All members of Interfaith America’s Emerging Network are eligible to apply.
Emerging Leaders
Deepen your interfaith leadership skills by joining a select cohort of peers for a yearlong fellowship, and completing a project using principles of interfaith cooperation to directly respond to a need you’ve identified within your community.
Applications Closed
To build healthy and thriving communities, our nation needs interfaith leaders who can break barriers and build bridges across differences. Members of Interfaith America’s Emerging Leaders Network successfully collaborate across difference throughout many sectors of society by employing an interfaith lens and leveraging the gifts of America’s religious diversity. Thus, we are proud to support the ongoing leadership development and impact of this network through the Interfaith Innovation Fellowship. The Fellowship awards $5,000 to interfaith leaders with an inspirational vision for social change.
In addition to the $5,000 award, Fellows will network with cohort members and learn from one another’s projects, participate in an intensive in person retreat in Chicago geared toward their professional development, and receive ongoing support to grow their leadership experience through mentorship with senior-level Interfaith America staff. We look forward to celebrating the impactful work of these Fellows who share Interfaith America’s pluralistic vision of a country united around the common good.
All members of Interfaith America’s Emerging Network are eligible to apply.
The Innovation Fellowship award is $5,000. Up to $1,000 of the award can be used to support the awardee for their time. (If a second Emerging Leader is co-leading the project, an additional $1,000 will be provided).
Applications for the Innovation Fellowship application will be accepted from July 24 to August 22, 2025. Select finalists will have the opportunity to expand on their application through a virtual interview between August 27-September 4th. Final selections will then be announced the third week of September.
The Innovation Fellowship runs from October 2025 to June 2026 and awards $5,000 to interfaith leaders with an inspirational vision for pluralism and social change. It also includes an expenses-paid retreat in downtown Chicago this winter and a series of virtual cohort meetings throughout the year.
The Fellowship is intended to support the work of the Emerging Leaders Network to carry out projects that address a community need with an interfaith lens, and to support the recipient’s development as an interfaith leader.
We ask that you submit the contact information of one individual who can speak to your character and ability to complete the proposed project. The contact information for your reference will be uploaded directly to the application.
In a cultural moment marked by toxic polarization, the Interfaith Innovation Fellowship aims to equip bridgebuilders, mobilizers, and visionaries with the resources to meet a need felt deeply in their community.
The Innovation Fellowship is a unique chance to bring a dream of yours to life. It gave me the financial support to teach my first ever class rooted in interfaith principles. But also, the network of interfaith leaders I have met through this program gave me a different kind of support -- one that money just can't buy -- the fellowship cohort gave me air in my lungs to deal with and overcome challenges that arose while trying to achieve my project goals. If you have an idea worth chasing, and all you need is some air in your lungs to make it happen, the Innovation Fellowship program is right for you.
Interfaith work can be very challenging and at times can feel isolated in today's increasingly polarized world. I would enthusiastically recommend applying to the Innovations Fellowship program as it not only provided me with invaluable guidance, training, and financial resources for my interfaith project, but also allowed me to work alongside other passionate individuals around the country who want to make the world a better place.
The Innovation Fellowship is the perfect opportunity to give yourself the push you need to accomplish the goal you have! More than that, it's a chance to meet and learn from the incredible people in your cohort now and in the future.
It is an amazing opportunity of mentorship, funding, and establishing one's project. Also, the connections you make with your cohort are invaluable!!
Strong applicants will demonstrate advanced religious literacy and leadership experience. Often Innovation Fellows have worked previously with the organization through programs like our Building Interfaith America Grant, mentorship program, interfaith at work cohorts, and more. However, participation in these programs is not required to apply for the Innovation Fellowship program.
Up to ten Fellows are selected for each Innovation Fellowship cohort.
Innovation Fellowship projects range from planning a single conference or event to launching a brand-new organization. When it comes to what your community needs, you are the expert. Strong applicants will demonstrate how the Innovation Fellowship will support the proposed project depending on its scope. We encourage you to dream big! But your application should demonstrate how your project is feasible.
Applications should be robust and thorough. Essay questions should be at least one paragraph long. This is your opportunity to offer us a compelling vision of your project. We also want to know why this project matters to you and why this 2025-26 Fellowship cycle is the right time to bring it to life.
Yes! We ask that you submit the contact information of one individual who can speak to your character and ability to complete the proposed project. The contact information for your reference will be uploaded directly to the application.
Absolutely. We would love to receive a joint application. If the co-leaders are selected, each will receive a $1,000 stipend, as well as the $4,000 for project funds (totaling $6,000). However, please note that the Innovation Fellowship is a very competitive program. Join applications should clearly demonstrate why this project merits occupying two Fellowship positions. Please note that co-leaders must be individuals (not organizations), and each person must be a member of the Emerging Leaders Network.
Anu Gorukanti, MD is a public health advocate and pediatric hospitalist at a county hospital in Los Angeles, California who is passionate about health equity and racial justice. Anu’s project supported healthcare workers in navigating grief and loss through the creation of an interfaith grief facilitation guide for healthcare workers. In addition to the guide, Anu offered communal spaces for healthcare workers across the country to collectively gather and process their experiences through modalities such as poetry and narrative writing. This guide and these virtual spaces were co-created with the support of a mental health practitioner and interfaith chaplains as well as through the feedback of healthcare workers from a variety of faith traditions.
Jack Amos Holloway is a writer, music producer, film director, activist, minister, and dog-sitter based in Brooklyn, New York. Jack’s project, Despair Sanctuary, is a drone metal vigil where people of any background can hold negative emotions together in an immersive and cathartic experience. Attendees are invited to engage in a calming activity, hear poetry readings, listen to heavy music, and witness a live concert. Jack’s project blends public mental health approaches, spiritual practices, and secular music to invite all who are weary to be together.
Jeevanjot “JJ” Kapur is a Sikh American and a proud Iowan. For his Innovation Fellowship project, he partnered with 4-H Connect, an organization dedicated to focusing energy and attention on uplifting culturally diverse youth across the state. JJ’s goal is for 4-H Connect youth was to find trusted adults in his local community from different faith and cultural backgrounds to serve as “Open Book” storytellers. Rather than driving across Iowa’s 99 counties to search for the next Open Book storyteller, JJ implemented a grassroots model to create an Open Book movement across Iowa by mobilizing young people as “story-gatherers.”
J.T. & Ryan’s Fellowship project sought to build a sense of community among folks from diverse backgrounds in St. Louis. They focused specifically on building bridges across the Delmar Divide that separates the St. Louis community racially, economically, and at times, religiously. The project targeted two religious communities: St. John’s, a predominantly Black church in north St. Louis, and MaTovu, a predominantly White Jewish neighborhood center in south St. Louis. While very different, both communities are deeply committed to making St. Louis a better place to live for all of its residents and strive to breathe new life into their respective religious communities by reinventing what it means to be a religious community. As respective members of these two worshiping communities, J.T. and Ryan’s friendship modeled interfaith leadership and cooperation as they gathered people across lines of difference and mobilized them toward a common goal.
While serving as Faith in Action Program Manager for Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity in Colorado, Chloe’s Innovation Fellowship focused on Pikes Peak Habitat’s Interfaith Build for Unity (IBU) project, which brought together diverse faith communities to build a house alongside a family in need of affordable housing. Throughout the building process Pikes Peak Habitat offered scheduled build days for two faith groups from different belief systems to pair up on our construction site for a day to work on the house. The groups worked together, shared a meal, and stood unified as friends and equals. During the fellowship, Chloe also expanded the number of faith groups represented, engaged college-aged students, and implemented a comprehensive survey.
Jude’s project provided a space of reflection, connection, and inspiration for healthcare workers and medical students through the practice of Narrative Medicine. Healthcare is a stressful field to learn and work in, and the personal stories of patients and illness weigh heavy on the hearts, minds, and bodies of those who take care of them. She hosted Narrative Medicine sessions throughout the year where a piece of art was used to stimulate reflection and discussion. As a medical student herself, Jude’s project supported medical students at a critical time in their education while strengthening the sense of community among healthcare workers.
