Scholarship Overview
What Is the Voqal Partners Fellowship?
The Voqal Partners Fellowship is a six-month program designed for social justice changemakers ready to build and test new ideas. Each year, Voqal selects a small cohort of eight fellows and provides funding, coaching, and community to advance their work from concept to experimentation.
This is explicitly a dream-stage and idea-stage fellowship. You do not need a finished organization, product, or campaign. What you need is a compelling vision for change, clarity about the problem you’re addressing, and willingness to take first steps.
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What Fellows Receive
The fellowship package includes:
- $30,000 award — Paid as a lump sum at the start. No restrictions on spending; use for living expenses, hiring help, equipment, or anything that supports you and your idea.
- $1,000 healthcare stipend
- Travel to three in-person convenings — All costs covered. Childcare stipend provided for fellows with dependents under 18.
- Coaching and mentorship — Access to coaches, advisors, and mentors for operational, strategic, and structural guidance.
- Cohort of peers — Eight fellows per year learning together, plus access to an active alum network.
Who Should Apply
Voqal explicitly states: “Saviors need not apply. Builders, organizers, visionaries, and agitators: please do.”
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The fellowship prioritizes:
- Community leaders who are part of the communities they work with — not outside them
- People with lived experience of the issues they address
- Those representing non-dominant cultures
- Applicants from communities historically excluded from philanthropy, including LGBTQIA+ individuals, women, Indigenous peoples, people of color, and people with disabilities
Eligibility Requirements
To apply, you must:
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- Be 18 or older
- Be based in the United States
- Be able to receive funds in the U.S.
Important limitation: Voqal Partners does not offer visa sponsorship. This means the fellowship is not accessible to African applicants who are not already based in the United States with legal ability to receive U.S. funds.
What Voqal Looks For
Successful applications demonstrate:
- Dream-stage or idea-stage work — A bold vision, even if you’re still figuring out execution
- Radical solutions — Ideas that disrupt systems, not just make current systems easier to live in
- A path forward — Clear ideas about where to begin and what to test or build
- Alignment with fellowship support — The coaching and community will genuinely help your idea advance
- Connection to community — You’re working alongside those most impacted by the issue
Projects can be hyperlocal or national, but must focus on communities in the United States.
Fellowship Timeline 2027
| Applications open | First Tuesday after Labor Day 2026 |
| Applications close | October 31, 2026 at 11:59 pm Eastern |
| Interviews | January 2027 |
| Fellows selected | February – March 2027 |
| Opening convening | April 2027 |
| Fellow programming | April – September 2027 |
| Middle convening | July 2027 |
| Closing convening | September 2027 |
How to Apply
The application has four sections:
- Eligibility — Core alignment questions
- Basic Details — How you found Voqal, project name, brief descriptions
- The Specifics — The heart of your application: the future you’re creating, your plan to get there, and support you’ll need
- Additional Details — AI use disclosure, background with coaches, final details, links, documents
You must also submit a budget showing how you’ll use the $30,000. This is not evaluated — it simply helps Voqal understand your planning stage. A template is provided.
Voqal offers two virtual information sessions covering the same content:
- Session #1: September 18, 2026, 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific
- Session #2: October 14, 2026, 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific
The first session is recorded and shared within one week.
What Voqal Asks of Fellows
The fellowship is intensive by design. Fellows must:
- Work on their project from April through September 2027
- Attend three in-person convenings (April, July, September)
- Participate in monthly cohort calls
- Engage with coaches and advisors
- Share what they learned at program’s end
Fellows may pursue other work during the program, but the fellowship project must remain the priority.
Key Policies
Intellectual property: Fellows retain full ownership. Voqal claims no rights to your ideas, products, or creations.
Fund distribution: Typically a lump sum at start, but monthly schedules can be arranged as long as full amount is distributed by program end.
Fund use: No restrictions. Living expenses, equipment, contractors, travel, implementation costs — all acceptable if they support your work.
Reapplication: Previous applicants are encouraged to reapply. Prior applications do not affect future consideration. Previous fellows may apply with a new idea, but not for continuation of prior fellowship work.
Contact
Questions: fellowship@voqalpartners.org
