Our Fellowship Process
Our goal in the selection of participants in the Whole Thinking program is to create a transparent, dynamic collaboration with our alumni, funders and partners to identify those leaders who will most benefit from a fellowship through our program.
Each fall, we solicit nominations for the new class of fellows. The recipients of a number of those fellowships are typically chosen by funders who give us grants to bring their grantees through the program. We develop a pool of nominees for the other fellowships by asking our recent alumni, faculty, staff, board and colleagues to nominate leaders they think would benefit from -- and contribute to -- the program.
Each February, from a pool of several hundred nominees, we select 40-60% of those leaders in order to invite enough people to fill our fellowship retreats for that year. We offer fellowships to approximately twice as many people as we can accept in the program, knowing that only a subset will be able to accept their fellowships and participate that year in a retreat or workshop.
We decide who to award fellowships to based on a range of criteria:
- Change-making ability – Is the nominee in a leadership role and/or able to make changes in her or his organization, coalition or community?
- Land and people connections - Does the nominee’s work (paid or volunteer) relate to land and people in some significant way? Within this broad focus, we place a particular emphasis on those working in conservation, food security, environmental justice, working lands, government policy, community development, media, academia and philanthropy.
- Receptiveness – Would the nominee be willing to attend? Is she or he likely to be open to the ideas presented by the program, even if she or he is not in complete agreement with them?
- Diversity: Because ethnic/racial diversity and socio-economic diversity are of paramount importance to the success of our programs, we give preference to less privileged people and nominees of color.
When selecting fellows, we look to these criteria first. Then we ensure that we’re not inviting too many people from one professional group – too many conservationists, for example, or academics. This often means that some nominees who are a good fit for the program cannot be invited. We maintain a nomination for at least two years, trying to fit that person into a fellowship the following year if they meet our criteria.
If you wish to know more about the Whole Thinking Program, we encourage you to contact us.