Recognizing the World’s Most Inspiring Youth Leaders

Candidates will be judged against criteria by a group of Global Citizen, Cisco, and independent experts.

Up to five (5) finalists will be selected on or around February 2nd, 2026 and will be required to submit three (3) letters of recommendation. If applying for the Prize, you should have your letters of recommendation ready for submission. Additional supplemental information might also be requested of finalists.

If selected as one of the 5 finalists, you will be judged by a panel of representatives from Global Citizen, Cisco, and esteemed activists and leaders in the international development field.

The Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award was established by Cisco and Global Citizen to recognize and lift up a young person positively impacting the world, demonstrate the impact that young people are having on achieving the United Nations’ Global Goals, and accelerate global problem solving.

The Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award honors an individual aged 18-30 who has contributed meaningfully towards the goal of ending extreme poverty. The award includes a US $250,000 prize paid to the organization to which the individual contributes.

Please reference the Global Citizen Manifesto for our definition of a Global Citizen. We are looking for a young person who is making extraordinary progress towards one or more of the Global Goals.

We are looking for organizations that use an IT-based solution to improve efficiency, reach, and magnify impact. A qualifying IT-based solution is one that produces greater impact, at a lower cost, higher quality, with stronger outcomes – and also enables specific metrics for social outcome to be gathered and reported.

No. We are looking for a transformative leader who is having an impact, and so your title doesn’t matter to us.
In your application, you will be asked for the title of your role in the organization to help us understand how you are having an impact.

We accept applications from all over the world, with the exception of countries and entities subject to financial or other sanctions by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) or other government entities of the United States of America that may restrict the transfer of the Prize money.

No. We accept applications from any individual who is doing impactful work and who has a registered legal entity such as non-profit, for-profit, B-corp, social enterprise, etc.

The Prize will be awarded to an individual, but the money will be allocated to their nominated organization that the individual works for.

We are glad you are passionate about making a difference in the global community. However, this Prize is for individuals who have a (recommended) demonstrated impact over the last 3-5 years so the Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award may not be right for you.

The application consists of four parts: (1) About You: Personal and Organization Information, (2) Pitch (3) Description of how your work aligns with the Judging Criteria (4) Supplemental Organizational Details.

For the first part, you will be required to submit basic information about you and your organization and a scanned copy of your passport.

For the second part, you must explain why you deserve this award and provide us with a 1-2 minute video of your pitch. 

For the third part, you will be required to answer 5 short answer questions about your work and you will describe in 250 words or less, how you have achieved each one of the Prize’s criteria.

And for the fourth part, you will submit proof of your organization’s registration details including the certificate of registration, incorporation or tax exemption and other supplemental information.

Applications open for submission on November 5th, 2025 10:00am PT and close on December 17th, 2025 at 5:00 PM PT.

Up to 5 finalists will be notified on or around February 2nd, 2026.

If you are selected as one of the 5 finalists you will be contacted on or around February 2nd, 2026 to submit 3 letters of recommendation:

3 Letters of endorsement / recommendation

• A Colleague
• A Funder or Operational Partner
• Person you’ve impacted

Once you apply for the Prize, you should have your letters of recommendation ready for submission. Supplemental information might also be requested of finalists. Finalists who are contacted and cannot provide letters of recommendation and supplemental information by the deadline may be removed from further consideration.

If selected as a finalist, you will be provided with instructions on how to submit your letters of recommendation and supplemental information.

You should provide a letter (or video) of endorsement from each one of the following:

• A Colleague
• A Funder or Operational Partner
• A person you’ve impacted

Letters should have an official letterhead and original signature. Videos should be no more than 2 minutes long.

Endorsements don’t need to be new / given specifically for this prize, but we do ask that they are less than six months old.

No, applicants must apply for the Prize themselves.

Unfortunately, at this time we are only able to accept applications in English.

You are welcome to draft your application in another language and send us a translation. We are judging you on the criteria, not your expression.

All application submissions will be reviewed against Award criteria.

No. Award money is unconditional. However, we do ask applicants for an idea of how they plan to use the money and require the winner to provide quarterly written updates on their organization’s progress for a period of 3 years.

Your application must include a 1-2 minute video of your pitch, convincing us why you should be awarded this prize. Once you have filmed your video, you must provide a link to the YouTube video- remember to make the link unrestricted.

Applications without a video pitch will not be accepted.

No, all applications are considered final.

Please email cyla@globalcitizen.org.

 If you have any questions that are not answered on the award’s information page or in these FAQs, please email cyla@globalcitizen.org. Regretfully we will only be able to respond to questions not answered here.