.
If one of these programs catches your eye, bookmark it to your free ProFellow account!
Are you a recent graduate or a young professional interested in pursuing graduate school? Be sure to check out Remote Fellowships for Young Professionals and Recent Graduates and Remote Fellowships for Graduate Students.
Remote Fellowships for Mid-Career Professionals
1. Acumen UK Fellowship
Each year, the Acumen UK Fellowship selects and equips ~20 builders across sectors, places, and backgrounds who are redefining success in the UK with the practices and community needed to deepen and sustain their impact. The fellowship is a fully-funded, year-long leadership program where Fellows remain in their role while participating in immersive residentials, virtual workshops, and group practice. This is where practical skills meet moral imagination – and the program increase’s a Fellow’s capacity to take on long-standing problems of poverty. Upon completing the program, Fellows become part of Acumen’s global community of social innovators, The Foundry, committed to lifelong learning, collaboration, and accompaniment as they build a dignity-based world.
2. Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity
The Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity program is a part-time 1-year fellowship designed to unite the diverse industries and professions that influence health and well-being. This includes areas of art, law, business, academia, government, journalism, social enterprise, research, media, housing, and health care delivery. Through a mix of in-person convenings and a virtual curriculum, the fellowship provides mentorship to build health equity leadership skills, focusing on creating real change in fellows’ communities. This non-residential fellowship is open to early to mid-career professionals from anywhere in the world doing health-related work and is based at George Washington University. All educational experiences and travel expenses related are covered.
3. Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity
The Fellows program recruits 20 high-impact leaders from South Africa and the United States to participate in an immersive, dialogue-based program based at Columbia University and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The experience includes virtual and in-person sessions in South Africa and the United States through which Fellows share experiences, build connections and networks, and create and test new strategies for social change. Fellows also develop projects while receiving a stipend, coaching, and other support to enhance their development. There are no academic qualifications required to apply.
4. Atlantic Non-Residential Fellows
The Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, Non-Residential Track, Fellows participate in a course taught over seven weeks across the year, including an intensive 2-week summer school delivered by academics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Teaching and guidance are also provided by charities, NGOs, and other advocacy organizations to ensure a range of perspectives on inequalities. The Atlantic Fellows program will support all reasonable travel, accommodation, and living costs. Ideally, applicants should have around ten years of experience in tackling inequalities.
5. Gratitude Network Fellowship
The Gratitude Network Fellowship supports scale-stage social enterprises (nonprofit or for-profit) serving children and youth. Through a year-long leadership development program, the Gratitude Network helps these organizations expand their reach. Fellows are matched and meet monthly with a highly-skilled coach, receive support from expert advisors to help tackle operational and execution issues, and meet regularly by video with their fellow cohort for a leadership roundtable. They are also invited to topical Growth Webinars and the annual Leadership Summit. Applicants must lead a social enterprise that is at least one year old, and the social enterprise must have at least two full-time employees (including the Applicant).
6. Landecker Democracy Fellowship
Annually, the fellowship brings together diverse leaders from the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States who spend one-year creating projects that reinvent democratic spaces. Candidates must have at least five years of professional experience. Fellows will design and implement their projects. Humanity in Action provides guidance, programming, and supervision through a virtual and on-site training and community-building program throughout the year. Each Landecker Fellow receives a stipend of 10,000 euros and up to 5,000 euros in seed funding for implementing their project idea. All training expenses, travel, and accommodation costs for the in-person Action Academy are covered. You must have been born in or after 1983 to apply for this program.
7. Mira Fellowship
Each year the Mira Fellowship accepts a small cohort from across the globe to create compassionate actionable visions for our future. This remote fellowship for mid-career professionals is six months long and enables fellows to rethink the world’s most pressing issues and develop actionable plans for change. Fellows receive a creator toolbox, summits, coaching, cohort collaboration, access to up to $5,000 of research funding, and continuing opportunities to network and engage with alums and community networks.
8. New Sector Alliance Leadership Longevity Fellowship
New Sector Alliance’s Leadership Longevity Fellowship is designed for mission-driven emerging leaders addressing the world’s most pressing challenges and opportunities. The Leadership Longevity Fellowship (LLF) will bring together 12 nonprofit professionals across the US to offer a leadership development program focused on mental health and wellness and creating a supportive community of peers. The program includes two in-person retreats covering all expenses, virtual training sessions focused on developing frontline skills, one-on-one and group coaching from a mental health and wellness specialist, and financial support responsive to leaders’ needs.
Interested in this fellowship? Read our interview with New Sector Alliance Leadership Longevity Fellow Jackie McKinney. In it she shares her background, fellowship experience and application tips.
9. NPR Next Gen Radio
Next Generation Radio is a 5-day, audio-focused, digital journalism project. Projects are hybrid (remote and in-person), designed to allow competitively selected participants to learn how to report and produce a non-narrated audio piece and a companion multimedia story. Those chosen for the program are paired with a professional journalist who serves as their mentor for the week and is paid a stipend for their work. Successful applicants have some qualitative experience with digital media. You do not need to be an enrolled student to apply. You can apply for a project at any time.
Interested in this fellowship? Read our interview with Doug Mitchell, a multi-fellowship award winner and NPR veteran.
10. Obama Foundation Leaders Program
The Obama Foundation Leaders Program is a 6-month, non-residential leadership development program that seeks to inspire, empower, and connect emerging leaders worldwide. During their program experience, early and mid-career emerging leaders, ages 24 through 45, build a strong support community founded on a shared commitment to values-based leadership, as President and Mrs. Obama demonstrated. Leaders receive opportunities to meet virtually in breakout groups, are paired with an executive coach to help them clarify and build out their individual goals, and participate in an in-person convening. Leaders must have at least three years of demonstrated impact.
Interested in finding many more fellowships like these? Sign up for the ProFellow database, which includes more than 2,700 funded opportunities for professional development and graduate school.