All Fellows (Standard Fellowship, Executive Fellowship, and Anglican Fellowship) receive the following benefits: The two week Leadership Institute. Hosted at Harvard University's Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. Mountaintop covers all costs, including flights, lodging, meals, ground transportation, and visa fees. The Leadership Institute is intended to prepare rising leaders to deepen and scale their work through small group activities, custom coaching sessions, excursions to high-impact organizations, and skill-building workshops. Last year's Leadership Institute brought together 33 global experts across the domains of academia, social entrepreneurship, and activism, including Irini Albanti, the Executive Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Arturo Condo, the President of EARTH University in Costa Rica, Shady ElGhazaly Harb, a leader of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, and five adaptive leadership coaches from the Harvard Kennedy School. The 2024 Leadership Institute had a 9.2/10 satisfaction rate and 77% believed the Leadership Institute had a "transformative impact" on their leadership trajectory (23% said it had a "significant impact"). This year, the Leadership Institute will start with a two day community building retreat in New Hampshire followed by ten days of structured training at Harvard. Mentorship. Includes 1:1 advising from an expert in your field each month, and access to Mentorship Office Hours, which allows you to schedule regular advising sessions with a slate of world renowned experts from across many domains of social impact. Other Benefits. Other benefits include a customized leadership coaching from Mountaintop staff and on-call support, two virtual multi-day leadership development retreats, a monthly speaker series, and a virtual community of practice of alumni and shortlisted applicants from past fellowship cycles. Lifelong community. Our Fellows have shared that the deep friendships they build is the most valuable part of the experience, as it provides a strong professional network, supports mental resilience, and creates a safe space to share joys and sorrows. Fellows in the Standard Fellowship and Anglican Fellowship receive everything listed above, and also receive: $3,600 grant. Paid in 12 $300 installments. Catalyst Fund. The opportunity to apply for the Catalyst Fund, which funds up to $2,500 for Mountaintop Fellows to implement a project in their community. This funding is limited and not guaranteed for Fellows. Fellows in the Anglican Fellowship receive everything listed above, and also receive: Trinity Church Wall Street's Faith Leadership Campus program, a one year online leadership course that includes regular facilitated reflection activities with the cohort. Selected Anglican Fellows will complete the Faith Leadership Campus August 2025 - July 2026, attend the Leadership Institute July 2026, and will receive $300/month grant payments from August 2026 - July 2027.

Fellows should focus on their fellowship project full-time (40+ hours/weeks). Fellows are permitted to have other part-time commitments such as school, parenting, or another job, but these should not infringe on full-time fellowship responsibilities. For Executive Fellows, the fellowship project is simply the Fellow's current work for which they are being sponsored by their employer. Note that candidates for the Standard Fellowship or Anglican Fellowship can work on either independent fellowship projects or on fellowship projects under a supervisor if the fellowship allows them to do work they otherwise couldn't have done. In the latter case, an example might be a Fellow working at a health ministry, and the fellowship giving them the funding to spend their time on a new public health community engagement initiative that they are leading as part of that job. Candidates applying under this scenario will be asked to show written proof of approval of their project proposal from their current supervisor if invited to a Finalist interview.

The Mountaintop training events are intended to prepare Fellows for transformational leadership. To elaborate, the objectives of the training is to: Cultivate deep, lifelong friendships of like-minded leaders from around the world. Build practical leadership skills that will help Fellows deepen and scale systems change. Strengthen commitment to social impact in one's home community and country. Access relevant networks, mentors, and potential partners and funders. Receive personalized leadership development coaching. The training includes several components: Online Course Work (January-July 2025): Fellows spend 5 hours/week in the six months leading up to the Leadership Institute completing online course work from Ashoka and the Harvard Kennedy School. Each month, Fellows meet to reflect and discuss the readings via facilitated conversations. Leadership Institute (July 2025): Hosted at Harvard University's Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. Mountaintop covers all costs, including flights, lodging, meals, ground transportation, and visa fees. The Leadership Institute is intended to prepare rising leaders to deepen and scale their work through small group activities, custom coaching sessions, excursions to high-impact organizations, and skill-building workshops. Last year's Leadership Institute brought together 33 global experts across the domains of academia, social entrepreneurship, and activism, including Irini Albanti, the Executive Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Arturo Condo, the President of EARTH University in Costa Rica, Shady ElGhazaly Harb, a leader of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, and five adaptive leadership coaches from the Harvard Kennedy School. The 2024 Leadership Institute had a 9.2/10 satisfaction rate and 77% believed the Leadership Institute had a "transformative impact" on their leadership trajectory (23% said it had a "significant impact"). This year, the Leadership Institute will start with a two day community building retreat in New Hampshire followed by ten days of structured training at Harvard. Mid-Fellowship Retreat (December 2025): The 2-day virtual mid-fellowship retreat will continue the transformational leadership training, with a special focus on troubleshooting current challenges faced by Fellows. Virtual Graduation (July 2026): The 2-day virtual graduation retreat will provide a final wrap-up of the key learnings throughout the fellowship. Fellows will also complete their final projects, which will include: 1) A presentation on their fellowship achievements and leadership lessons, 2) A presentation of their life theory of change; and 3) A public speech on their leadership journey which will include a call to action. Mountaintop will record the presentations and speeches.

Yes! There are many more Executive Fellow candidates each year than we can accept. The application is highly competitive, and follows an identical selection process as that for other Fellows.

The $6,000 to participate in the fellowship is due within 30 days after the Executive Fellow is selected. Due to the need for Mountaintop to cover expenses such as lodging and conference space, we cannot accept installment plans or delayed payments. If the full payment is not received within 30 days of acceptance, then Mountaintop will select an alternate instead.

We aim to give candidates as transparent as possible of a look at how Fellows are chosen. Thus, we have put together a more nuanced list of qualities that we use to evaluate our candidates' potential for systems-changing local leadership. Leadership Experience. We look for candidates who have a demonstrated track record of impactful leadership, especially experiences outside of the academic context. We look for candidates who have gone beyond holding a title, engaging on social media, or having conversations to coordinate action that has changed people's lives in profound ways. Leadership experience is not just about quantity but also quality. People of all ages can have outstanding leadership experience, and we do not discriminate based on age. Impact. We look for candidates who center the impact in their responses (as opposed to titles they have held or other distinctions), and can illustrate how they have had both breadth and depth of impact on people within their communities. We also look for candidates who already have meaningful experience in the work that they would be doing during the fellowship, and can make an immediate impact. For host led fellowships, this is mostly evaluated by the hosts during the interview process. Proximity. We look for candidates who have deep personal roots in the community that they aim to serve. This usually means having lived in the community for many years, often having spent a large part of their childhood there, but we understand that local proximity can mean different things to different people, especially immigrants, refugees, and internally displaced people. Human Infrastructure. We look for candidates who clearly understand the role of human infrastructure in creating sustainable systems change, and have a track record of building it up within their local communities. Commitment. We look for candidates who can fully commit to the expectations of the fellowship. This means being able to focus on the fellowship project full time and being committed to serving their community long term. Value Add. We look for candidates who are able to demonstrate why this fellowship will have a transformational effect on them, both in terms of their trajectory as a leader and how it will allow them to live and work in the community that they know best. Individuals who either are unlikely to be prepared for the rigor of the fellowship or are already advanced leaders that might not gain much from the fellowship are less strong fits. Humility. We look for candidates who are deeply humble, who have a growth mindset, and who know their own weaknesses and blind spots. Individuals who appear to be less collaborative or more self interested are less strong fits. Courage. We look for candidates who have taken major risks in their life or career in order to better serve their community. This could include returning to their community after having the chance to live somewhere else, serving a marginalized population, standing up to authority figures when doing so risks retribution, or taking a pay cut in order to better serve one's community. Sustained Passion. We look for candidates with a "fire" within them to commit to the challenging and courageous work of systems-changing leadership. And as we know many leaders suffer from burnout, we look for candidates who are actively taking steps to manage their mental health so that they are able to sustain their passion long term. Ambition for Systems Change. We look for candidates who have an ambitious vision for the future of their community or country. This could include long-term plans to scale up human infrastructure, create innovative new solutions, or influence paradigms in policy, culture, academia, or activism. Right Intentions. We look for candidates who view the fellowship as more than just a grant, but rather an opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge, and relationships to take their leadership to the next level and better give back to their communities. We also look for candidates who are excited to support other Fellows and contribute to a culture of helpfulness within the Mountaintop community. Candidates with Less Opportunity. Candidates who may have had less opportunity for experiences like the fellowship due to circumstances outside their control are given a second look. Depending on the community, this could include a variety of factors such as gender, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, etc. Decisions are never made only based on a candidate's circumstances, and Mountaintop never uses quotas, but this information is used to more holistically evaluate the candidate's potential for future leadership.

Mountaintop would consider alumni who go on to make transformational systems change, build human infrastructure, help their communities flourish, and change the hearts and minds of their people to be successful. A few modern-day examples of well-known transformational leaders include Leymah Gbowee, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, and Bryan Stevenson. We would also consider many Nobel Peace Prize laureates and winners of the Right Livelihood Award to be ideal examples. That being said, there are many outstanding individuals who will never get the international recognition that they deserve because they work in overlooked or particularly challenging environments, or simply don't bother to spend time promoting their accomplishments — we are not looking for people most likely to get public recognition, but those who are most likely to be deserving of public recognition.

To strengthen mutual learning across the fellowship cohort, Mountaintop strives to have diverse representation of Fellows across continents, cultures, faiths, ethnicities, ideologies, and socioeconomic status. Mountaintop also aims for a diversity of project proposals spanning the spectrum from government, nonprofits, entrepreneurship, creative media, and movement building. As for location, Mountaintop focuses its work in low-income communities that suffer from brain drain. We recognize that there are many communities fitting this description even in countries that are middle or upper income. Mountaintop accepts applications from any country outside the United States. We review all applications holistically based on where we think a Fellow can do the most good in the context of their community.

While almost all Fellows are non-native English speakers, because all programmatic elements of the fellowship take place in English, we do require professional proficiency in English to apply. All applications and interviews are conducted in English. While we do not require any documentation of proficiency, for those who have taken the TOEFL, for reference we are looking for individuals who can speak English at a minimum of a TOEFL score equivalent of 80. We are hopeful that in future years we will have more opportunities available for non-English speakers.

Mountaintop is seeking future transformational leaders, and weighs leadership experiences and character much more heavily than academic success. Academic scholarship is just one of many indicators to demonstrate outstanding potential, and significantly less important than past leadership experiences, moral character, commitment to community or cause, and a compelling theory of change.

Mountaintop believes that transformational leaders can have outsized impact in the places they know best, even if they ultimately expand their work to other places over time. Further, historical leaders often forge their character, values, and worldview through committed service to a particular place. That is why we look for Fellows who have a strong personal connection to the place they will serve. Ideally, this means a community, state/province, or country where they have lived for a significant amount of time, but strong personal connections may look different for different people. If serving in your home community is not possible due to forces outside of your control (i.e. immigrants, refugees, or internally displaced persons), you are still welcome and encouraged to apply for the fellowship. In this case, we are looking for Fellows who are able to work full time on a project that benefits their home community or country, even if they are unable to be there physically, or a project that benefits their current community if they now have strong personal roots in their new home.

Yes! We are committed to working with any candidate for whom Internet accessibility would be a barrier to applying. Applicants in this situation can download the application materials and email written or typed responses to info@mountaintop.international. If you cannot access the Internet or cannot afford data for the interview, please email us at info@mountaintop.international and we can make special accommodations.

Yes! We aim to make the application and fellowship experience as inclusive as possible. Please email us at info@mountaintop.international so we can share with you accommodations specific to your situation.

Mountaintop knows that “home” can mean something different for everyone, especially for people who have lived in multiple communities. For Mountaintop, we most want to support you in serving a place where you have a strong personal connection, and a place you hope to serve long term, even if your leadership eventually expands to include a larger region.

Fellows can absolutely start their project before the fellowship begins and end their project after the fellowship ends. Mountaintop's fellowship focuses its support on emerging leaders with transformational potential, and gives flexible support for Fellows to either grow existing projects or launch new projects based on what they think is best.

No. All applications will be reviewed after the deadline. There is no advantage to applying early.

Mountaintop cannot make blanket changes to application deadlines, nor can we guarantee that any accommodations are possible. Such blanket changes would prevent Mountaintop from meeting its own deadlines for making selection decisions and informing all applicants of outcomes. However, unexpected and emergent events such as natural disasters, political unrest or armed conflict, and widespread internet or power outages may make it impossible for applicants from an entire region or country to meet an application deadline. Prospective candidates from affected regions or countries are encouraged to reach out to Mountaintop at info@mountaintop.international. When possible, Mountaintop will work with prospective applicants on a case-by-case basis.

When submitting either the registration form or the full application, candidates will receive a confirmation email within 5-10 minutes. If you did not receive a confirmation email in your inbox or in your spam folder within one hour of submission, please email info@mountaintop.international letting us know.

Yes! If you made a typo or want to send updated information, you can apply again and we will only review the application submitted most recently.

Finalists will interview with Mountaintop staff. All interviews will be conducted in English.

Mountaintop may contact references on a case-by-case basis after the Finalist interview.

Mountaintop serves leaders in low-income communities around the world. And while many of our first Fellows have been in Sub-Saharan Africa, we also have fellowships in Asia and Latin America and are open to applicants serving in low-income communities on all continents. Mountaintop believes in the power of building a globally diverse community to share profound learnings across cultures, and thus Mountaintop will continue to strive to bring together leaders across as many diverse geographies as possible.

No! We understand that plans can change as we learn and gather new information. Project proposals can change up until the final day of the fellowship. However, we do expect that the project proposal is thoughtful, authentic, an honest reflection of your current plans, and compellingly linked to your broader theory of change within your application.

When submitting project proposals in the application, candidates should keep the following guidelines in mind: Project Proposal Requirements 1) Strengthening "Human Infrastructure." The project must directly support projects that help a community flourish long term by strengthening the capacity of its people. Specifically, we look to support projects focused on improving one or multiple of the following community assets: 1. Right Abilities: The skills and knowledge most needed for the community to flourish. 2. Right Mindsets: The values and attitudes most needed for the community to flourish. 3. Right Relationships: People from within the community and outside the community have the mutually enhancing, respectful relationships most needed for the community to flourish. 4. Right Activities: People are working on the right jobs, civic initiatives, and social impact projects most needed for the community to flourish. 5. Right Places: People live and work in the locations most needed for the community to flourish. 6. Right Power: There is a balance of power of institutions both within the community and outside of it to best help the community flourish. i.e., the people themselves are empowered to make meaningful decisions about their own futures. 2) Connection. You are serving in a community or country where you already have a strong personal connection, and where you hope to commit to serving over the course of your career. Mountaintop believes that transformational leaders forge their character through deep engagement with a specific community, and that such leaders can have outsized impact in the places they know best, even if they ultimately expand their work to broader geographies over time. In cases where the political situation of one's home community, province, or country would make service there untenable (refugees, internally displaced persons, etc.), exceptions are made, as long as the project proposal is still rooted in a community or cause area to which the candidate has a deep personal connection. 3) Leverage. You could not complete the project scope without this fellowship. Note that the project does not have to be for an entirely new organization or program. It can also be to grow or strengthen an existing initiative as long as it is clear how the fellowship would provide unique value in achieving this. 4) No Research or Campaigns. Your project scope activity cannot be primarily for conducting academic research, nor can it be running for office or campaigning for political candidates. Due to election laws, Mountaintop cannot actively contribute to campaigns. However, you can run for office on your own time during the fellowship, or run as an alumnus. Project Proposal Selection Criteria Fellows are asked to use "first principles thinking" to craft their project proposals. The project proposal should be connected to their broader theory of change of creating transformational impact, explaining how the one-year project will allow the Fellow to make progress on the challenge while also cultivating their leadership experiences to amplify their impact on the challenge in the future. The challenge to be addressed could span the domains of policy, economics, technology, culture, or a combination of these domains. The project proposal could be to support a for-profit venture, non-profit venture, or an individual project. Mountaintop evaluates project proposals based on the following criteria: 1) Ambitious. The problem you are concerned with should be large in scale, meaning that if your life theory of change was successful, it would meaningfully benefit the lives of thousands or millions of people. This doesn't mean that the one-year fellowship should be large in scale, but rather that the project proposal allows you to make a meaningful difference while building relevant experiences and leadership skills to work toward larger-scale work in the future, while serving others simultaneously. While the first year of the fellowship should be in your hometown, home province, or home country, it is possible that the scale of your theory of change may require you to eventually expand your work across national borders. 2) Systemic. The project proposal has a strategy for how the work will contribute to long-term, sustainable, fundamental changes within the proposed community. 3) Filling Gaps. The project proposal should fill a gap in the proposed community, either by replicating a proven initiative in a new area, or starting a new initiative that is clearly needed based on local knowledge. 4) Compelling. The project proposal should clearly and logically link the problem, theory of change, fellowship project, and the candidate's personal story and background. It should be easy to see how the fellowship will help serve the ultimate end of solving the problem, and how the candidate has the potential to succeed with the right support. 5) Integrity. It should be clear throughout the application as a whole how the candidate plans to lean into Mountaintop's values of universal compassion, unconditional love, visionary wisdom, long-term dedication, and selfless courage as they embark on their lifelong journey to help their community flourish. At Mountaintop, we believe the means are just as — if not more — important than the ends.

Mountaintop operates under a trust-based philanthropy model. We won't access for any reports on how the funds are spent. The grants could include covering living expenses or project expenses. Note that the grant is disbursed in 12 installments of $300 each month of the fellowship starting in August 2025.

Yes! Mountaintop gives preference to Fellows who could not complete the project scope without this fellowship, but that does not mean the project must be for an entirely new organization or program. It can absolutely be to grow or strengthen an existing initiative as long as it is clear how the fellowship would provide unique help in achieving this. Mountaintop is most interested in ensuring that Fellows are able to make a long-term systems-changing impact on their communities. Many times it is more sustainable and effective to continue developing an existing project than to start a new project.

We recognize that the work of many applicants goes beyond their individual communities. We celebrate this and welcome projects that have a wider scope. However, as we believe in the transformative power of local proximity, applicants should be clear how they stay rooted in the communities that they serve. All applicants should have deep personal connections and live in at least one of the countries that they serve.

It is up to the Fellow and Impact Fund partners to determine income tax liability based on the laws of their community and country.

Fellows should already have work authorization to live in the country where they will serve for the duration of their fellowship. For the two week Leadership Institute in the United States, Mountaintop will support them to apply for a B1 visa. Mountaintop provides two letters of support — one from Mountaintop and one from the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics — and provides guidelines on best practices to successfully complete the visa application process. Mountaintop pays for the visa application fees for Fellows in the Standard Fellowship and Anglican Fellowship. Mountaintop cannot guarantee that visas will always be successfully approved as decisions are made independently by the US Department of State. If a Fellow's visa to attend the Leadership Institute is denied, the Fellow will attend a multi-day virtual Leadership Institute instead, and Mountaintop will support them to attend the Leadership Institute in the following year.

The grant is paid in monthly installments, usually via bank transfer or cash pickup using Western Union, but this may vary by country. More detailed information is provided at the time of selection.