Application Deadline: February 11, 2021
Open Society-U.S.’s Soros Equality Fellowship seeks to support emerging midcareer professionals whom we believe will become long-term innovative leaders impacting racial justice.
Contact
[email protected]
ELIGIBILITY AND GUIDELINES PAST FELLOWS CURRENT FELLOWS
The Soros Equality Fellowship seeks to support individual leaders influencing and transforming the racial justice field. We understand the unique role an individual can play in rejecting old paradigms and presenting a new vision for the United States we hope to become. We invite applicants to be bold, innovative, and audacious in their submissions. The aim of the Fellowship is to be flexible and open—a space to incubate new ideas, promote risk-taking, and develop different ways of thinking that challenge and expand our existing assumptions. A successful project should identify a challenge and propose a critical intervention that will meaningfully address the systems that reinforce inequities and discrimination in the United States.
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Over the last year, Open Society Foundations has affirmed our long history supporting racial justice efforts through a new, significant financial and strategic commitment to the field with the goal of building long-term power in communities of color. Through this Fellowship, Open Society aims to provide a network of leaders, representing the diversity of experiences, with the resources to address racial inequality and the space they need to imagine a more equitable future.
We are living in unprecedented times in the United States, where the issues of inequality have created a new racial reckoning to address issues of injustice. As such, we believe this year’s cohort should consider their project within the current social and political moment. We know toxic narratives, racialized anxiety, economic insecurity, and an ongoing health pandemic have reinforced divisions and the systems that perpetuate inequities. It is in this context that we ask applicants to place their project and explain how and why their project is necessary to counter these threats and move toward a more inclusive multiracial democracy.
Eligibility Criteria
Fellowship Term and Time Commitment
Applicants must be able to devote at least 35 hours per week to the project if awarded a Fellowship; and the project must be the applicant’s only full-time work during the course of the Fellowship.
Projects Based Outside the United States
Applicants may be based outside the United States, provided their work directly pertains to a U.S. racial justice issue and is able to demonstrate a proficiency in spoken and written English.
Joint Applications
Up to two individuals can apply jointly for a Soros Equality Fellowship. However, joint applications will share one fellowship award. A joint application should be completed together as a single submission. For joint applicants, the “full-time work” requirement does not apply to each applicant. All other restrictions associated with an individual application still apply.
Lobbying
Projects that include electioneering, lobbying, or other activity that does not fall within IRS 501(c)(3) guidelines will not be funded. Please carefully review the Tax Law Lobbying Rules before submitting an application. If awarded a fellowship, applicants are required to attend a training session on the tax law lobbying rules, conducted by the Open Society Foundations’ General Counsel’s Office; and must agree to refrain from engaging in restricted lobbying and political activities during the term of the Fellowship.
Ineligibility Criteria
The program does not fund the following:
enrollment for degree or non-degree study at academic institutions, including dissertation research
projects that address racial justice issues outside the United States (applicants themselves, however, can be based outside the United States, as long as their work directly relates to a U.S. issue)
projects that serve as proxy for an organizational grant
lobbying or political activities
Guidelines
There are three stages to the application and selection process. First, all applicants must submit a full and completed application by the deadline of February 11, 2021.
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Secondly, each application will be reviewed for critical need, competitiveness, ability to influence the racial justice field, innovation, and the leadership qualities of the applicant. Applications will be evaluated on the extent to which the applicant possesses the vision, drive, and skills needed to broaden understanding, spur debate, or catalyze change on the issues at the heart of the Open Society Foundations’ racial justice priorities. We will then select a group of finalists who will be invited to interview with a selection committee consisting of Open Society Foundations staff and outside social justice experts. Finally, after each finalist is interviewed, we will select up to 15 individuals to receive a Fellowship award.
Applicants who are uncertain about the parameters of the fellowship guidelines may submit a brief email inquiry to: [email protected].
Please do not submit an email inquiry before reviewing the appropriate documents. Additional technical guidance for your submission can be found here.
For application details, visit: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/soros-equality-fellowship
