Kellogg Foundation Starts New $22-Million Effort to Train Leaders

The WKKF Community Leadership Network Fellowship, announced in November, represents the foundation’s return to the leadership field after a 14-year hiatus.

Kellogg is making a six-year, $22-million commitment to the network, supporting three classes and 360 fellows. The program will select a total of 100 fellows to work in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, and New Orleans, areas Kellogg has designated as priorities for its grant making. Twenty more fellows will focus on broader issues of race and equity in America.

Each national fellow will join one of the four regional groups, based on that person’s expertise and community experience.

The first group has already been selected and will attend a kickoff meeting this month in the foundation’s hometown of Battle Creek, Mich.

The grant maker’s last leadership-development effort drew participants like Esther Nieves, now head of Kellogg’s civic-engagement and leadership programs. Years ago, she was running a social-service group in Chicago when she won a Kellogg fellowship, which she credits with elevating her ambitions to create social change on a larger scale. The fellowship also helped prepare her for graduate school and later work at a global nonprofit before she joined the foundation in 2010.

The newly established Community Leadership Network fellowship is particularly exciting, Ms. Nieves says, because it puts an emphasis on helping leaders develop social and professional networks to tackle the issues that contribute to childhood poverty.

“A closely networked group can be a snowball for transformation across an entire community,” Ms. Nieves says. “Once you get that collective, connected momentum rolling, nothing will stop you.”

WKKF Community Leadership Network Fellowship

Who sponsors it: W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Goal: To groom grass-roots leaders to improve the plight of vulnerable children

Who it’s for: Established and emerging community leaders from anywhere in the United States, ages 23 and older

How long it lasts: Three years

What’s involved: Fellows will each be assigned a coach and each group of fellows will meet quarterly. In between, they will connect using online platforms and conference calls.

Cost: None. Fellows get an annual stipend of $20,000, plus travel expenses. In the third year, they will also get $5,000 to carry out a project of their own design

To apply: Applications for the next cycle will be accepted beginning summer of 2015. Go to: www.wkkf.org/leadership