9 Black Executives Selected For 2024 Echoing Green Fellowship To Support Social Innovations

The fellows can use $720,000 in funding for any purpose.

Nine Black Americans, ranging from CEOs to founders, have been selected for the 2024 cohort of the Echoing Green Fellowship. The highly regarded nonprofit supplies seed funding to organizations, including working with nearly 1,000 social innovators globally.

The Black social innovators are among 44 recipients out of 2,100 applicants in this year’s cohort. The recipients, based in 21 countries, will account for one of the largest and most geographically diverse cohorts in the organization’s history.

The fellows will receive $80,000 in unrestricted funding during the 18-month fellowship. That means out the total $3.5 million in funding for this year, $720,000 will be invested in the Black American fellows who can use the money for any purpose.

The fellows will join a lifelong community of innovative thinkers, strategic partners, and industry peers. Isaac Esene, founder and executive director of GoodWorks, says his nonprofit that teaches life-saving concepts to you aims to empower a new generation of active bystanders who know how to do more than just record trauma on their phones.

“With this support, we can enhance health literacy and public safety in communities, empowering youth through our expanded digital training initiatives,” Esene told BLACK ENTERPRISE in an email.

Akonkwa Mubagwa, CEO and co-founder of Winko Solar, says his solar energy and internet connectivity business plans to use the grant to expand its programming to vocational training for technicians on solar installation. He says this will be done in collaboration with existing government programs.

“The funding provided the means to continue the outreach as well as the key hires that are critical to putting a successful program together by the end of 2024,” Mubagwa told BE in an email.

This cohort is the fourth and final cohort of fellows backed by the Racial Equity Philanthropic Fund, according to a news release. That fund was launched by Echoing Green in 2020 to build sustainable pathways of funding and support for next-generation leaders advancing racial equity. News of the latest cohort class comes after Echoing Green’s May 2024 announcement that it was launching a separate $15.6 million fund to provide Black social innovators capital.

Reflecting on the new cohort, Echoing Green President Cheryl L. Dorsey said “From the planet’s hottest year yet to ongoing global threats to democracy, to backsliding on hard-fought progress on racial equity—these are challenging times. We need bold solutions now for these and other significant challenges.“

The cohorts operate in a broad spectrum of fields in social innovation, including climate justice, education, social justice, and healthcare.

These are the Black Americans that are part of this year’s cohort:

Akonkwa Mubagwa, CEO and co-founder, Winko Solar, Inc.
Tabitha Mpamira, founder and Executive Director, Mutera Global Healing
Lydiah Bosire, founder and CEO, 8B Education Investments
Joy Cooper, co-founder and CEO, Culture Care
Isaac Esene, founder and executive director, GoodWorks
Ashley Williams, founder and CEO , Clymb
Demetrius Lancaster, founder and executive director, Joy Education Foundation
Derwin Sisnett, founder and CEO, Adaptive Commons
Godfrey Riddle, founder and president, Civic Saint

The next 2025 Echoing Green Fellowship application cycle will open on September 17, 2024. Go here for more details.