Deadline: December 15, 2025

Applications are open for the CatchLight Global Fellowship 2026. At CatchLight, they are harnessing the power of visual storytelling to inform, connect and transform communities. Through the CatchLight Global Fellowship, CatchLight supports individuals who want to cultivate significant audience engagement through inventive distribution methods that will increase the impact of their work.

Since 2017, the CatchLight has awarded $30,000 to 26 innovative visual storytellers covering a multitude of topics and come from all over the world. Central to the Global Fellowship goals and deliverables are sharing learnings and processes with the CatchLight community and wider field. Fellows are responsible for sharing outcomes and insights through three primary reporting mechanisms during the Fellowship year.


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Benefits

  • $30,000 award
  • Potential access to additional future funding
  • Paid travel and accommodations for the 2025 CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit in San Francisco.
  • Personal development opportunities, including executive coaching
  • Impact strategy and networking support from CatchLight staff and our extended network. 
  • A community of like-minded Fellows and industry professionals with opportunities for mentorship, education and speaking engagements.

Eligibility

You maybe the ideal candidate for a CatchLight Global Fellowship if you are a(n):

  • Long-form storyteller with a specific impact project
  • Leader with a plan to advance/or grow the field
  • Educator with innovative approaches to supporting upcoming storytellers

Proposals will be assessed on how they employ and strengthen new methods and potential solutions with an eye towards one or more of the following target outcomes:

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  • Innovative Distribution: Testing a new distribution method of an existing project to effectively engage a specific audience through visuals.
  • Community Activations: Testing how visual storytelling can be leveraged to engage specific audiences and/or address specific community information needs
  • Field sustainability: building systems and models that push the field of visual storytelling or media ecosystem forward.

Application

Application requirements include but are not limited to:

  • A fellowship statement on how visuals in general and your work specifically ignite social change, who your work aims to inform and what human connections your work creates (100 words)
  • A thesis statement summarizing what you would like to do and why (100 words)
  • A description of the proposed work (250 words)
  • A description of your distribution, engagement and/or impact plan that identifies your target audience for this work (250 words)
  • A plan to gather impact feedback (100 words)
  • A timeline for the work which can extend beyond the grant period.
  • A budget estimate for the proposed work. This budget can exceed the award amount but please note where CatchLight funds would be used
  • Three topic ideas for sharing learning with the CatchLight community
  • 10-20 images which, if awarded
  • 5 -10 images (these can be the same as the work submission)  — CatchLight has the rights to use in promotional materials.
  • Three professional references. Contact information must include email and phone number.
  • A short bio
  • A copy of your curriculum vitae.

Note: All applications must be in English. They accept translated applications however, if you are selected for an interview, those video interviews will be in English.

Click here to apply


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For more information, visit CatchLight Global Fellowship.

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