Echoing Green Fellowship

We update this page when results are published, and when the next round opens.

The Echoing Green Fellowship gives early-stage social entrepreneurs US$100,000 over 18 months, plus leadership development, wellbeing support and lifelong membership of its Fellow network. It is open to founders anywhere in the world, India included.

Applications for the 2026 Fellowship are closed and no date has been announced for the next round. This page records the terms and the eligibility bar so you can prepare — the application window is only about three weeks when it opens.

Echoing Green has run this for over 35 years from New York. Fellows work across education, climate justice, human rights and health. Van Jones was a 1994 Fellow; Rohit Malhotra, founder of the Center for Civic Innovation, was a 2015 Fellow.

A stipend of US$100,000 spread over the 18 months. But read this line carefully if you are building a company rather than a non-profit:

Funding offered to for-profit organizations is in the form of recoverable grants.

A recoverable grant is not a gift and not equity. No shares change hands and no one takes a board seat — but the money can be repayable, typically if the venture succeeds. If you run a for-profit, treat this as capital with a potential obligation attached and get the recovery terms in writing before you sign. Non-profits receive it as a straight stipend.

This is a fellowship for the founder, not a cheque to a company, so most of the bar is about you:

And about the organisation

Three stated rules guide the search, refined over three decades

• For an Indian founder without a Stanford MBA or a warm investor network, that third rule is the point of the programme.
• The process runs: applications submitted during the open window → reviewed and scored by expert reviewers, with insights shared as you advance → finalists interview with expert panels and appear in the Talent Report → Fellows notified and onboarded.

Their own guidance, worth following closely

Offline worksheets, sample questions and answers, the selection criteria and video submission guidance are all published on the application page, and a webinar recording covers how to strengthen an application.