The India Acumen Fellowship is Acumen Academy’s cohort-based leadership program for people building solutions to poverty in India. Fellows remain in their jobs while learning through virtual sessions, self-paced work, and in-person immersives.
The six-month curriculum covers adaptive leadership, working across differences, moral leadership, and storytelling. Graduates join Acumen’s Foundry community and may later access separate mentoring, coaching, and funding opportunities.
Benefits & funding
- Acumen covers all program-related expenses for selected Fellow Candidates.
- Coverage includes lodging and food for the in-person immersives; domestic travel to immersives may be reimbursed.
- The program does not provide a stipend, insurance, automatic grant, or automatic investment.
- The structure includes one three-day virtual orientation, two five-day in-person immersives, and four four-hour Learning Labs over six months.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be at least 18 and no older than 45 when applying.
- Applicants need at least five years of work experience and must be social entrepreneurs or senior decision-makers addressing poverty.
- Their organization must have at least two team members, and at least half of the people it serves must be below the poverty line.
- Applicants must currently lead or work full-time in a social-impact organization or initiative; exceptional part-time cases require a full-time commitment to fighting poverty.
- The standard route is for residents of India. Acumen may exceptionally consider a nonresident with a concrete long-term connection to India through work or the initiative’s focus.
- There are no academic prerequisites, but English proficiency, reliable internet, full availability, and no prior participation in an Acumen Fellowship are required.
- Rural leaders, women and non-binary people, and for-profit social enterprises are priorities rather than hard eligibility gates.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.
Experience required
≥ 5 yrs
Age requirement
18–45 yrs
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Application process
- 1Read the Applicant Toolkit and review the full application before drafting responses.
- 2Submit the online application when the next India cycle opens; the latest published cycle closed on October 30, 2025.
- 3If shortlisted, attend the two-day virtual Selection Conference, the final selection stage.
- 4Selected applicants receive notification and begin the Fellowship journey.
Program timeline
First information session for the latest published cycle
September 26, 2025
Second information session
October 10, 2025
Application deadline
October 30, 2025
Virtual Selection Conference
January 16–17, 2026
Fellowship journey starts
March 2, 2026
Next cycle
Opening date not yet published