The Kinship Conservation Fellowship Call For Application at Western Washington University 2024

The Kinship Conservation Fellowship supports conservation practitioners across the globe. The program is designed to advance your career and equip you with new skills, insights, and analytical tools to accelerate the projects you lead at home.

The month-long, in-residence Fellowship focuses on market-based solutions in conservation and cultivates your leadership skills in the sector. Through interactive discussions, systems-thinking exercises, and peer-learning sessions, Fellows engage with stories and innovative solutions to overcome complex challenges that they can apply to their own work.

APPLICATIONS FOR 2024 ARE OPEN: LEARN MORE AND APPLY NOW!!!!!

The 2024 program runs June 30 – July 30 at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, USA.

Fellows from the 2023 cohort reflect on their experiences.

Delivered by a faculty of global experts, the program’s curriculum is curated to the unique opportunities of each year’s cohort and exposes Fellows to the six Kinship Conservation Pillars for market-based solutions:

• Leading Adaptively
• Iterating for Scale
• Designing for Governing the Commons
• Identifying an Economic Engine
• Financing Conservation
• Evaluating for Impact

Our faculty work closely with each Fellow to explore new ways to apply market-based approaches to environmental issues.

In addition to the classroom training sessions, the program includes field trips and excursions to learn about real-world conservation issues. Each year, the Fellows get the opportunity learn first hand about topics integral to the region’s landscapes, like sustainable forestry and fishing practices.

There is also ample time for exploring Bellingham and connecting with other Fellows. Fellows, faculty, and Kinship Foundation staff also gather for meal nights featuring international flavors and cuisines. During these informal gathering times as well as in the classroom, each year’s cohort forms bonds with each other, which become the foundation of life-long friendships. 

• Table of Content
• About Kinship Foundation
• Kinship Foundation Conservation Fellowship
• Aim and Benefits of Kinship Foundation Conservation Fellowship
• Requirements for Kinship Foundation Conservation Fellowship Qualification
• Interview date, Process and Venue for Kinship Foundation Conservation Fellowship
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About Kinship Foundation

ESTABLISHED IN 2001, KINSHIP CONSERVATION FELLOWS’ MISSION IS TO DEVELOP A COMMUNITY OF LEADERS DEDICATED TO COLLABORATIVE APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES WITH AN EMPHASIS ON MARKET-BASED PRINCIPLES. THE PROGRAM KINSHIP CONSERVATION PILLARS Kinship Conservation Fellows has been actively changing the way conservation is done on the ground for 20 years. Through its innovative tools and inspired community of leaders, Kinship is teaching and training, using these 6 Pillars that form the core of the Fellows curriculum. Click on each Pillar for an in-depth description and case exam... continue reading

Kinship Foundation Conservation Fellowship

Aim and Benefits of Kinship Foundation Conservation Fellowship

For attending the Fellowship in Bellingham, WA, Fellows receive a stipend of US$8000, net of customary U.S. tax withholding. All Fellows are responsible for paying their own applicable local, state and federal taxes in respect of the stipend.  Additionally, payments to non-US citizens will be subject to customary US tax withholding (currently at 30%, resulting in a net payment of approximately $5600, subject to change based on then-current US tax laws).

Requirements for Kinship Foundation Conservation Fellowship Qualification

We’re looking for conservation leaders with at least five years of on the ground experience in conservation, who are involved with the implementation of market-based approaches to solve environmental problems and ready to be part of an expanding community of global leaders.

Fellowship applications include a project proposal that outlines an environmental issue related to the applicant’s work and details their plans to develop a solution using market approaches.

• During the Fellowship, the cohort is strongly encouraged to collaborate on group projects, building upon the group’s collective expertise and proposed projects, as well as ideas from the curriculum and faculty.

Successful applicants will be familiar with business and economic principles and work in a setting where these principles can be integrated with conservation work. Each year 18 applicants are selected to participate in the Fellowship program.

In order to be considered for the program, applicants must meet the following requirements:

• Possess a minimum of a four-year U.S. college degree (or its equivalent).
• Have a minimum of five years relevant work experience after completing a degree.
• Be proficient in spoken and written English.
• Be a conservation practitioner (rather than an academic or researcher).

Interview date, Process and Venue for Kinship Foundation Conservation Fellowship

Applicants who meet the above requirements will be evaluated in the following areas:

• Proposed project viability and appropriateness
• Leadership potential
• Potential contribution at the Fellowship program and ongoing membership in the Fellows Community

The 2024 program runs June 30 – July 30 at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, USA.

Application Deadline

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted no later than 11:59 PM US Central Standard Time on January 14, 2024. Applications that are in progress but have not been submitted by this deadline will not be considered. Letters of recommendation should be uploaded to the system by the letter writer by Sunday, January 21, 2024.

For more details visit: Kinship Foundation website.