Deadline: 31-May-21
Facebook is seeking applications for its Community Accelerator program to equip impactful communities with the training, mentorship, and funds to grow that help leaders harness the power of their community to turn impactful ideas into action.
The Community Accelerator is an evolution of Fellowship program, which in 2019 supported 115 participating leaders worldwide. Together, those leaders reported that their projects impacted over 1.9 million lives through online community support, the use of helpful resources, and other activities made possible by the program.
How Facebook will help?
- Training & Coaching: Learn how to organize and strengthen your community through custom training, one-on-one coaching and meaningful partnerships.
- Access to New Products: Get early access to new products aimed at helping you manage and activate your community.
- Funding: Facebook will work with GlobalGiving to offer you up to $50k USD to help fund your community’s initiatives, with a subset of communities eligible to receive part of $1 million USD in additional funding.
What Participants will do?
- Strengthen your community: Learn from experts, coaches and a customized curriculum so your community can work better together.
- Plan your initiatives: Identify important initiatives that will create a positive impact on the broader world and develop a plan to mobilize your community around your goals.
- Execute: Collaborate on your initiatives with top advocates and leaders in the community space and utilize new products aimed at helping you manage and activate your members.
What Participants will learn?
- Community Identity Foundations: Participants will develop and/or refine their community’s mission, member and stakeholder engagement strategy, Theory of Change, and more.
- Leading Action-Oriented Communities: Participants will learn skills to lead effective teams, engage members in projects that further community goals, manage volunteers, and more.
- Sustainability: Participants will learn best practices for community income generation and options for organizational structures that help maximize community impact.
Funding Information
- Facebook will work with GlobalGiving to fund participants’ project plans & to help set them up for success in the program.
- Selected participants will each receive up to $50k USD for their participation in the program and to fund their community initiatives during the eight-month program and could be eligible to receive part of the $1 million USD of additional funding available to further fund their community initiatives.
- Up to $7.5 million USD will be awarded to program participants in total.
Eligibility Criteria
- This program is open to communities that have a presence in Facebook Groups with leaders who are 18 years of age or older and reside in the following countries: Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, United States, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco & India. Communities must have existed for over one year and must have a minimum size of 1,000 members.
- The program will be conducted in Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico & Argentina), German (Germany, Switzerland & Austria) and English for all the other markets.
- Participants of the 2020 Community Accelerator are not eligible to apply. Participants in other Facebook programs are welcome to apply as long as they meet the program requirements.
Selection Criteria
The selection committee will look for communities who would benefit most from the unique programming offered and have the capacity to engage fully in the program. This includes:
- Vibrant Community: An existing community using Facebook Groups that has an engaged member base and has existed for over one year.
- Purpose: The community and its leadership team have a clear purpose and vision.
- Capacity: A team that has the capacity to create meaningful initiatives that activates their members.
- Leadership: The leader(s) of the community have leadership experience, including managing teams, projects and volunteers.
- Sustainability: The community is interested in having or already has a business model to cover their costs, even if it isn’t recurring revenue.
- Commitment: A team that is committed to engage fully in each stage of the program.
- Real World Impact: The community rallies together to turn impactful ideas into action that benefit its members and larger society.
For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/community/accelerator/