Social Impact Fellowship
Help your talented, ambitious team members gain the capabilities, knowledge and tools needed to embed impact into their current role, develop their leadership capabilities, and explore how to drive purpose in their professional lives.
Support your employees to find meaning and purpose in their careers and deepen their impact.
About the Fellowship
The Social Impact Fellowship provides a transformative program for your employees to embed and drive greater social and environmental impact in the workplace.
Research reported by Forbes has shown that a meaningful social impact-driven employee engagement strategy is a vital means by which to strengthen employee engagement and retention - enhancing employee morale and building critical skillsets and expertise.
Social Impact Fellows will:
Attend immersive and interactive masterclasses and exclusive sessions with purpose-driven leaders, impact investors, and changemakers.
Gain access to high-quality online learning content.
Gain practical and hands-on experience applying new tools and frameworks working on a project with social enterprises that address real-world challenges.
Join a diverse community of aspiring changemakers intent on building an inclusive, just and sustainable world including innovative intrapreneurs, impact investors, and for-purpose leaders.
Receive mentoring support to foster their learning journey and guide their next steps for embedding impact in their career.
Experience a journey of self-discovery and learning designed to build individual capacity to contribute to and drive social change through their career.
Be the first to know about networking and professional development opportunities in the impact sector.
"I have learned valuable skills that I can apply within my workplace. I'm more committed to social impact now than ever, and I've been given the mental framework to think about it properly. It's also been lovely to meet so many interesting people who are in the same boat as me!"
-Peter Bacon, Head of Strategic Growth at Campbell Page
What Makes a Fellow
Social Impact Fellows are ambitious and driven changemakers eager to harness their energy and skills for good by gaining the community, knowledge and skills required to be effective, collaborative agents of change in the 21st century.
Fellows from our cohort have come from all walks of professional life, ranging from those deep in the impact sector to individuals from government to banking to architecture and education - united by a common desire to positively impact the world. Joining the Fellowship is about more than learning about social impact, it is joining a lifelong community of changemakers with a passion for learning from each other.
We invite individuals to apply to the Social Impact Fellowship if they have:
An interest in social and environmental impact and entrepreneurship
A burning desire to grow their impact by building out a toolkit of new approaches, resources and frameworks
Key Dates
MARCH 2023
APPLICATIONS OPEN & INTERVIEWS COMMENCE
APRIL 2023
EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT ENDS
JUNE 2023
APPLICATIONS CLOSE
JUNE 2023
FINAL INTERVIEWS & OFFERS
JULY 2023
PROGRAM STARTS
OCTOBER 2023
PROGRAM ENDS
The Program
The Social Impact Fellowship is an immersive, interactive and evidence-based learning experience. The content and learning journey has been informed by our work on the ground with purpose-driven organisations and changemakers, and is delivered in partnership with our Professional Impact Network and leading impact sector experts.
Fellows will build their knowledge and capability across the following areas:
21st-century entrepreneurial skills including lean startup methodology;
Leadership and emotional intelligence;
Exploring purpose in your career and creating an authentic personal brand;
Crafting your personal mission and values;
Impact measurement best practice;
The world of social entrepreneurship and impact; and
Impact investing and its exponential growth.
The Social Impact Fellowship typically costs approximately $3,000 for the program, this can be in full or partially by your organisation. For organisations sponsoring multiple fellows, we can organise a group discount. For those applying from small social enterprises we can explore program discounts and payment plans.
Program Structure
The Fellowship is a learning experience that can be curated based on learning goals and objectives of your organisation and fellows. We run one to two sessions a week (2.5 contact hours in total). Sessions are not compulsory, as Fellows can choose which are most appropriate for their learning journey - with curation supported by our team. All sessions will be recorded and Fellows will have access to these during and following the program, alongside other online learning materials, so it is not essential to attend every session live.
Fellows also receive mentoring and have the opportunity to participate in an interactive impact project and gain practical experience working to address a real-world problem from a social enterprise.
The additional online content will include masterclasses covering a variety of topics, including:
Branding and marketing;
Impact measurement; and
Team, governance, and culture.
"There are so many different ways to embed Social Impact in your career - and there really are opportunities that exist for everyone. The Social Impact Fellowship allowed me to explore how I might pursue a career in Social Impact and helped me to understand how I might apply my values and skillset to align with this. I have already applied the skills I acquired in my current role."
- Michelle Noble, M-Power Manager, MECCA Brands
About Us
The Social Impact Fellowship is an initiative of the Social Impact Hub.
Social Impact Hub are a purpose-driven intermediary that collaborates with a broad range of changemakers. Through advice, education, mobilising capital and ecosystem building, we build capacity to amplify impact.
We specialise in supporting purpose-driven organisations to design, demonstrate and scale their impact.
Speakers, Facilitators & Mentors
Drawing on our wide network, we handpicked a range of experienced and exceptional individuals to be involved in the Fellowship program.
Previous speakers and facilitators include:
Marissa Sandler
Co-Founder & CEO at Careseekers
Allie Rosen
Founder at Leap Theory
Kartik Iyer
CFO at AbilityMade
May Samali
Founder & CEO at Coaching by May
The Fellowship program also includes a group of talented and experienced mentors who will support you on your journey. Your mentor/s will help you translate your skills, build your network and navigate the impact space with confidence.
Belinda Morrisey
CEO at English Family Foundation
Head of Commercial Partnerships at Woolworths Group
Natalie Collins
Irma Del Mundo
Founder at StrategyMundo
Head of Investment Management at Brightlight Group
Simba Marekara
Partner at Pangaea Impact Investments
Anthony Bohm
Daniella Alhadeff
Senior Manager at PwC
"The fellowship has been an incredibly valuable experience and opened up a world of ideas around how I can embed social impact through my everyday work, life, and actions. It has increased my awareness surrounding career directions and options to begin my social enterprise. The projects were a great way for me to gain practical experience in working with several social enterprises, stakeholders, and fellows from diverse career backgrounds."
- Melinda Farrar-Rabbidge, Lived Experience Engagement Manager, Butterfly Foundation
FAQ
The Fellowship is for individuals who want to embed or deepen impact in their lives. Your team members may already be creating change and impact through their work and want to develop their networks, build a toolkit of relevant resources and approaches to grow their impact, or maybe they want to learn more about other parts of the impact ecosystem like impact investing, impact measurement, and social enterprise. They might also be new to the impact space and want to learn how to apply their experience to create impact through their careers. Either way, the Fellowship is an incredible opportunity for personal growth and professional development. We invite applicants of all ages, abilities, races and cultural backgrounds and LGBTQIA+ to apply.
Social Impact Hub will review all applications and curate a cohort with Fellows with a diversity of experience, knowledge and skills to create the best possible peer learning community.
The Social Impact Fellowship has a $2,600 fee (plus Stripe fee, plus GST) for the program. We are committed to ensuring that finance is not a barrier to participating and provide a number of partial scholarships each year. Note, we don't provide full scholarships. We encourage all interested to apply. We can also support you to work with your organisation to cover some or all of the costs as part of your professional development. If you apply before January 2023, you will get access to the early bird rate of $2,500 (plus Stripe fee, plus GST).
The fee goes towards funding the operational cost of running the Fellowship to ensure the best experience possible for all Fellows. Our educational sessions are run by experts in their field including those from our Professional Impact Network who are paid for their time. Members of our Professional Impact Network are also compensated for their time to support the projects.
1. Application: The first stage is to fill in an application. Here we collect basic information and understand applicants interest in the Fellowship Program. We will review applications for suitability and will contact those applicants by email.
2. Interview: If applications have been shortlisted, they will be invited to an interview.
3. Offer: Once the selection process has been finalised and they have been selected, they will be offered a Fellowship position in writing.
We can also work with organisations to nominate employees outside of this process.
We will assess the following areas:
- How will the Fellowship help the individual achieve personal and professional goals?
- Do individuals have a real curiosity for social impact, social entrepreneurship or impact investing?
- Are individuals willing to take the initiative to create opportunities for themselves on the Fellowship journey?
The Fellowship is a three-month program that focuses on developing both sector knowledge of social impact, social entrepreneurship and impact investment, and upskilling in 21st century skills, such as lean start-up methodology, design thinking and personal branding. The program includes content led by our Professional Impact Network who are subject matter experts in the sessions they run as well as networking and practical learning opportunities. This includes:
- Demystifying the social entrepreneurship and impact investing landscape.
- Meeting other amazing talented individuals from diverse backgrounds in the cohort.
- Hearing from purpose-driven leaders, changemakers and social entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who will share their insights on different parts of the impact ecosystem and help Fellows explore opportunities to embed impact in their careers.
- Receiving introductions to other members of the Social Impact Hub and Impact Investing Hub network to support their professional development.
- Receiving bespoke guidance and sessions with Fellowship mentor/s.
We recommend individuals see the Fellowship program as a chance to curate their own learning experience. We run one to two sessions a week (2.5 contact hours in total). The Fellowship sessions will run on Wednesday nights from 6pm-7.30pm and Friday from 1pm-2pm. Fellows can choose which sessions they attend live, which they watch as recordings, and which might not be as relevant to them. All recordings will continue to made available after the program ends, alongside other online learning materials, so it is not essential to attend every session live. In addition to the two sessions a week, Fellows will have sessions with their mentor which can be organised around their schedule.
That being said, we believe individuals get out what they put in so the program can be as ‘intensive’ as Fellows like. There is the opportunity to go through additional online learning and Fellows can also have the option of taking on a project with a social enterprise, doing an online hustling for more introductions, attending events and generally immersing themselves in the world of social impact.
Sessions with mentor/s as well as projects with social enterprises are structured around Fellows' availability.
The Fellowship will be delivered virtually. Outside of the Fellowship, we will facilitate state based catch ups and networking opportunities.
The project is a practical learning experience where Fellows will be able to apply their existing knowledge and skillsets as well as learning from the program to a real-world problem a social enterprise is experience. The social enterprises come from the Social Impact Hub's community. There will be flexibility around the timing and location of the project depending on the Fellows and enterprises' availability and preference. The project can be completed virtually or in person during work hours or after hours.
Fellows will have an opportunity to preference the enterprise they would like to work with. The project for the Fellows component of the program is not limited and spots will be guaranteed if you choose to undertake the optional placement.
If your company would like to organise the project as a workplace volunteering opportunity, we are happy to support your participating Fellows with any materials you need from us.