About the Rebrand
Why are you re-naming after 14 years?
While our mission has not changed, as an organization we’ve undergone a significant evolution over the last four years and it is time for our branding to also evolve.
Based on the feedback from thousands of young people, their families, and alumni, our board and leadership realized the name Global Citizen Year no longer reflected who we are today and where we’re going as an organization.
We strongly believe it is time for our name and branding to more accurately reflect where we are today as an organization and the future we envision.
Why did you pick the name Tilting Futures?
Tilting Futures reflects our ongoing commitment to providing young people with the opportunity to define their futures, chart new pathways towards shared prosperity, and advance collective solutions towards our world’s greatest challenges.
Tilting Futures also speaks to the real impact students and alumni are having not just in their programs, but in the world-changing work they do throughout their lives.
Does this mean your mission or purpose is changing?
No, our mission is not changing. We remain committed to unlocking the power and potential of young people worldwide through our work with students, alumni, donors and partners.
What prompted this rebrand?
To thrive and remain relevant, every organization must continuously evolve and innovate.
For us, the largest shift occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, which required us to adapt how we offered our programs. In 2020, our immersive, eight-month international Global Citizen Year Fellowship was reimagined as the virtual Global Citizen Year Academy.
The success of the Academy inspired us to further evolve our programs, which led to the development and launch of Take Action Lab in 2023 – a semester-long immersive learning program, the first of which was in South Africa with a program focused on human rights.
With this new flagship program, our brand needed to evolve to better match the work we’re doing today and the impact we are hoping to create in the future.
Why do you believe the current name isn’t working?
We worked closely with outside creative and branding experts that conducted extensive research among our key stakeholders — our students, alumni, parents, and our partners. Their input brought a number of key insights indicating our current name and brand weren’t effectively supporting our mission and purpose. For instance, Global Citizen Year did not reflect the semester-long time commitment of our programs, preventing us from connecting with a greater number of students.
The GCY name has existed for more than a decade. Are there any concerns around changing the name?
We are confident that our new name – Tilting Futures – better aligns with our core mission and current programming, while conveying what’s most unique about us as an organization.
We are committed to working closely with students, applicants, alumni, families, donors and partners to answer any questions, share deeper insights into our rebranding strategy, and ensure everyone understands why we believe this change is vital to our future success and impact.
How did you land on the new name? What was the process?
We conducted thorough research, starting with in-depth surveys and interviews with current students, alumni, parents, donors, and educational partners. Their valuable input guided every aspect of our design choices, from the name to other elements, ensuring that our brand is student-centered first and foremost.
We then worked closely with a creative branding agency with decades of experience in the youth engagement space to build a brand that reflected the input and hopes we heard through these conversations.
Will the Global Citizen Year name/brand go away completely?
Tilting Futures will become the umbrella brand/name for the entire organization and we will maintain the Global Citizen Year name for our alumni communities: the Global Citizen Year Fellowship and Academy.
Will your programming change?
Our rebrand and name change will have no impact on our students or alumni.
For students, our current programming will remain unchanged, and soon we will announce the second site for Take Action Lab, which will run concurrently with our Take Action Lab program in South Africa.
For alumni, we will continue providing ongoing support, networking and professional development opportunities.
Applicants & Current Students
Is the Take Action Lab program changing?
Take Action Lab is not changing, but it is expanding!
We are launching a new program site in a new country, and the curriculum will focus on climate and the environment. This program will run concurrently with our human rights focused program in South Africa.
We will share more information about the new country, curriculum, and when applications will open later this year.
Will the rebrand create changes for my application?
We recently switched to a new application platform and have updated our application questions, but all applications submitted prior to May 14 will be reviewed and considered for enrollment.
If you had already submitted your application prior to May 14, you do not need to do anything and your application will be reviewed shortly.
If you had started an application, but did not submit it, we have uploaded key pieces of your application to our new system. Our team will reach out soon with instructions on how to log in to complete your application.
Does this change the status of my application?
If you have already submitted your application, we are eager to review and will share our decisions in the coming months. You will receive an email with instructions for how to view your application status ahead of the decision release.
Alumni
Is there an alumni section of the new website?
Yes, we have a dedicated alumni page.
We also have pages for alumni to login to the hub and for alumni faqs.
How do I refer to myself as an alum?
The choice is yours! Here are some of our thoughts to get this started.
Did you graduate from the Global Citizen Year Fellowship or the Global Citizen Year Academy? If yes, you can refer to yourself by your program affiliation, or more broadly as a Tilting Futures Alum. For instance, you could say, “I’m a Tilting Futures Alum. I graduated from the Global Citizen Year Fellowship (India, 2017).” Or, “I’m a proud alum from the Global Citizen Year Fellowship (India, 2017).”
Did you graduate from Take Action Lab? If yes, you can refer to yourself as a Tilting Futures Alum from the Take Action Lab program. That would look like, “As a proud Tilting Futures alum and graduate of Take Action Lab South Africa, 2023, I’m pleased to submit my application for…”
How do I list my program experiences on resumes, applications and social media?
You can list your program experience based on the name of the program you participated in: Global Citizen Year Fellowship, Global Citizen Year Academy, or Take Action Lab. You can list Tilting Futures as the organization that runs these programs.
Where can I find program information about my program?
If you are a Take Action Lab alum, you can find information about Take Action Lab in the Program section of our website.
If you are a GCY Fellowship or Academy alum, you can find information about our Global Citizen Year Fellowship and Global Citizen Year Academy on our new website.
Where can I find my blog posts from the Fellowship?
You can find the blogs from the Global Citizen Year Fellowship here.
How do I get references from the organization?
Login to the Alumni Community Hub and fill out the recommendation request form under the Resources section.
