Henry Arnhold Fellowship 2026 – $100K Conservation & Climate Impact Grant

Grant Overview

Mulago Foundation’s 2026 Henry Arnhold Fellowship – $100K Unrestricted Funding & Design-for-Scale Coaching for Conservation & Climate Leaders

Donor: Mulago Foundation

About: Every year a handful of founders sit around a weather-worn table in the mountains of northern California, laptops open to spreadsheets that could decide the fate of an Amazonian watershed or an African grassland. They are not here to pitch investors for vanity metrics; they are here because conservation funding alone rarely teaches you how to scale the impact you are already making. The Henry Arnhold Fellowship was built precisely for that gap.

Named after the late Henry Arnhold—philanthropist, art collector, and quiet climate optimist—the program carries his conviction that wild landscapes and stable climates are not side projects; they are the operating system of civilization. Mulago Foundation, the steward of this vision, has spent two decades bankrolling solutions that move from “interesting pilot” to “planet-sized outcome.” Think of the fellowship as a pressure-cooker MBA for mission-driven founders who already have proof their model works and now need the architecture to make it commonplace.

Inside the Design-for-Scale Engine

The curriculum is brutally pragmatic. Week one of the retreat strips every intervention down to its impact model: Who changes behavior? By how much? At what cost per outcome? Fellows leave with a one-page “Impact Resume” they will iterate for the next twelve months. Week two (held six months later) pivots to replication: franchise agreements, open-source toolkits, policy flywheels—whatever lever can hand the solution to others so the original founder is no longer the bottleneck.

Between the two retreats, Mulago’s team embeds as informal co-founders. They schedule calls at odd hours when a carbon-credit buyer ghosts you or a fisheries minister changes the licensing rules. No slide decks required—just brutal honesty around unit economics and behavioral theory. Past fellows describe the experience as “therapy for mission-driven CEOs” where the bill is paid by an unrestricted $100,000 grant wired within thirty days of acceptance.

The Quiet Power of the Alumni Network

Graduates join a private Slack channel that buzzes with everything from satellite data hacks to introductions at the Global Environment Facility. One former fellow, whose startup turns seaweed into cattle feed to cut methane, recently posted a late-night SOS: “Need a marine biologist in Zanzibar—tomorrow.” Within hours, three alumni offered labs, boats, and local permits. That is the network effect Mulago is buying: an immune system for climate solutions.

Crucially, the fellowship does not end at the final campfire. Fellows remain eligible for follow-on investments that have ranged from an extra $500K Doris Duke tranche to introductions at the Bezos Earth Fund. In Mulago’s own words, “We fund the person, not the proposal,” which means your next pivot still has a home if the data says it is the right move.

Who Actually Gets In?

The acceptance rate hovers just below 3%. Successful applicants share three traits:

• Exponential Logic: Their intervention is already working in one geography and can mathematically absorb ten-fold growth without linear cost increases.
• Founder Authority: You are the CEO or ED, not a program manager. You can change strategy before lunch without a board vote.
• Full-Time Obsession: The venture is your primary job, even if current revenue is tiny. Side-hustles need not apply.

Previous cohorts include a Kenyan fintech that pays pastoralists to regenerate rangelands via mobile carbon credits, a Brazilian startup turning degraded soy land back into rainforest through poly-culture profits, and a U.S. nonprofit unlocking tribal co-management of federal forests. The through-line: each had a working model and a founder willing to redesign it for other people’s adoption.

Application Strategy—From the Inside

Mulago reads every line, but they remember stories. One successful applicant opened with the moment she realized fishermen in the Philippines were dynamiting their own reefs because the live-fish export market paid more than sustainable catch. Another began with the smell of thawing permafrost. Lead with the visceral stakes, then show the spreadsheet that proves your fix is cheaper than the status quo.

The written application is intentionally short—“should take no longer than an hour or two.” Treat it like a teaser trailer: hook, data punch, scale fantasy. If you survive the paper screen, expect a 45-minute Zoom that feels like a design studio critique. They will ask, “What would have to be true for your solution to cut global emissions by 1%?” Have an answer—even if it terrifies you.

Deadlines Matter—But Referrals Matter More

The open application closes August 28, yet roughly half of each cohort arrives via warm referral. A two-paragraph email from a respected funder or peer can fast-track you to the learning-conversation stage. If you know someone in the Mulago orbit, swallow your pride and ask. If you do not, polish your cold application until it reads like a story they will retell at dinner.

Need help shaping that narrative or distilling your impact model into one killer paragraph? Grantaura’s grant-writing team has coached founders through Mulago’s exact rubric. From tightening your theory of change to rehearsing the dreaded “1% question,” we treat your application like the once-in-a-lifetime shot it is.

Focus: conservation, climate change mitigation, climate adaptation, ecosystem protection, scalable impact, leadership development, unrestricted funding

Region: Global

Eligibility:
– You are the founder or most senior leader (CEO/ED) of a nonprofit or for-profit venture
– Your organization is already operational—no concept-stage projects
– Your full-time focus is the venture applying
– Your solution demonstrably protects nature or slows/adapts to climate change
– Your model can plausibly scale beyond your own organization

Benefits:
– Unrestricted $100,000 grant wired within 30 days of acceptance
– Two week-long, all-expenses-paid design retreats (June 2026)
– Year-round coaching on Mulago’s design-for-scale frameworks
– Lifetime access to an elite alumni network for partnerships and follow-on funding
– Automatic consideration for larger Mulago investments

Deadline: August 28, 2025

Terms:
– Unrestricted grant: Funds with no strings attached; can be used for any organizational need
– Design-for-scale: Mulago’s methodology to turn a working intervention into a replicable model adopted by others
– Impact model: One-page distillation of who changes behavior, by how much, at what cost
– Replication: Strategy for handing off your solution so others deliver the impact without your direct control
– Fellows retreat: Intensive, off-site workshop focused on strategy, communications, and peer learning
– Follow-on funding: Additional investment from Mulago or its network after fellowship completion