Ashoka is the largest network of social entrepreneurs worldwide, with more than 3,200 Ashoka Fellows in 83 countries putting their system changing ideas into practice on a global scale. Founded by Bill Drayton in 1980, Ashoka has provided financial support, professional pro-bono partnerships, connections to a global network of peers, and a platform for people dedicated to changing the world. Ashoka launched the field of social entrepreneurship and has influenced key global players across sectors to recognize and nurture the potential of entrepreneurial talent to solve social problems. Working across its network of leading social entrepreneurs and strategic partners, Ashoka has been able to spot key patterns and trends, and therefore enable collective entrepreneurship around emerging frontiers: empathy, new leadership, team-of-of teams work, and changemaking. With Ashoka Fellows at the center, Ashoka is enabling an “Everyone a Changemaker” world in which everyone sees their own potential to see a problem, develop a solution, and put the idea into action.
Ashoka and Skoll Foundation are partnering to achieve their shared goal of cultivating a pipeline of leading social entrepreneurs addressing the world’s most pressing problems. Ashoka’s core competencies of identifying, selecting, and supporting early stage social entrepreneurs is complementary to Skoll’s support to scale the impact of mid-stage “mezzanine” social entrepreneurs. The partnership also seeks out opportunities to share networks, knowledge, and resources to serve social entrepreneurs and changemaking around the world.
Issue Areas: Arresting DeforestationClean EnergyClean WaterEarly Childhood to Primary EducationEducationEnvironmental SustainabilityFinancial ServicesHealth DeliveryHuman RightsInternational JusticeLivelihoodsLiving ConditionsPeacePost-Secondary EducationResponsible Supply ChainsSanitationSecondary EducationSmallholder ProductivityStandardsWater ManagementWomen's and Girls' EducationYouth Job Skills
