The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded IREX $1 million over 3.5 years to launch the first iteration of the Impact Fellowships Network (IFN), an initiative that supports community exchange and research to improve the impact fellowships sector. IFN will work with participants, donors, and implementers to uncover challenges and provide strategies to support the development of leaders fostering positive social impact. IFN will be built around the Impact Fellowships Summit, where practitioners can exchange ideas, and the Research Consortium, where organizations will facilitate collaborative research to coordinate, learn, and share results from examining impact fellowship programs. 

For decades, fellowship programs have served as a critical catalyst for institutions seeking to develop leaders. Whether academic, professional, or community-oriented in nature, organizations of all sizes have been investing in fellows around the world with the expectation that they will continue to shape and positively impact their profession, communities, and networks. With previous support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to implement the Impact Fellowships Summit (IFS) and the Fellowships Alumni Network Study (FANS), IREX will leverage this new investment to increase learning and cultivate collaboration in the impact fellowship sector with the launch of IFN.

IFN includes the Impact Fellowship Summit, which was founded in 2016 by Atlas Corps, ProInspire, and Public Allies. Since 2019, IREX has continued to implement and host the IFS by bringing practitioners together to dive into topics meant to support the fellowship experience and follow-on social impact. The focus of discussions at these summits ranges from diverse and equitable leadership to sustaining systemic impact. With the funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, IFN will be able to further nurture the connections and knowledge shared at previous summits to create a community dedicated to strengthening the impact of fellowships. 

The second aspect of IFN, the Research Consortium, will expand the work conducted under FANS by regularly convening partners to facilitate collaborative research, learn collectively, and share practical recommendations based on findings to the broader impact fellowships sector. New opportunities will be extended to partners to conduct research with subgrants, co-design the IFN research analysis, and provide input into sensemaking and analysis. The main objective of this consortium is to improve how we understand, evaluate, and communicate impact to better support fellowship participants, alumni, implementors, and donors. 

Throughout the year, IFN will have several activities and events with community members and partners to exchange information, grow, and connect in our practice of implementing and researching the facets of impact fellowships. 

We are thankful to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for their investment and continued partnership. We look forward to collaborating with new partners and moving the needle forward on strengthening the impact fellowships space.