Critical civil society organizations fight inequality, protect the public, and partner with the public sector to serve its citizens. In the era of ubiquitous technology, it’s paramount that civil society also work to address societal issues, as they converge with the digital world. Building capacity at the intersection of technology and society will help ensure the relevance and sustainability of these institutions.
The Ford Foundation and Mozilla are partnering to strengthen organizations in the Global South by layering technology strategies into their work. This will help create a ‘third space’ where key civil society organizations and tech-focused individuals address issues at the intersection of technology and society. This will also seek to address the political element of technology -- that technology as a neutral tool is affected by its creators and their biases. Benefits, harms and side effects come from how systems are designed, what data is selected to train them and what business rules they are given.
We envision that, in 10 years, this collaborative ‘third space’ will flourish in the Global South in which civil society organizations demonstrate strong capacity to address major issues at the nexus of social justice and technology. These organizations will leverage technology to promote these issues while preventing or mitigating their risks.
At the program level, Ford and Mozilla will place senior technology strategists as Fellows within select organizations and coalitions that are foundational to the strength and capacity of regional civil society.
Fellows will help increase the impact of the organization’s work by supporting them to recognize, design, and implement a strategy that accounts for the impact of technology on the organization’s mission.
How To Apply
The application for a Mozilla Fellowship is a two part process: 1) registration and 2) full application. The registration form and full application must be submitted in English using Mozilla’s Fluxx portal.
Registration: To begin the application process, complete the Mozilla Fellows 2020-2021 Registration Form. Within two business days of submitting your registration form, you will receive an email from @fluxx.io with instructions to set your password on Mozilla’s Fluxx portal
The answers you provide on your registration form will become a part of your full application, and will be assessed by reviewers. Please provide accurate and complete responses to the questions on the registration form.
Full application: To complete the full application, log in to your account on https://mozilla.fluxx.io. A full application form will be available in the “Drafts” section of the portal.
Once you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email within two business days.
If you have not received a confirmation email within two business days please email grants@mozillafoundation.org.
Applications will be reviewed by a restricted panel of reviewers made up of Mozilla staff, organizational partners, and other experts in the discipline(s) of the application. You may also be invited to participate in an interview as part of the review process.
Selection Criteria
Mission Driven. We’re looking for individuals with a track record of success working at the intersection of technology and social justice in the region, and a dedication to continuing to work on the issue after their fellowship year. In addition to having a long term commitment to working on the issue(s) proposed in their application, fellows should align with Mozilla’s interests and focus, and be able to easily leverage Mozilla’s strengths as an organization, i.e. open source ethos, large network of contributors.
Collaboration. An ideal candidate for a Mozilla Fellowship should enter the program with an issue at the intersection of technology and social justice that would benefit from partnership with their selected host organization. We’re looking for fellows with an eagerness to share skills and learn new, and to work in the open.
Impact. We’re looking for individuals focused on solving issues that will make - or be the catalyst for - significant change, with tangible, measurable results. Fellows should also be able to articulate how the impact of their project will advance the change they’d like to see in the world. Leverage. Ideal candidates for a Mozilla fellowship will understand how to leverage their proposal to drive change at a wide level. We’re looking for individuals who are able to think about changing systems, and understand levers of change.
Initiative. An ideal candidate for a Mozilla Fellowship is someone who shows a lot of initiative, and will take charge of the experiences and opportunities given to them. Fellows are expected to manage their time and resources, and must be comfortable working with a high level of autonomy.
Communication. We’re looking for individuals with an interest in advocating for change and/or popularizing new ideas and approaches, and be comfortable using their voice - whether through written media or public speaking - to do so. Fellows should also have the ability to explain technology to a broad audience.
In addition to the criteria above, candidates for the Tech + Society Fellowship will:
Full Application
To help you prepare your full application, we’ve provided a list of application questions below. Please remember:
Problem Statement
The Tech + Society Fellowship seeks to address challenges at the intersection of social justice and technology. As part of your full application, you will be asked to describe an issue at the intersection of technology and social justice you would like to address by responding to the following questions.
Please describe the problem you wish to address. In answering this question, please include the following: What do you see as the underlying causes of the problem? What strategies would you use to address this problem? [2500 Characters]
With which candidate host organization is your work most strongly aligned?
Why is this host organization the most strongly aligned with your work? (Note: While you may select your preferred host organization, Mozilla will work with you and the host organizations to make final decisions.) [1000 Characters]
What are the key results you hope to achieve after 12 months? How do these results address the problem you described above? How will you evaluate progress and results? How will you integrate learnings into your approach? [1000 Characters]
How can your strategic intervention scale so that others in the country or region might benefit?
What risks (external or internal), if any, may pose obstacles? What strategies do you plan to use
to reduce these potential risks? [1000 Characters]
How would your project/work benefit from feedback and input from Mozilla’s interdisciplinary
community? [800 Characters]
Experience
In addition to the project-specific questions above, we want to learn more about your professional experience. All applicants, will be required to respond to the following questions:
You will also have the option of sharing a URL to a video of a talk/presentation you have given and/or a blog/article/opinion piece you’ve written. These help us a great deal in our assessment. It allows us to better understand, evaluate and categorize your submission, while also giving us an impression of your public speaking skills and your ability to communicate your topic. Don’t worry, these videos are not made public.
Additional Information
In this section, you’ll have the opportunity to tell us whether you’ve participated in other Mozilla activities
by answering the following questions:
We also ask demographic questions about your age and gender in this section. Diversity and inclusion is core to who we are at Mozilla. To ensure and measure that our Leadership program is meeting this goal, we’ve included these questions in this year’s application. These questions are optional. The information you provide will not be shared with staff members or external reviewers who are assessing your application and will be treated as confidential.
Registration Deadline- Thursday, May 28, 2020 12pm PT
Full Application Deadline- Tuesday, June 2, 2020 12pm PT
Notification of Results- By July 31 2020
Questions about the Tech + Society fellowship? Contact fellowships@mozillafoundation.org.
Need technical assistance using Fluxx? Contact grants@mozillafoundation.org. (Technical
support is available Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm EDT.)
Find More Details on Mozilla Foundation Website
Apply Here at Mozillas Flux Portal
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