Apply for the Catalyst Grant

A man in front of a blackboard faces people in a classroom
2022 Catalyst Grant Winner Abdallah Mabrouck speaks during project activities.

IREX is excited to announce the launch of the Mandela Washington Fellowship Catalyst Grant application, a unique funding opportunity for Fellowship Alumni! Through a partnership with D-Prize, a non-profit organization that works to distribute and scale proven technologies to benefit people in extreme poverty, up to two Fellowship Alumni will be selected to receive grants of up to $20,000 USD each to pilot a new initiative to catalyze change and distribute a proven poverty intervention wherever extreme poverty exists. 

Who Should Apply? 

The Mandela Washington Fellowship Catalyst Grant is open to all Fellowship Alumni from all tracks, sectors, and levels of expertise who want to launch or scale a social enterprise in communities throughout Africa.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship Catalyst Grant is intended to support Fellowship Alumni to deliver a proven poverty intervention at scale. The grant is not intended to support prototyping a promising new solution.

Mandela Washington Fellowship Catalyst Grant Challenges*

Agriculture

  • Quality Inputs Challenge: Can you provide smallholder farmers with high-quality inputs and training proven to increase their harvests?

Education

Energy 

Health Access Challenges

  • Child Immunization Challenge: Can you direct 500 caregivers (parents or other guardians) to bring their infants to health facilities for routine immunizations that otherwise would not occur?

Livelihoods

Public Services

Application Materials

Timeline

  • Round 1 Application Deadline: November 18, 2024
  • Round 1 Decision Notifications and Round 2 Application Invitations: December 2024
  • Round 2: Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni applicants invited to Round 2 will be required to submit a plan a few weeks after the invitation. 
  • Final Round: Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni applicants’ invitation to the Final Round -Virtual interview by the selection committee.  
  • Winning ventures will be announced in March 2025. 

*D-Prize developed the challenges for the purposes of this competition. The preferences and views expressed in the documents do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government.