For Nonprofit & Civic Professionals
Fellowship for Nonprofit & Civic Professionals
The ICJS Fellowship for Nonprofit & Civic Professionals is a 9-month intensive program for local, nonprofit and civic leaders to study and dialogue together. The fellowship draws on the rich resources of diverse religious traditions to inform and inspire participants’ work, helping them discover how interreligious engagement can strengthen their efforts to create a more just Baltimore and how religious pluralism is key to a democratic society.
The Fellowship brings together Baltimore’s civic and nonprofit leaders to enhance and deepen their work through interreligious dialogue. Fellows engage in conversations across their diverse faiths (including non-religious individuals) and their wide-ranging professional backgrounds—from advocacy and arts to mental and public health and government.
Throughout the fellowship, fellows explore how authentic encounter with the other can transform both our professional leadership and our shared public life. By engaging Muslim, Christian, and Jewish perspectives, along with current thinking on interreligious dialogue, participants discover how to weave interreligious understanding into their organizational goals.
The fellowship is directed by Molly Silverstein, with support provided by ICJS resident interreligious scholars.
We are currently recruiting for the next ICJS Fellowship for Nonprofit & Civic Professionals cohort to begin in person in October. If you are interested in applying or learning more, fill out the form below:
Program Benefits and Commitments
Fellowship Benefits
- Participate in a diverse adult learning community
- Network with other professionals in the nonprofit/civic sector
- Design and share a project specifically tailored to your community
- Learn skills for engaging in dialogue across difference
- Gain inspiration, clarity, and intention that you can bring back to your work
- Receive a stipend upon completing the fellowship
Fellow Commitments
- Attend monthly meetings in person (October 2025-June 2026)
- Prepare and present an original project to bring back to your community
- Write a reflection piece for Nonprofit & Civic Professional Voices and/or have a filmed conversation about your experience in the program
- Engage with religion in the public square by attending five external learning experiences
Fellowship for Nonprofit and Civic Leaders Rosters
Interreligious Capacity-Building Grants
The ICJS Interreligious Capacity-Building Grants provide up to $2,200 to Nonprofit & Civic Professionals Fellowship alumni who have an initiative that integrates their expanded understanding and interest in crossing religious barriers in service of the common good. These grants are intended to expand the capacity of participants to take the risk to initiate their idea.
Coming Together as a Community of Believers
“If we could somehow invigorate a whole community of believers in this city to understand that the destiny of Baltimore is waiting for us all to come together…we could make some great changes in this city.“
—Leon F. Pinkett III, ICJS 2021 Fellow
Nonprofit & Civic Professional Voices
Providing Mental Health Support that is Spiritually Sound & Culturally Appropriate
Salaam… Peace Be Unto You… Shalom Three phrases that capture the divine essence of calm, order, and tranquility of the three Abrahamic faiths. I am grateful to have received not only peace, but it was refreshing to also encounter respect, validation, and compassion from the participants in the ICJS Justice Leaders Fellowship. Prior to this…
In Our Diversity, We Are United By Our Humanity
I sat and gazed around the room at this gathering of Justice Fellows, and I could feel the presence of our ancestors. I’m 22 years of age, and I do not consider myself a hugely religious person, although I foresee that changing as time goes on. Right now, I feel more spiritual. The faces I…
In Islam, the Path of Sacrifice and Charity Leads to Justice
We Muslims believe that sacrifice and helping those in need is essential to the fabric of a just society. My time as a Justice Leaders Fellow inspired me to think deeply about the concept of charity in my religion, Islam, as it coalesces with those of Christianity and Judaism. It brought back memories of learning…
Bridging Baltimore’s Many Divides
My experience in the ICJS Justice Leaders Fellowship has prompted me to think deeply about economic justice issues in Baltimore and around the country. Prior to applying for this fellowship and being advised that economic justice was going to be the focus of the program, the topic about the digital divide came to mind. My…