The GreenMatter Fellowship Programme

Greening the minds that shape our planets future.

Contact us to learn about our current bursary opportunities.

The GreenMatter Fellowship is about developing critical skills and leadership for transformation towards a sustainable South Africa.

In South Africa access to finance is one of the key challenges for students seeking to further their education as many cannot afford to study further once they complete a first degree. Moreover, once funded, students still face a series of barriers and challenges in obtaining their qualifications and finding work. Financial support accompanied by holistic support programmes can provide much needed guidance, mentoring, networking and leadership development opportunities assisting with the transition into professional spaces.

The GreenMatter Fellowship responds directly to these challenges by supporting talented individuals pursuing post-graduate study. It welcomes graduates from all walks of life promoting the view that leadership for sustainability can and should be evident across sectors, qualifications and positions. It emphasizes camaraderie, community and peer learning, while encouraging individual excellence.

The Fellowship focuses on addressing scarce skills by matching graduate students studying in priority areas to financial aid while also providing leadership and professional development support. Extensive research into sustainability leadership and the future of work indicate that, inaddition to knowledge and technical competence there is high demand for innovative thinkers with well developed complex problem-solving skills, emotional intelligence and relational skills.This informs GreenMatter's unique four-domain leadership and professional training activities(illustrated below).

Since its establishment in 2012, the GreenMatter Fellowship awards have supported over 300 talented South Africans. Evaluation findings suggest that the Fellowship Awards have had a significant transformational impact on the lives of individuals involved and have contributed to gender and racial transformation in the Environmental sector.

GreenMatter Fellowship Student

We aim to build environmental leadership competencies across four domains:

Intrapersonal Domain

The intra-personal domain includes the valuable skills and awareness to control your own internal attitudes, processes and habits of mind. Through developing emotional intelligence and self awareness one learns to demonstrate personal and social control, becoming a better decision-maker able to respond more creatively to challenges. People with strong intrapersonal skills are self-motivated, focused and confident. These skills form the foundation on which to build critical relational skills.

Interpersonal Domain

These are the skills that help develop positive relationships with others including communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, listening, empathy, inclusivity and more.

Cognitive Domain

Leaders today need critical and divergent thinking skills, anticipatory (adaptive and futures thinking) and problem-solving competencies as well as the ability to think in systems.

Technical Domain

Technical competencies include subject matter expertise and practical skills as well as the knowledge depth and breadth often gained through a tertiary degree. However, there are numerous technical skills required in the environmental industry that are not generally learned through formal education including, for example, fundraising, budgeting and monitoring and evaluation.

We partner with numerous organisations in the sector, ranging from philanthropic foundations through to public and private sector entities, to provide quality, relevant professional development and leadership training.

If you are funder, bursary provider, or host of an internship programme and are interested in collaborating with us, please reach out - Together we can achieve far greater impact!

“Leaders don’t rise to the pinnacle of success without developing the right set of attitudes and habits; they make everyday a masterpiece”

— John C Maxwell

Sign up to receive the latest news, opportunities and updates.