The Yunus & Youth Global Fellowship Program is a six-month online program for young people who already run a social business. It is run by Yunus & Youth, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in Wilmington, Delaware, that works in the social business tradition associated with Muhammad Yunus and connects young founders with professionals from large corporations. Fellows take part entirely from where they live; the program page states there are no in-person activities and asks for roughly five hours a week.
The work centres on strengthening the business model, measuring social impact and setting a scaling strategy, and it ends with a pitch to a panel of investors. The program page describes an annual cycle running from April to October, with applications opening in January. The most recent round published on the site is the 2024 cohort; dates and criteria for a following cycle have not been posted.
Benefits & funding
- No fee to take part, and no equity is taken in the fellow’s organisation.
- A mentor matched one-to-one, drawn from experienced professionals at established companies who volunteer their time; the fellowship FAQ describes them as coming from Fortune 500 companies.
- A learning journey curated around each fellow’s own needs and challenges, delivered through an online platform.
- A place in the final online pitch competition, presenting to a panel of real investors.
- A certificate of graduation for fellows who complete all mandatory assignments, and entry to the alumni network.
- No cash award, stipend or investment is offered. The FAQ states the program provides training, tools and connections rather than direct funding.
Eligibility
- Generally aged 18 to 30; the program page notes that a few exceptions are made for outstanding applicants over 30.
- Founder, co-founder, or otherwise holding primary decision-making power in the organisation.
- The organisation must already be operating, with its assumptions tested. Idea-stage projects are not accepted.
- Legal form is flexible: both nonprofit and for-profit registrations are accepted, as long as the organisation exists to solve a social or environmental problem and is working towards a financial model that does not depend on grants or donations.
- Fluent English. Yunus & Youth runs a separate Spanish-language track, Fellowship LATAM, for founders living in Latin America.
- About five hours a week available across the six months.
- No nationality or residency requirement is published, and no degree or field of study is required.
- Co-founders and teammates may join webinars, but only the selected fellow gets full access to the program.
- The 2024 cohort, the most recent one published, was open to applicants who identify as women or non-binary. The program’s general criteria state no gender requirement, and no criteria have been published for a later cycle.
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.
Age requirement
≥ 18 yrs
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Application process
- 1Watch the program page for the call; it states that applications for the next cohort start in January.
- 2Submit the online application form. The 2024 form closed on 17 March 2024 and is no longer accepting responses.
- 3Record and submit a short motivation video, given as five minutes in the published process.
- 4Finalists take a 30-minute interview.
- 5Selected founders join the cohort, which the program page places at an April start, and complete the mandatory assignments to graduate.
Program timeline
Applications open for the next cohort, per the program page
January
Application deadline for the 2024 cohort, the most recent round published
Mar 17, 2024
2024-04 to 2024-09
The 2024 cohort ran
Annual program period as described on the program page
April to October