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Performance Scorecard

Support people to think bigger and differently

2023 Bush Fellowship applicant rating of how helpful the application process was in thinking bigger & differently *

  • extremely helpful 48%
  • at least somewhat helpful 46%
  • not helpful 6%
Why it’s important to us

The future of communities in our region will be defined by what the people in them believe they can be. That’s why we want to take every opportunity to encourage people to think bigger and think differently about what is possible.

We also know that applicants spend a lot of time and energy to submit their proposal to us. That is particularly true for the Bush Fellowship program, which is why we are focusing on that program as our indicator here. The Bush Fellowship is highly competitive — we only award Bush Fellowships to 24 people each year. This means that we say no to a lot of people doing incredible work in our region. That makes it even more important to us that our process supports people to grow and expand their sense of potential and possibility.

We design the application process with the hope that the process itself will be valuable for everyone who applies. We want to support applicants to reflect on themselves and their aspirations in ways that may be useful in their development, whether they are selected or not.

How we’re doing

We are glad that 93% of Bush Fellowship applicants say the application process helped them to think bigger and think differently. However, this percentage is down from 99% last year, so we want to learn more about why that changed. It’s an opportunity for us to utilize the applicant feedback we gather to find ways to adapt and grow.

For example, we saw evidence that applicants who talked with past Fellows had stronger applications, so we added mentoring opportunities with former Fellows at the semi-finalist stage in the process. We’ve also added a $3,000 coaching stipend for people who make it to the finalist stage but are not selected as Fellows.

What’s next

As part of our “more good every year” operating value, we routinely make community-informed improvements across all our programs. Every five years we do a deeper review of each program, which happened last year for the Bush Fellowship program. It was a chance to listen more deeply to community, staff and our board to inform what would help serve leaders in the region better. Information about how we’re adapting the program will be available by fall 2024.

* Source for chart: Bush Fellowship Application Survey, September — October 2023