Apply for CatchLight Global Fellowship

A CatchLight Global Fellowship is awarded for life. Fellows are encouraged to share expertise beyond their Fellowship cohort year, and CatchLight hopes that Fellows will offer and seek mentorship within the community throughout their careers.

Central to the Global Fellowship goals and deliverables are sharing learnings and processes with the CatchLight community and wider field. Fellows are responsible for sharing outcomes and insights through three primary reporting mechanisms during the Fellowship year:

• Shared work through regular updates
• Presentation of your work/findings
• Visual documentation and data collection

Outcomes

• Proposals will be assessed on how they employ and strengthen new methods and potential solutions with an eye towards one or more of the following target outcomes:
  • Innovative Distribution: Testing a new distribution method of an existing project to effectively engage a specific audience through visuals.
  • Community Activations: Testing how visual storytelling can be leveraged to engage specific audiences and/or address specific community information needs
  • Field sustainability: building systems and models that push the field of visual storytelling or media ecosystem forward.

Benefits

• Potential access to additional future funding through the CatchLight Impact Fund.
• Paid travel and accommodations for the 2025 CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit in San Francisco.
• Personal development opportunities, including executive coaching.
• Impact strategy and networking support from CatchLight staff and their extended network.
• A community of like-minded Fellows and industry professionals with opportunities for mentorship, education and speaking engagements.

Funding Information

• $30,000 award.

Deliverables

• Shared assets (photographs/video) proving impact/engagement
• Shared assets to promote Fellows/CL work
• Quarterly updates via email with optional virtual meeting
• Presentation of your work/findings

Eligibility Criteria

• Their aim is to bring resources and support to all types of leaders in visual storytelling who are looking to have significant impact and care about the sustainability of the field. Ideal candidates for the CatchLight Global Fellowship may include:
  • Visual storytellers whose projects address specific social-impact objectives.
  • Creative leaders with plans to advance or grow the field of visual storytelling.
  • Educators with innovative visual approaches to teaching and/or supporting emerging talents in the visual field.

Application Requirements

• A fellowship statement that describes how visuals in general, and your work specifically, engage audiences and have a long-term impact.
• A description of the proposed work.
• A description of how your distribution, engagement and/or impact plan differs from what is happening industry wide now and that identifies your target audience.
• A plan to gather impact feedback.
• A timeline for the work which can extend beyond the grant period. (This can be broad or specific).
• A budget estimate for the proposed work. This budget can exceed the award amount but please note where CatchLight funds would be used.
• Three topic ideas for sharing learning with the CatchLight community.
• 10-20 images which, if awarded, CatchLight has the rights to use in promotional materials.
• Three professional references. Contact information must include email and phone number.
• A short bio.
• A copy of your curriculum vitae.

For more information, visit CatchLight.