What Is the Program?
The Big Bets Climate Fellowship seeks to expand Fellows’ Big Bets mindset and skills to advance climate solutions, increase their visibility and influence on global stages, and build new personal connections and sense of community. Over the course of six months Fellows will come together in virtual and in-person gatherings at New York Climate Week and regionally in Latin America. The experience anchors on a week-long convening at The Rockefeller Foundation’s renowned Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy. These moments serve to build cohort and network connections and provide strategic guidance from experts and peers to advance Fellows’ efforts to reverse the climate crisis.
Specific program components include:
- Integrative Curriculum – equipping Fellows with the leadership mindset and skill sets needed to advance their climate solution
- Impact Acceleration – focused time with peers, mentors, and experts to sharpen, magnify, and accelerate climate solutions through virtual and in-person convenings*
- Cohort Community – a group of progressive innovators, thinkers, and builders for partnership, interdisciplinary collaboration, and cross-cultural exchange
- Network Access – exclusive membership in The Rockefeller Foundation network and access to post-Fellowship programming, convenings, consultation, and facilitated connections with other charitable partners
- Global Platform – visible amplification for Fellows to share their voice and climate solution with a global audience
* Final terms and conditions for Fellowship eligibility, application process, selection, and participation in the program can be found here.
This year’s application process has ended. Learn more about this year's Fellowship below and sign up for the Big Bets Community for future updates.
Opportunity Areas
Betting on Latin America
The Big Bets Climate Fellowship is designed to support leaders advancing breakthrough solutions to reverse the climate crisis. For its first year, we are focused on climate solutions in Latin America, including Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
Focusing on this region itself is a Big Bet — critical in the fight to reverse the climate crisis. The region is home to the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. Representing the world’s largest carbon opportunity, it plays a key role in both climate regulation and the global water cycle. The Amazon’s material and inspirational influence extends far beyond the region and has the potential for outsized impact on a global scale.
Accelerating Climate Solutions
The Fellowship program centers on scalable climate solutions that provide services to or improve the lives of underserved and vulnerable communities.
Fellow’s climate solutions address one or more negative externalities associated with the climate crisis. Including but not limited to sequestering or preventing release of significant amounts of carbon, methane, or other greenhouse gasses; protecting or increasing biodiversity; creating the enabling conditions for impact or reversing the climate crisis.
The solutions that Big Bets fellows bring align with The Rockefeller Foundation’s long-standing priorities: Power, Food, Health, and Finance.
