The goal of the Fellowship is to empower community and civil society leaders, activists and problem-solvers by providing them with values-based leadership development as well as with the networks to accelerate the creation of a more just world by expanding the reach of their existing work and community commitments.

Like other Aspen Institute Fellowship programs, the Civil Society Fellowship has a clear structure anchored by a series of sessions based on the proven Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) model, but also enhanced by customized seminars designed to drive experiential learning with content that is specific to community issues. Over a period of two-and-a-half to three years, Fellows will attend five seminars. In addition, they will complete a venture under the guidance of the Managing Director and feedback from their class members.

Candidates for the Civil Society Fellowship are community and civil rights leaders, activists and problem-solvers at an inflection point in their career and between the ages of 25-50. The ideal Fellow would be positioned to benefit from a leadership journey supplemented by unique travel experiences. It is encouraged that Fellows challenge one another’s ideas respectfully in conjunction with our commitment toward engaging a multitude of perspectives.

Fellows’ room and board during sessions, as well as their airfare (domestic and international-coach class) and all moderator sessions, will be covered by the Fellowship. While we recognize the value of time to leaders is a cost to consider, we believe the opportunity to learn and engage with other leaders from across the country and the world will prove invaluable to those who chose this journey.

Fellows gather five times over a two-and-a-half to three year period with other members of their class. The seminars are hosted in Aspen, CO, the DC area, Western Europe, the Middle East and the American South. These seminars are led by Aspen Institute moderators and guest speakers.

Potential Fellows must be nominated by a third party who knows them well and is prepared to speak candidly and objectively about the candidate’s qualifications. Individuals cannot apply for the Fellowship or nominate themselves. Short-listed nominees will be interviewed in person and a final class will be selected from that pool of interviewed applicants.

The ideal class will include Fellows from various personal and professional backgrounds whose experiences will help complement, challenge, and inspire each other during the seminars and throughout the Fellowship. We are looking for diversity within the class. Each class of Fellows will be comprised of 20-25 individuals who will represent a range of attributes including gender, geography, race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, ideology and political affiliation. Each Fellow should have something to teach and something to learn from the others. In the Aspen tradition, this diversity of talent is called "the mosaic,” and is carefully assembled to provide the greatest benefit to each class. Many exceptional, impressive individuals are not chosen to be Fellows because they don't fit the class mosaic for that particular year and may be reconsidered for their suitability for future classes.

Fellows are busy and their time is at a premium. The Fellowship provides a rare opportunity to step back, think with, and draw inspiration from other successful leaders who are facing similar life and professional challenges. The benefits of lifelong interaction with other Fellows in the Aspen Global Leadership Network are limitless.

The Aspen Global Leadership Network is the umbrella under which the Institute operates thirteen geographic or sector-specific Fellowships around the world. Collectively, AGLN is made up of over 3,000 current Fellows and alumni from over 60 countries. Like the Civil Society Fellowship, each of the AGLN programs is designed to inspire Fellows to take their leadership to greater heights and to broaden their impact on society at-large. The network helps keep members connected so that they can continue to learn from, collaborate with, and support one another. Once selected, Civil Society Fellows will automatically become members of the AGLN and will be included in AGLN activities.

The program requires each Fellow to commit to attending approximately 30 days of seminar meetings (5 seminars of 5-7 days each) over a period of approximately 2.5-3 years. Beyond the time spent on each seminar, there is also time and energy needed in preparing for each seminar as well as designing and launching a venture of the Fellow’s own choosing. This venture is a requirement of the Fellowship and an opportunity for Fellows to truly stretch themselves in their leadership. Each Fellow will need to be able to attend all 5 seminars in their entirety– start to finish– and each candidate will need to confirm availability for all 5 of the seminars before we will consider them for the Fellowship. Participation will be without cost to the Fellows or their organizations, with the exception of incidental expenses.

Our goal is to be thought partners and provide structure for the Fellows to improve the effect that their localized work has on people across the country. We ask our Fellows to develop new approaches that will stretch them in their leadership and make a significant impact on their field. The key is that the ventures add to the Fellows’ current efforts and accomplishments and, as such, Fellows cannot fulfill the venture requirement by continuing a current venture. The Fellowship does not provide financial resources for these ventures, but we will approve the ventures and provide support that includes coaching, mentoring, and resources to help with venture funding.

As a recipient of this Fellowship, Fellows are the beneficiary of a very significant investment in their development as a leader. Fellows have the capacity to bring significant new ideas and energy to societal challenges that often seem to be hopelessly deadlocked. We have no specific target level of impact in mind, but we do hope for a real and significant “return” to the world for this investment. We will select Fellows because we believe in their ability to do great things.

The venture should be something that the Fellow’s organization or movement was not already doing or planning to do. It should be something that Fellows would not have started or done were they not a part of this Fellowship. The correlation between the Fellow's passion for the venture and its success is key. Ventures should be achievable; time and resources are key to consider before launching a venture. Ventures built off of a Fellow's existing work will likely be the most successful.

Fellows are not expected to arrive at the first seminar knowing what venture they will undertake. Rather, the Fellowship experience and the other members of their class are meant to inspire them to discover what they want to create.