What TED Fellows Program does

TED Fellows Program is a nonprofit fellowship initiative operated by TED LLC, founded in 2008 by Tom Rielly and headquartered in New York. The program identifies and supports approximately 500+ early-stage innovators working across disciplines including technology, arts and culture, economic inequality, human rights, health and medicine, and climate solutions, drawn from over 100 countries. Fellows receive a structured support package comprising strategic communications training, professional development workshops, one-on-one staff consultations, career coaching via the Professional Coaching Network, TED Talk production and global amplification, and access to a year-round global community of peers, industry experts, policymakers, and business leaders.

The program's core 'products' are the fellowship itself, a searchable Fellows Directory, TED Talks video content (451M cumulative views), a free monthly newsletter, and supporting modules for communications training and community-building events. Underlying infrastructure is TED's global media platform, including TED.com, @tedfellow social channels, the TED Fellows Films Series, and TED Conference programming. The program operates on three pillars: Prepare (tools and training), Amplify (exposure and content), and Connect (community and industry).

The business model is charitable rather than commercial. No fees are charged to Fellows; the program is funded through contributions from major foundations (Bezos Family Foundation, Ballmer Group), high-net-worth individual donors, and in-kind coaching services. The organization is run by a small core team of 6 (Founder Tom Rielly, Director Lily James Olds, Associate Director Leonie Hoerster, Head of Alumni Community Alanna Shaikh, Project Manager Allegra Pearl, and others), with a lean staff structure supported by the broader TED organization. In 2024, the program transitioned to a nomination-based application process, increasing selectivity.

Name

TED Fellows Program

Legal name

TED LLC

Website

https://fellows.ted.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

TED Fellows Program is a nonprofit fellowship run by TED LLC that supports 500+ early-stage innovators across 100+ countries through communications training, career coaching, TED Talk amplification, and a global peer community, funded by charitable contributions from foundations and individual donors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Fellowship and Leadership Development

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Research Grants, Fellowships & Stipends (International) (EDAIAOAJ)

Keywords

• Fellowship program
• Nonprofit organization
• Leadership development
• Professional development
• Global community

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The TED Fellows Program is a global, fee-free fellowship that identifies, recruits, and supports a curated community of 500+ early-stage innovators from over 100 countries working on world-changing ideas across technology, arts, human rights, health, climate, and economic inequality. The fellowship provides strategic communications training, professional development workshops, one-on-one staff consultations, career coaching and mentoring, amplification through TED Talks and a global media platform, and access to a tight-knit international network of peers, industry experts, policymakers, and business leaders.

Product overview

The TED Fellows Program is a single, unified fellowship offering rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture. It provides early-stage innovators from over 100 countries with a comprehensive support ecosystem consisting of the core fellowship program, a searchable Fellows directory, TED Talk video content, a monthly newsletter, strategic communications training, professional development workshops, one-on-one consultations, career coaching, and community-building events. The program operates on three pillars: Prepare (tools and training), Amplify (exposure and content), and Connect (community and industry). Impact metrics include 200 million people directly impacted annually by Fellows' work, 451 million TED Talk views, and 234 businesses launched.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• TED Fellows Program A global, fee-free fellowship that identifies and supports early-stage innovators from over 100 countries working across technology, arts and culture, economic inequality, human rights, health and medicine, and climate solutions. The fellowship provides strategic communications training, professional development workshops, one-on-one staff consultations, career coaching and mentoring, amplification through TED Talks and the global TED platform, and access to a community of 500+ Fellows worldwide.
• TED Fellows Newsletter A free monthly email newsletter providing regular updates on TED Fellows and their latest work, with customizable interest categories including arts, environment, health, human rights, science, and technology. Available to any subscriber as a standalone free offering.

Quantifiable outcome

• 200 million people impacted annually by Fellows work
• +5 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Professional Coaching NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNetwork of professional coaches who donate their time to work with TED Fellows, including Danielle Adams, Emily Aiken, Nadia Allaudin, June Archer, Claudia Aronowitz, Peter Bailey, John Bates, and many others. These coaches provide career coaching and mentoring support to help Fellows develop professionally.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Acumen Academy: Acumen Academy delivers leadership and social-entrepreneurship training programs plus a global community of Fellows, comparable to TED Fellows' emphasis on leadership development for emerging change-makers tackling poverty and climate challenges.
• Mozilla Fellows: Mozilla runs fellowship programs that place technologists and policy leaders in host organizations and provide community, training, and amplification — overlapping with TED Fellows in providing curated support and public visibility for mission-driven innovators, though more tech- and policy-specific.

Direct peers

• Skoll Foundation: Skoll supports social entrepreneurs through fellowships, awards, and a global network of peers — operating in the same space as TED Fellows by identifying high-impact innovators and amplifying their work through a recognized global platform.
• Rhodes Trust: Rhodes Trust runs a highly selective global postgraduate fellowship at Oxford, providing fully funded study, leadership development, and a lifelong international alumni network — a long-established comparable selective global fellowship model for emerging leaders.
• Echoing Green: Echoing Green seeds emerging social entrepreneurs with fellowships, community, and leadership development, making it a close functional analog to TED Fellows' support stack for early-stage changemakers working on world-changing ideas.
• Fulbright Program: The Fulbright Program is a flagship U.S.-government-supported international fellowship that provides funded exchanges, professional development, and global networking for emerging leaders and scholars — a broad-scale analog to TED Fellows in selective international fellowship administration.
• Obama Foundation Scholars & Fellows: Obama Foundation runs selective fellowship and scholarship programs that identify emerging leaders globally and provide training, networks, and platform exposure — closely paralleling TED Fellows' leadership-development-and-amplification model.
• Schwarzman Scholars: Schwarzman Scholars is a highly selective global leadership fellowship that provides fully funded study, leadership training, and a powerful alumni network — a comparable selective-fellowship model aimed at developing future leaders across disciplines and geographies.
• Atlantic Fellows: The Atlantic Fellows programs (LSE, Tekano, Harvard, etc.) convene global cohorts of emerging leaders tackling inequality, with structured curricula, peer networks, and lifelong community — functionally similar to TED Fellows' community-amplification model.
• Ashoka: Ashoka runs one of the world's largest global fellowship networks for leading social entrepreneurs, providing multi-year support, peer community, and amplification — directly comparable to TED Fellows' model of identifying and supporting world-changing innovators across disciplines and geographies.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/tedfellow
• Facebookfacebook.com/tedfellow
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tedfellow
• Instagraminstagram.com/tedfellow

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about TED Fellows Program