The Rockefeller Foundation Big Bets Fellowship 2026 for young African Changemakers (Fully Funded ) – Opportunities For Africans

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Application Deadline: December 1st, 2025

Applications are actually open for the 2026 Rockefeller Foundation Big Bets Fellowship. Each yr, the rockerfeller basis choose a various and interdisciplinary cohort of changemakers who’re driving daring, systemic options to the world’s most pressing challenges – enhancing lives and increasing alternative for these traditionally underserved.

In 2026 the Big Bets Fellowship will have interaction leaders from throughout the African continent who’re creating the programs, insurance policies, and improvements that may energy a affluent and sustainable future for all.

The program is trying to assist leaders with daring options that reimagine an current system or introduce progressive approaches to harness the know-how, belongings, capacities, and energies of others to energy a affluent future for all Africans, centered on making certain financial prosperity, stability and Opportunities for communities who want it most.

Fellow Selection Criteria

While there isn’t any single profile of a Big Bets Fellow, the next traits describe people who’re prone to thrive in this system:

• 5–15 years of expertise driving impression by way of skilled, entrepreneurial, or community-based work.
• Deep engagement of their area, mirrored by way of lived expertise, skilled contributions, or group involvement.
• A particular perspective and recent perception right into a urgent problem, knowledgeable by each private {and professional} expertise.
• A confirmed monitor file of significant change, demonstrating the power to steer initiatives and bringing collectively various stakeholders to realize shared objectives.
• Collaborative, curious, and community-driven, with a robust dedication to studying and contributing to the Fellowship community.
• Courageous and daring, keen to problem the established order and advance new approaches for lasting impression.
• Applicants have to be members of the Big Bets Community to be eligible for the Fellowship.

Benefits

• Travel bills for participation within the in-person convening might be lined by The Rockefeller Foundation. Fellows might be accountable for securing the mandatory visa(s) for any journey through the course of this system.

  Program Dates

• Onboarding Call: week of May 4th, 2026
• Virtual Programing: weekly 90-minute on-line classes from May to August
• In-person Convening at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center: week of August twenty third, 2026
• Amplification Moment: Fall 2026

Application Timeline:

• Application Launch: November tenth, 2025
• Deadline to finish the Eligibility and Pre-Application Forms: December 1st, 2025
• Finalists invited to submit Full Application and schedule interviews: Early January 2026
• Deadline to finish Full Application: Late January 2026
• Interviews carried out: January 2026
• Fellows introduced: Late February 2026

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Rockefeller Foundation Big Bets Fellowship