Applications are now open for the 2024 Mandela Day Service Grant for Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders!

The U.S. Department of State and IREX are excited to announce that applications for the Mandela Day Service Grant, a unique collaboration opportunity for Alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, are now open.

Applications are due January 29th, 2024, at 11:59pm Eastern Time.

About the Mandela Day Service Grant

Over the years, many Institute Partners in the United States and Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)
stakeholders across the African continent organized volunteer activities, cultural activities, and
leadership-focused events in their respective communities as part of the globally recognized
International Nelson Mandela Day, held annually on July 18. It is recognized as a day to give back and
to make a difference in communities in recognition of Nelson Mandela’s legacy of service and
embodiment of servant leadership.

Mandela Day is officially on July 18; however, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the custodian of his legacy, has advocated for “Making Every Day a Mandela Day” to encourage ongoing volunteerism
throughout the year. The new Mandela Day Service Grant will support community service and volunteer projects where Alumni actively engage in short-term volunteer-driven community campaigns that contribute to longer-term projects focused on improving livelihoods. Through the Mandela Day Service grant, up to six Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni (or Alumni teams) will receive up to $1,000
each to implement a short-term community service or volunteer project in honor of Mandela Day.

Submission Policies

• Applications must follow the instructions in this packet.
• Extra materials outside of the application will not be considered.
• Revisions to applications after submission will also not be considered.
• Only one application per team will be considered.
• Applications must be written in English.

Mandela Day Service Grant Process & Important Dates

All Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni are invited to apply for the Mandela Day Service Grant. The application will consist of a project proposal, including an overview of project goals and objectives, target audience, budget, timeline, work plan, and Alumni Collaborator (if applicable). Selected projects will be announced in March 2024.

After Your project is selected:
The Mandela Service Grant funds short-term service projects that the Fellowship believes will contribute to sustainable community development. Selected grantees will implement their short-term projects from April to May and will report on all project activities, including recording videos of their projects and documenting impact, in June.

Mandela Day Service Grant – Application Instructions

Video submissions, grantees will refine videos to showcase at the 2023 Mandela Washington
Fellowship Summit and to celebrate Mandela Day 2023.

2024 Mandela Day Service Grant Timeline

Month Activities
January 8-29 Application period
March Selected projects announced
April 1 – May 31 Alumni implement their projects
June 7 MDSG Project reports due (includes video recordings)
June 12-21 Refinement of recordings (if coaching and editing is required)
July 31 – August 2 Summit Showcase and Social Media Campaign celebrating Fellows’ “Mandela Day” activities

Selection Process
All Mandela Day Service Grant applications will receive an initial screen from at least two judges. The judging panel is composed of members from the Mandela Washington Fellowship community with professional experience in developing world entrepreneurship and social enterprise. Those serving as judges are not personally involved in the ideas being judged, nor do they
have any immediate family involved.

Selection Criteria
Contestants are evaluated based on:

Potential for leadership success, as evident by academic and professional background,
relevant skills, and demonstrated passion.

Focus on a short-term project that contributes to sustainable community development
initiatives.

Potential for success of the project, based on the concept note of the application, the
proposed budget, and proposed collaborations.
*Please note: Preference will be shown to the first five submissions received from each country.

Application Tips

• Be succinct. Successful candidates are objective, focused, and clear. These attributes
  should come across in your writing. Orient your application towards an educated judge
  who is relatively knowledgeable with the key issues.
• Be specific. Successful applications are detailed and specific about goals, objectives, and
  project activities, leaving no questions about the aims of the project or how funds will be
  used to achieve them.
• Consider scale, impact, cost-effectiveness. Successful applicants will build a plausible case
  that their project is impactful, realistic, cost-effective, and in the spirit of Mandela Day of
  Service.
• Keep within scope. The most successful projects are explicit about their focus and avoid
  spending resources on too wide or too many areas. A well-focused, tightly scoped project
  idea will be considered most successful.
• Apply early. Preference will be shown to the first five applications submitted from each
  country, so get your application in as early as possible.
  

Application Components
When you are ready, please submit your responses to the following short-answer questions at: 2024
Mandela Day Service Grant Application. The application is a webform submission, and not a written proposal. You may want to draft your responses in a separate Word document, and then copy and paste them into the webform. Applicants have the option to save their progress and return to the form to edit
and submit responses. Those applicants who select the “Save” button in the webform will be required to register for a free account using their email address to receive a link to the partially filled form to resume their progress.

Ready to Apply?
Application Instructions

Prepare your application, including your budget proposal, work plan, resume(s), and any appendices you wish to include, and clearly name your files. Additional documents must be saved as a PDF. Please clearly name your files.

Applications are due January 29th, 2024, at 11:59pm Eastern Time.

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