Apply for Acumen Fellows Program in Spain

Acumen invests in people who are social entrepreneurs across the funding spectrum and accompanies them on the path to create transformative change. At Acumen Academy, they identify and prepare leaders with the technical skills necessary to build scalable solutions that address poverty challenges and the complex moral leadership skills to reimagine and build a better world.

Program Details

• Fellows Program
  • Their Program is built on two decades of experience accompanying social entrepreneurs on their journey from seed stage to scale. The Program provides new leadership frameworks and, through a supportive cohort, Fellows test the new skills they are learning in real time, and build peer-to-peer relationships that keep them accountable to their values ​​and commitments as they grow and scale their impact.
• Curriculum
  • Handling Polarities
    • Learn to act in a world of opposing viewpoints and overcome differences to mobilize others toward a shared cause or challenge.
  • Good Society Readings
    • Explore the meaning of a just society and the moral and historical foundations of social change through classic and contemporary texts by thinkers such as Plato, Ursula K. LeGuin, Chimamanda Adichie, Dr. Martin Luther King, Amartya Sen, and Eduardo Galeano.
  • Adaptive Leadership
    • Learn to understand stakeholders, identify their needs, and navigate uncertainty to catalyze change.
  • Authentic Voice
    • Learn how to tell compelling stories that inspire others to take action on a bold idea. Improve your pitch to raise awareness, speak to investors, form partnerships, and build relationships.
• Structure
  • Those who begin the Fellows Program remain in their jobs and participate in a 6-month hybrid program consisting of virtual sessions, in-person immersive meetings, and self-paced learning.
  • Here is a summary of the Program:
    • A 3-day orientation
    • Two 5-day full-time in-person meetings (8 hours of work prior to each meeting consisting of self-paced asynchronous learning and group calls)
    • Four learning labs (during which you will have: 2 mandatory group calls of 2 hours each, pre- and post-work, individual and cohort calls)

Benefits

• Upon successful completion of the Program, participants join The Foundry – Forjando Comunidad, their global community of over 1,600 graduates of their programs around the world. They help those in the community build and grow their organizations through access to these opportunities:
  • Tools and Tutoring
    • Get specialized tools and exclusive coaching opportunities from partner Bain and Company.
  • Community
    • Join a community of recognized social entrepreneurs.
  • Amplification
    • Gain exposure to a global audience of investors, entrepreneurs and industry leaders.
  • Initial Financing
    • Opportunities to make presentations (‘Pitch’ type) to obtain catalytic capital in the initial phase through the Angel Funds Program, to move from the seed stage to scalability.

Eligibility Criteria

• You want to take yourself and your work to the next level. You seek people who will support you on your journey. You have a bold vision for yourself and your work. You want to develop as a credible and inspiring leader in pursuit of the lifelong practice of moral leadership and gain a nuanced understanding of how you can be of greatest service to yourself, your work, and the world.
• You believe that the opposite of poverty is not wealth, but dignity. Your organization or initiative offers people in poverty the dignity of choice – jobs, education, products and services. You use market tools to create scalable solutions to solve poverty challenges, and you are improving the lives of your clients or beneficiaries.
• You have an urgency to contribute to the world. You are impatient with the status quo, both within yourself and in the world. You have a strong ambition to grow your organization and are looking for the tools and community to make an impact.
• You want to join a global community of people who are passionate about solving the challenges of poverty and who will accompany you on your journey. You want to connect with others who have been in your shoes and join a community of giving and receiving, where it’s okay to define success in a different way, and where it’s okay to put people and the planet at the center.

For more information, visit Acumen Academy.