Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish, or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.
Changemakers
Ashoka’s Changemakers is pioneering a transparent online community that “open sources” innovative solutions to social problems worldwide. With its focus on thematic, collaborative competitions, Changemakers has sourced over 500 high-impact action blueprints for solving social problems. It has also built an extensive library of original articles and resources on the growing citizen sector and its historic role in changing the world in positive ways. This collected knowledge serves as the foundation for Changemaker's social change community that is spreading, refining, and replicating these innovations globally.
Changemakers’s central focus is on Changemakers Collaborative Competitions that honor excellent social change strategies on issues of global importance. The collaborative competitions utilize exposure to social investors, peer innovators, and a broader community of social change enthusiasts to source competition entrants. All collaborative competition entries are posted for full review and comment by anyone in the Changemakers community.
Changemakers has sponsored collaborative competitions on varied themes, including human trafficking, affordable housing, and market-based solutions for low-income communities. Each competition lasts roughly three and a half months, is held and archived online, and helps to meet the social change goals of Ashoka’s initiatives, work of investors and partners, and leaders in the citizen sector.
Collaborative competition participants can include individuals, nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, public corporations, private companies, and government agencies. A panel of expert judges from investor organizations in the relevant field selects the finalists in each competition, and popular online voting determines the three winners. Competition finalists and winners then form the core of an emerging and ongoing network of changemakers who collaborate to support each other’s efforts, continue to map emerging principles of innovation, and help draft advisories for investors and policymakers.
Each collaborative competition is launched through the creation of a Changemakers Mosaic of Solutions that connects insights of Ashoka Fellows and the citizen sector to the competition theme. The mosaic outlines the key barriers and principles framing the competition topic, utilizing a matrix to visually “map” an initial set of innovations and innovation gaps. The mosaic-building process is crucial for understanding the field in its entirety and setting the focus to the collaborative competition. Many social innovators and investors have begun to use the Changemakers mosaic model to guide their work and investment decisions.
In addition to the Changemakers Innovation Awards, the site features “Are You a Changemaker?”—another competition tool for finding social entrepreneurs, social innovators, and high-impact social actors. Are You a Changemaker also promotes its monthly winners and helps Ashoka expand the work of Ashoka’s Venture Program. Finally, the feature provides a dynamic space for citizen changemakers to introduce their innovative ideas and join in online discussions with members of the Changemakers community to advance their thinking and strategies. As the directory of entrants grows, so does the global community of changemakers, shared resources, and peer support.
The global Changemakers community of practitioners and investors provides the inspiration and the urgency behind the topics selected for focus, action, and networking. Upcoming themes will include conflict resolution, responsible tourism, renewable energy, aging, urban agriculture, and health equity.