USA Scholarships
Professional Development Scholarship Guides
Professional Development Programs
Guides for funded professional development, leadership, and executive programs that don't lead to a degree but build skills and networks. Each guide covers eligibility, benefits, and the full application process.
Nathan Cummings Foundation Grant 2026 - $50k to $250k
The Nathan Cummings Foundation grant programme funds organisations working on racial, economic and environmental justice in the United States, with most grants between $50,000 and $250,000. The Letter of Inquiry portal is open year-round with rolling review, and staff aim to come back to applicants within 12 weeks. Three grant types run alongside each other: Venture Grants up to $100,000 for one year, Advancement Grants up to $250,000 a year for up to two years, and invitation-only Enterprise Grants above $250,000 a year for longer. Program Related Investments run separately at $250,000 to $750,000, usually repaid over three to seven years. Read the exclusion list before anything else, because NCF does not fund individuals, 501(c)(4) organisations, direct service work outside an advocacy strategy, campus or prison-based programmes, or conservation projects.
America's Future Development Fellowship 2026
The America's Future Development Fellowship 2026 is a six-week virtual seminar on nonprofit fundraising for the Fall 2026 cohort, run over Zoom on Monday evenings from 28 September to 9 November 2026. Applications close 7 September 2026 at 11:59 PM ET, with participants selected between 14 and 21 September. The curriculum covers the philosophy of private philanthropy alongside practical work on donor cultivation and stewardship, organisational development, major gifts, foundation relations and planned giving, led by a facilitator who runs a fundraising operation raising around $12 million a year. Two eligibility points decide most applications: you must reside in the United States, and America's Future selects for liberty-minded professionals committed to strengthening organisations in the liberty movement. No prior fundraising experience is needed, and attendance at all six sessions is mandatory.
Yale Peace Fellowship 2027 - Fully Funded at Yale
The Yale Peace Fellowship 2027 is a fully funded programme from the International Leadership Center at Yale University for rising leaders in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconciliation. Applications for the 2027 cohort are open now and close 9 September 2026 at 14:00 EDT. Fellows take a week-long seminar at Yale in New Haven from 12 to 16 April 2027, bi-weekly virtual sessions from March through June, and a closing convening at Rose Castle in the UK from 14 to 18 June 2027. Travel, lodging and meals for both in-person weeks are covered and there are no direct programme costs, though a $20 application fee applies. One catch decides most applications: applicants should be citizens of a country other than the United States, and Yale typically looks for at least five years of significant professional experience.
Tech Journalism Fund 2026 - $5,000 to $25,000 Grants
The Tech Journalism Fund 2026 is Omidyar Network's project grant for US-based journalists reporting on technology and society, paying $5,000 to $25,000 towards the cost of a single resource-intensive story. Freelancers, staff reporters, editors and whole teams are eligible across any medium. The money covers reporting costs rather than salary: travel, research and fact-checking support, multimedia work, data access such as LexisNexis searches and government record requests, and a stipend for the reporting time itself. Priority goes to pitches on AI regulation and tech policy, investigations into the companies and people shaping the AI industry, the effect of AI on children and families, and how workers and unions are dealing with AI at work. Applications run on a rolling basis with no deadline and are usually reviewed within 30 days. Every funded project stays editorially independent and discloses the support.
Mental Health America Young Leaders Council 2027
The Mental Health America Young Leaders Council 2027 is a paid nine-month youth advocacy cohort running September 2026 to May 2027, and MHA is selecting just five young adults aged 18 to 25 for it. Members receive a $2,000 stipend, attend monthly 90-minute virtual sessions with experts, co-create a capstone project, and speak at the Mental Health America Conference in Washington DC on 8 and 9 October 2026 with travel and lodging paid. The 2026-2027 council focuses on financial well-being and access to meaningful work, set against the fact that almost 12 per cent of US youth are not in education, employment or training and 41 per cent of recent college graduates are underemployed. No degree, GPA or enrolment is required, only direct experience with programmes at that intersection. Applications close Friday 28 August 2026 with decisions by Friday 4 September.
HP Social Media Marketing Free Online Course 2026
The HP Social Media Marketing free online course 2026 is a short, self-paced training module from HP LIFE, the free learning platform run by the HP Foundation, and it ends with a certificate of completion that costs nothing. The course covers a range of social media marketing platforms and walks you through building a social media advertisement that actually reaches your target customers. Most learners finish in under an hour. There is no fee, no application, no deadline and no entry requirement: you create a free HP LIFE account, pick one of eight languages, work through the lessons, and download the certificate the moment you finish. More than 179,000 people have taken this one course, and it also works offline through the HP LIFE mobile app.