Kinship Conservation Fellowship

Benefits & funding

• A stipend of US$8,000 for attending the Fellowship in Bellingham, net of customary US tax withholding.
• Payments to non-US citizens carry customary US tax withholding, currently 30%, leaving a net payment of roughly US$5,600. That rate can change with US tax law, and Fellows are responsible for their own applicable taxes.
• One month of teaching from a faculty of global experts, structured around the six Kinship Conservation Pillars: Leading Adaptively, Iterating for Scale, Designing for Governing the Commons, Identifying an Economic Engine, Financing Conservation, and Evaluating for Impact.
• Interactive sessions, systems-thinking exercises, peer learning, optional faculty coaching, regional field trips including Friday Harbor, and a group project presented at the end of the month.
• Membership in the Fellows Community after the program, a network of 368 Fellows in 73 countries.
• The program pages state the stipend and do not address travel, housing or meals, so applicants should confirm those costs directly with the organizers.

Eligibility

• A minimum of a four-year US college degree, or its equivalent.
• A minimum of five years of relevant work experience after completing that degree.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English.
• Conservation practitioners. The program does not admit applicants in academic or research roles.
• The program looks for conservation leaders with at least five years of on-the-ground experience who are implementing market-based approaches to environmental problems, and who are familiar with business and economic principles.
• Applications are accepted from any nationality. The 18 Fellows in the 2025 cohort came from 13 countries.

Application process

1. 1
   Check the four baseline requirements: the degree, five years of post-degree work experience, English proficiency, and practitioner status.
2. 2
   Prepare the project proposal at the centre of the application. It names an environmental issue drawn from your own work and sets out how you plan to develop a solution using market approaches.
3. 3
   Ask your referees early. Letter writers upload their letters to the system themselves, and their deadline sits one week after the application deadline (18 January in the 2026 round).
4. 4
   Submit the application through the Kinship application portal on Submittable before the deadline. In the 2026 round that was 11:59 PM US Central Standard Time on 11 January 2026. An application left in progress at the deadline is not considered.
5. 5
   Selection weighs the viability and fit of the proposed project, leadership potential, and what the applicant would contribute to the cohort and to the Fellows Community afterwards. Eighteen applicants are selected.
6. 6
   Selected Fellows attend the full month in residence at Western Washington University, where cohort members also collaborate on group projects that build on the group’s collective expertise and the curriculum.

Program timeline

1. Application deadline, 11:59 PM US Central Standard Time

   11 January 2026

2. Letter writers upload recommendation letters

   18 January 2026

3. Fellowship begins at Western Washington University, Bellingham

   28 June 2026

4. Fellowship ends

   28 July 2026

5. Dates and the application window for the next cycle are not yet published on the program site