PROVIDENCE – Global Fellows in Courage, a nonprofit working to empower young human‑rights advocates around the world, has come a long way in five years.
When founder Lorne Adrain
first spoke with Providence Business News, Global Fellows was merely a concept, stalled by the onset of the pandemic. Now, it is available worldwide through a six-month online accelerator program.
"We had all learned how to use Zoom after the pandemic. Bringing people [to Providence] would be prohibitively expensive but, we could do most of what we wanted over Zoom," Adrain said.
Starting in 2024, the organization launched its online effort, which supports emerging human‑rights advocates ages 25 to 35 through the accelerator program. The initiative is active in 50 countries, providing fellows with coaching, global connections and access to philanthropic and institutional capital.
"Through our many years of connections, we know philanthropists all over the world, so we try to connect our fellows with sources of capital aligned with their missions," Adrain said.
The pilot program in 2024 began with 12 people from 11 countries. Under the leadership of Eugenia Mazurenko, a Ukrainian philanthropy executive brought aboard in April 2024, the nonprofit received more than 2,400 applications from 145 countries the following year in 2025, a signal of rising global demand for leadership development among grassroots changemakers.
Through her experience in start-ups, Mazurenko was instrumental in raising awareness leading to the exponential spike in applications. She leveraged social media like LinkedIn and Instagram to reach their target demographic.
The accelerator convenes virtual sessions twice a month and partners with Harvard Business School and Brown University’s Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Studies to deliver a best‑practices curriculum. Fellows receive one‑on‑one coaching, and many go on to launch efforts addressing gender‑based violence, digital access, legal justice and inequities across the Global South.
Going into its second year, the focus is on refinement and sustainability, Adrain said.
"It's about institutionalizing our methods, in coaching, communicating and fundraising. Building the financial support that will sustain the program in perpetuity," Adrain said.
Each cohort will remain at about 45 fellows, he said, as it lends itself well to break out groups, separating into three groups of 15 - "it works at multiple levels."
The larger and smaller groups work in tandem to forge connections, Mazurenko said.
“At its most basic level, we find people with passion and purpose and give them the tools they need to unlock human potential,” she said. “Simply knowing people in other places of the world doing similar work is extraordinarily helpful, plus we have coaches who provide support.”
At the end of the program, grant opportunities are announced that fellows can apply from a $50,000 pool of capital. A grant committee will review the applications and proposals, distributing it among 12 fellows.
Applications are open for GFIC’s 2026 cohort, which runs from June 25 through Dec. 17. The deadline to apply is April 1.
Veer Mudambi is the special projects editor at the Providence Business News. He can be reached at mudambi@pbn.com.
