Westpac Bicentennial Foundation - Social Change Fellowship 2026

The Westpac Social Change Fellowship is an incredible opportunity for social entrepreneurs to spend time investing in their skills, leadership capabilities and networks. A truly bespoke offering, the fellowship is completely tailored to the individual and is designed to offer experiential learning opportunities that will help you drive sustainable positive change in Australia.

Who can apply?

We’re looking for purpose driven individuals committed to driving positive change. To be eligible to apply you must:

1. Be over the age of 18. 
2. Be an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident. 
3. Be able to demonstrate experience initiating and leading social change.
4. Be leading an existing social change initiative to address a clearly defined social need in an Australian community at a local, state or national level. 
5. Be able to evidence the social impact of your current social change initiative. 
6. Be able to demonstrate support from the community that your initiative is seeking to benefit.
7. Be able to demonstrate how your initiative is an innovative approach to the social problem you are trying solve. 
8. Seek funding for your personal development and learning.
9. Be able to demonstrate that your proposed personal development will directly benefit your ability to deliver and lead your initiative.
10. Be able to provide contact details for a community referee and an expert referee who are familiar with your work and will support your Fellowship application. 
11. Be able to commit to and participate fully in the Fellowship program, including taking time our of your organisation/initiative, to make the most of the opportunity within the award year.

Note: only one individual per organisation can receive a Westpac Social Change Fellowship in each application year if the organisation has less than fifty employees.

Here’s what you’ll get Up to 10 Social Change Fellowships are awarded each year. 

Should you be chosen, you’ll get access to:  

• Generous personal development funding: Receive up to $50,000 for your personal development including  study tours, short courses, conferences, coaching, overseas learning experiences and more.
• Leadership coaching: Accelerate your growth with our bespoke leadership program which includes a 4-day residential experience, plus online group coaching and capacity building sessions throughout the year.  
• W100 Scholars Network: Connect with an inspiring network of like-minded game-changers, achievers and believers across all five Westpac scholarship streams and attend exclusive events like the Westpac Scholars Summit held in Sydney.