The AIF Banyan Impact Fellowship is an immersive bi-national volunteer service program with immense strategic importance in the US-India corridor. By facilitating exchange and collaboration between young professionals from India and the US, the program aims to shape the next generation of leaders committed to positive and sustainable change and creating a lasting US-India relationship by broadening the existing constituency of future leaders, civil society and other stakeholders.
Through its emphasis on a service-leadership model, the bilateral program places young professionals from the US and India in service with communities and organizations across the two countries for mutual learning, capacity building, and leadership development in support of social justice. Fellows work on projects closely linked to Sustainable Development Goals and create sustainable impact through service and fieldwork across diverse thematic areas such as education, public health, livelihoods, social inclusion, minority rights, Dalit and tribal rights, climate justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gender, arts, sports, CSR, and many others.
Since 2001, AIF has selected, trained, and supported 501 Fellows and 216 partner organizations across 25 Indian states to scale impact, catalyze change, and build the next generation of socially-minded change makers. As the AIF Fellowship Program, formerly known as the William J. Clinton Fellowship, enters its third decade under a new avatar; ‘The Banyan Impact Fellowship’, we are proud to expand on the growth of the existing version of the program and add to it a new segment.
Starting 2022, in addition to supporting service opportunities for Indians and Americans across Indian civil society organizations, the Fellowship Program will send social change professionals from India to serve across organizations in the US for capacity building and leadership development, thereby furthering the program’s mission of creating lasting ties between India and the US.
