The LGT Venture Philanthropy opens a call for applications to a limited number of applicants for its iCats Fellowship Program. The Fellowship Program is special in many ways. The selected iCats Fellows form a class by meeting with their peers in Zurich (Switzerland), undertaking an orientation training before the assignment and receiving an intense mentoring support throughout their engagement. This additional Fellowship support helps the iCat Fellow to be most effective in-the-field.
Goals
The iCats Program provides opportunities where experienced professionals can create significant positive impact by applying their skills whilst increasing their social and business skills in an exceptional way.
Eligibility Criteria
To participate in the iCats Program, successful candidates should:
- have an undergraduate degree
- have international work experience
- have a minimum of two years of relevant work experience
- have a positive attitude, be sensitive to other cultures and be strongly cause driven to make a difference
- be able to work unsupervised and take responsibility for own actions and for those reporting to them
- be prepared to make financial and personal sacrifices to serve the vision
- constantly adapt to a changing environment
Description / Program Details
Benefits
The iCats Program contributes significantly to the LGT Venture Philanthropy mission. To strengthen the organizational capacity of social ventures as well as to foster a responsible leadership culture in the private sector ultimately increases the quality of life of less advantaged people.
Business professionals working as iCats gain an unique experience abroad. They develop their business and leadership skills whilst creating tangible positive impact with their professional skills. Read more.
Social ventures benefit from increased professionalism by applying corporate expertise. The newly developed organizational capabilities help to maximize the positive impact by making solutions more effective and scaling them to reach more people. Read more.
Corporations gain insights into new business opportunities in developing/emerging markets, develop skills of their employees that better qualifies them to create more sustainable and fair business models as well as develop a responsible leadership culture. Read more about this topic in the section “Responsible Leadership”.
LGT Venture Philanthropy iCats Fellowship Program
The iCats Fellowship Program is a structured program with a restricted number of participants. Main characteristics are:
- Fixed 11 month engagement from February – December each year
- On-site and full-time
- To prepare Fellows for their long engagement, a 4 day orientation workshop will be held in Switzerland
- Work with senior management and project teams
- Mentorship by an LGT Venture Philanthropy Investment Manager throughout the engagement
- Fixed remuneration package to cover basic costs of living during the engagement
- Application period: June-July for next year’s class
Examples: Social Franchise Strategist, PR and Communication Consultant, Financial Analyst, Business Developer
Click here to read more about the LGT Venture Philanthropy iCats Fellowship Program.
The mentorship program kick-starts each year during the orientation workshop in Switzerland. Each Fellow meets his/her personal mentor from the LGT Venture Philanthropy regional team. As the mentors live in the region and work closely with the participating social organizations, they have a good understanding of the challenges in the field professionally as well as personally/culturally. Sharing this with the Fellows significantly benefits the efficiency and effectiveness of the Program.
At the beginning of each Fellowship, the iCats Fellow, the mentor and the line-manager at the organization define a result-oriented work plan for the duration of the assignment. The organization is responsible for managing the Fellow.
In a monthly phone call with the mentor, the Fellows discuss their challenges and progress. Brief written standard reports are to be submitted each month, as well as a half-annual and a final report. These reports will enable the mentor to give more focused mentoring support. Additionally, it will help to consolidate key learnings and achievements as well as better understand the main challenges involved.
Please share