What is ProFellow?
ProFellow.com is the leading online resource for information on professional and academic fellowships in the United States. We offer our readers a free fellowships database where you can search and bookmark more than 2,800 fellowships and fully funded graduate programs. We also publish articles with application tips written by fellows, features and interviews with current and former fellows, and fellowship calls for applications. We also founded the International Fellows Network, a global professional network of current and former fellowship recipients.
What is ProFellow’s mission?
ProFellow’s mission is to make funding opportunities more accessible to students, professionals, and scholars and to share advice on the competitive application process. All of our content is voluntarily produced by current and former fellows who aim to pay it forward and inspire the next generation of aspiring fellows.
What type of organization is ProFellow?
ProFellow is a women-owned company based in the United States. ProFellow’s Founder and Director Dr. Vicki Johnson is a four-time fellow, top Ph.D. scholar, and award-winning social entrepreneur. Vicki founded ProFellow with her husband Ryan Johnson in 2011 while she was a Fulbright fellow and Ph.D. student.
Who reads and uses ProFellow?
ProFellow serves students, professionals and scholars from the United States who are seeking merit-based funding awards for academic study, research, creative projects and professional and leadership development. Since 2011, more than 7 million people have visited ProFellow.com and more than 300,000 people have registered to use our database. Most of our readers are early- and mid-career professionals in the social impact sector who are seeking funding for graduate school, professional development, research and creative projects. 60% of our readers have a master’s or doctoral degree.
What are ProFellow’s values?
We believe in knowledge-sharing. Before our founding, fellowships and grants for individuals were primarily shared by word-of-mouth within privileged academic circles. Our mission is to make funding knowledge accessible to everyone, globally. We share knowledge about fellowships through our website, articles, database, newsletter, social media, webinars, workshops and courses. We receive emails and posts daily with requests for funding advice and we respond to questions freely, generously and to the best of our ability.
We believe in the power of positive support. We encourage everyone with aspirations to apply for awards that will help them achieve their goals. If you are willing to commit the substantial time and effort needed to apply for a competitive award or graduate program, we commit to providing you our community’s support and encouragement. We are strongly against academic gatekeeping, and believe no one should be discouraged from engaging in the constructive process of applying for awards.
We believe in diversity, equity and inclusion. Historically fellowship and funding information was shared by word-of-mouth. We believe everyone should have access to information on funding to achieve their career and academic goals.
We believe in paying it forward. Our community was forged by current and former fellows who reaped the benefits of fellowships and now wish to help others gain these same benefits. All of our content is voluntarily contributed by current and former fellows who wish to share their fellowship experience and insider knowledge of the application process so that more people can find and confidently apply to fellowships.
How does ProFellow generate revenue?
80% of ProFellow’s revenue comes from advertising on our website by our esteemed advertising partners, including fellowship organizations, foundations, universities, government agencies and NGOs. The remaining 20% of revenue is generated through our online courses and workshops for fellowship and graduate school applicants.
Is ProFellow backed by investors?
No. ProFellow has never sought or taken investment capital. At our founding, we raised $10,250 in crowdfunding donations on Indiegogo from friends, family and supporters, which was used to create the first version of our free, public database of funding opportunities.
How can current and former fellows get involved?
Please join our International Fellows Network of current and former fellows globally! We have a LinkedIn group of more than 2,000 members, a regular newsletter and we host in-person events for fellows in Washington, DC, New York City, San Francisco and Berlin, Germany. We often hold joint alumni events with fellowship organizations and some of our events have been fully sponsored by fellowship organizations and universities, including the Robertson Foundation for Government, Stanford University, and Cultural Vistas, among others.