Applicant Criteria

• Purpose / Passion
  Show us that you care deeply about this issue or community and help us understand why. What experiences have compelled you to apply?  Show us how your work excites you and keeps you motivated every day.
• Resilience
  Social entrepreneurship is tough; you will inevitably face obstacles along the way.  Demonstrate that you have bounced back or have the capacity to do so, as well as the ability to foresee any challenges.
• Leadership
  You are the CEO of something big and important. Show us that you can lead this organization toward its goals. What unique skills and experiences do you have that will help you succeed?  Show us how you are constantly learning, reinventing, and exploring new things.  Highlight your achievements in the field, as well as your experience in the geographic region.
• Ability to Attract Resources
  Show us that you can attract money, people, and other resources to your cause. What resources have you attracted to your cause in the past? Demonstrate to us that others are confident in your ability to make lasting change. This does not mean that you need to be the person on stage at a 10,000 person rally.  Some leaders are more unassuming and still able to get others to care about their cause and take action.

Organization Criteria

• Innovation
  We are looking for ideas that have never been tried before. Explain to us how your approach is different from things that have been tried in the past.
• Importance
  To be interested in your solution, Echoing Green must first understand why the issue your project will tackle is imperative. Explain to us the problem you want to solve and why it matters.  On a global scale, why is this issue important?
• Potential for Big, Bold Impact
  Show us how your project will directly impact many lives or change a big system. Or, will your solution set an important example that it will have bold impact indirectly? Some models are so innovative and influential that they change big systems by being replicated by others. Explain to us what sets your organization apart and why you believe it is influential enough to be replicated.
• A Good Business Model
  Great ideas fall flat without a solid plan. Your start-up plan – budget, timeline, staffing – should be well thought-out.  Be clear and concise in relating the details of how your organization will run. You do not have to have solved everything. We just want to see that you are considering these questions thoughtfully and realistically.

A note about innovation: Innovation is an important element of the Echoing Green Fellowship. What does Echoing Green mean by innovation?

• An innovative idea is novel, it’s often untried, and it challenges the assumptions made by previous organizations working in the field.
• Innovative ideas can build upon or make improvements to an existing model, or they can create their own unique solutions which have never been tried before.
• Organizations utilizing a pre-existing model would benefit from elements of innovation. For example, bringing a traditional model to new locations, communities, or organizations which they have not been historically related to.
• Innovative ideas bring about dramatic change, not just incremental change. Tell us how your approach will lead to increased change over other models or ideas.