The 2024 CatchLight Global Fellowship’s mission is to leverage the power of images to inform, transform and connect communities.
The CatchLight Global Fellowship awards visual storytellers who are poised to ignite social change through their photography, videography or leadership by leveraging the power of visuals to create impactful audience engagement and innovative distribution models.
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:
Public presentation of outcomes
Interview(s) with recipient and/or key stakeholders
Visual documentation and data collection
Eligibility Criteria
You maybe the ideal candidate for a CatchLight Global Fellowship if you are a(n):
Long-form storyteller with a specific impact project
Leader with a plan to advance/or grow the field
Educator with innovative approaches to supporting upcoming storytellers
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.
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.
Benefits
$30,000 award
Potential access to additional future funding through the CatchLight Impact Fund
Paid travel and accommodations for the 2024 CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit, April 26-28 in San Francisco.
Personal development opportunities, including executive coaching
Impact strategy and networking support from CatchLight staff and our extended network.
A community of like-minded Fellows and industry professionals with opportunities for mentorship, education and speaking engagements.
Documents required
A fellowship statement on how visuals in general and your work specifically ignite social change, who your work aims to inform and what human connections your work creates. 100 words
A thesis statement summarizing what you would like to do and why. 100 words
A description of the proposed work. 250 words.
A description of your distribution, engagement and/or impact plan that identifies your target audience for this work. 250 words.
A plan to gather impact feedback. 100 words
A timeline for the work which can extend beyond the grant period.
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.
Application procedure and deadline
Applications can be completed through the online portal. Application deadline is December 9, 2023.
