About us

The Melton Foundation is an international 501(c)(3) non-profit organization registered in the USA, and a leading proponent of Global Citizenship education and practice worldwide. Established nearly thirty years ago with the credence that collaborations across boundaries can forge sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, today, our programs reach millions of young leaders, having crystallized into a network of over 750 life-long Melton Fellows spread across 40+ countries. Our primary operations are in Chile, China, Germany, Ghana, India, and the United States of America, with legal subsidiaries in Bangalore, India; Jena, Germany; Temuco, Chile; and Accra, Ghana. 

Our Mission

Through our fellowship and collaborative programs we promote and enable global citizenship as a way for individuals and organizations to work together across boundaries of place and identity to solve challenges in an interconnected world.

We make global citizenship accessible at the grassroots by offering fellowships to young change agents in order to develop their capacity as effective and ethical leaders, equipped to act locally, with a global context in mind. Our programs harness unique pedagogies ranging from experiential learning, intercultural collaboration, inclusive leadership, and systems thinking, to train and hone the skills of emerging social impact leaders. 

Our Global Citizenship Development Framework, developed in correlation to the Inner Development Goals, serves as our guiding foundation. The framework is based on core pillars: 

• Understanding of Self, 
• Making sense of the World, 
• Collaborating across Boundaries, and 
• Enabling and Driving Change. 

Together, these four interconnected pillars guide how we nurture the skills, values, and capacities needed for individuals to grow into the leaders of tomorrow. 

With Global Citizenship as our guiding principle, our programs and activities are also closely correlated to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and focus on grassroots action and intercultural collaboration to tackle problems of the modern world. 

At the heart of our work is the life-long Melton Fellowship, which has two entry-points or pathways. 

The first, the Global Citizenship Learning Program, our legacy initiative, is a 10-month learning journey that equips university students from our partner institutions, with the skills, knowledge, and networks to become catalysts for change and impactful global citizens. 

The second, the Global Solvers Accelerator, co-sponsored by Ernst Abbe Stiftung, is an 8-month acceleration journey that brings together emerging change agents, strengthens their leadership capacity, and amplifies the transformative potential of their projects. By connecting grassroots experiences and empowering social impact practitioners, the Accelerator unleashes ripples of change that extend far beyond the individual participant.

Upon successful completion of either program, participants transition into the life-long Senior Melton Fellowship, where they continue to collaborate with peers worldwide, deepen their practice, and sustain impact in their respective fields. Senior Fellows also nurture future generations of Melton Fellows as trainers, mentors, and project hosts, while also accessing and creating professional development opportunities, funding, and peer-learning experiences.

Beyond our Fellowship, our other collaborative programs manifest through our Global Citizenship Hubs in Africa, Latin America, India, and Germany. These hubs serve as convening spaces for local actors of impact, bringing individuals and organizations together to exchange ideas and co-create solutions. By engaging with local contexts, hubs foster collaboration through innovation marathons, workshops, and other community development initiatives. Our hubs also anchor our pivotal in-person events: the annual Global Citizenship Convention for participants of the Learning Program, and the Global Solvers Co-Lab for participants of the Global Solvers Accelerator.

The Melton Foundation supports Fellows through mentorship, capacity-building, and funding opportunities such as Action Grants, which help transform ideas into impactful projects. As a life-long community, we continue to stand beside our Fellows and members as they grow, collaborate, and create pathways toward a more just and equitable world.