Henry Arnhold Fellowship 2025-2026
- Omran Aburayya
- Aug 12
- 3 min read
If you're an ambitious founder or executive director with a bold, working solution to climate or conservation challenges—and you're ready to scale—this is your moment. Applications are now open for the 2025 Henry Arnhold Fellowship, a breakthrough opportunity to amplify your impact with generous support, strategic coaching, and an inspiring global community of changemakers. Details in this article.
🎓 Fellowship Summary
Location: Global
Host Institution: Mulago Foundation
Program Type: One-year design-and-scale fellowship; both nonprofit and mission-driven for-profit leaders eligible
Target Group: Founders / CEOs (or Executive Directors) leading working organizations (even very early stage), full-time committed (30+ hrs/week)
Fields of Focus: Innovative conservation and climate solutions—protecting ecosystems, reducing emissions, enhancing energy efficiency, carbon capture, climate adaptation across diverse environments like forests, grasslands, marine systems
Award Value & Coverage: Unrestricted USD $100,000 grant, provided upfront. Fellows are also considered for extended Mulago funding
Duration: One-year fellowship
Application Deadlines:
Recommendation Deadline: 7 August 2025
Direct Application Deadline: 28 August 2025
Expected Fellowship Start: June 2026; includes two immersive week-long retreats plus year-long coaching and community support
Eligible To: Global founders and CEOs leading small but established organizations with scalable conservation or climate solutions
✨ Fellowship Overview
The Henry Arnhold Fellowship is a one-year transformative program by the Mulago Foundation, designed to help high-potential leaders design for impact and strategize for scale. Each year, around 8–10 innovative leaders are selected to join an exclusive cohort. They receive a $100K unrestricted grant upfront, strategic coaching, and access to a powerful peer network to grow their solutions exponentially.
Core Components:
Design & Strategy Workshops:The fellowship opens—and closes—with immersive week-long retreats that guide fellows from big ideas to replicable, scalable impact frameworks. The process includes R&D, iterative design, and strategies to replicate both within the organization and through others.
Community & Connections:Fellows join a dynamic community of conservation and climate innovators, receiving mentorship from Mulago’s team and engaging with peers and advisors through curated sessions and one-on-one conversations.
Resources & Ongoing Support:Beyond the $100K grant, fellows receive year-round coaching on organizational strategy, impact communication, and scaling models. Outstanding fellows may also secure long-term funding from the Mulago Foundation.
🎁 Fellowship Benefits
Unrestricted USD 100,000 grant, giving you flexibility to invest where it matters most
Two week-long, immersive retreats for deep strategy and design thinking
Ongoing personalized coaching in impact design, scaling strategy, and communications
Access to a global peer and advisor network, fostering collaboration and support
Opportunity for follow-on funding based on performance and impact potential
✅ Eligibility Criteria
To be a strong candidate for the 2025 Fellowship, you should:
Be the organization’s founder or CEO/Executive Director—ideally the most senior decision-maker actively leading the effort
Have a registered organization (nonprofit, for-profit, or fiscally sponsored with planned spin-out) actively working—even if at a very early stage
Be working full-time on your organization (minimum 30 hours per week)
Demonstrate a working, proven solution addressing major conservation or climate challenges, with strong potential for exponential impact (i.e., scalable, replicable at large scale)
📝 Application Procedure
Recommendation Phase (Deadline: 7 August 2025): Submit a thoughtful recommendation—either for yourself or someone else using Mulago’s quick form.
Direct Application (Deadline: 28 August 2025): The brief application takes about 1–2 hours and seeks clear thinking on your idea, impact model, and scaling plan—no need for literary polish. Apply here
Review & Selection (Sept 2025 – Jan 2026): Applications are reviewed by several team members; promising candidates will participate in up to three learning conversations. Final fellows are selected in early 2026.
Fellowship Year Begins (June 2026): Program structure includes two intensive retreats and ongoing coaching and collaboration.
🤓 Extra Context & Highlights
The 2025 cohort has already been partially announced, featuring leaders tackling diverse issues such as wildfire prevention in Nigeria, community-led conservation in Indonesia and Brazil, agroforestry in Malawi, and carbon tracking innovations — highlighting the global scale and diversity of impact.
The Mulago Foundation, based in San Francisco, pursues high-impact philanthropy via rigorous selection and long-term support for solutions with global promise. They oversee both the Henry Arnhold (climate/conservation) and Rainer Arnhold (poverty) Fellowships.
