Ashoka, Washington DC

Named after the Indian leader who unified the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BC, renouncing violence and dedicating his life to social welfare and economic development, Ashoka was founded in 1980 in Washington, DC, by Bill Drayton — an inventor and pioneer of social entrepreneurship. With 200 staff members in nearly 30 countries.

Ashoka supports 2,000 Fellows in over 60 countries by providing stipends, venture capital for projects and initiatives, and the Global Fellowship network for Fellows to share personal and professional support as well as entrepreneurial opportunities. Between 1980 and 2006, Ashoka’s annual budget grew from $50,000 to $50 million. Today, Ashoka invests in social entrepreneurs as role models who are in turn inspiring a global movement of changemakers. It also aims to promote group entrepreneurship between these individuals and to build the necessary infrastructure for an entire citizen sector, a sector in which citizens are actively contributing to and changing their society.

Whether it is through anger management for prisoners in Germany, waste management in the suburbs of Peruvian cities, or creating safe spaces for sexually abused girls in Zimbabwe, Ashoka Fellows have had critical impacts in reintegrating individuals, changing societal perceptions of specific groups, improving economic and environmental conditions and influencing policies. Five years after election, 88 percent of Fellows have had other institutions copy their ideas, 59 percent have changed national policy and on average they are each serving 174,000 people.

Sister Cyril Mooney in India, for example. A career educator, she is tackling inequality in broader society by starting with schools. Through the Loreto School, Sister Cyril has demonstrated that middle class schools can integrate the poor living around them into their educational mainstream, for their mutual benefit. Her child-to-child interaction program has expanded so that the children now work with and teach street children, rural children, and domestic child laborers. Her model now impacts the lives of nearly 250,000 of the poorest Indian children.

Ashoka builds on the multiplier effect — as a platform for high-impact social change, Ashoka connects the best entrepreneurs around the world in a seamless community of innovation.Ashoka Fellows are active on the grassroots level, providing individuals and local communities with role models, serving as a mass recruiters of local changemakers. Moreover, providing these means and teaching the skills to participate in society creates an active, inclusive and thus, sustainable social and economic environment.

Ashoka seeks to build a vibrant and participatory citizen sector by recognizing and supporting changemakers around the world who are developing the courage and capacity to change entire patterns to create mass societal change.