Ashoka
The Social Venture Network (SVN) is partying in New York City's Gotham Hall tonight. It's their 25th anniversary, and SVN is kicking off its Hall of Fame Celebration.
SVN's Hall of Fame Celebration will honor 25 innovative global leaders who have championed better business. They have each created an enterprise of at least $50 million in annual revenues, or an equivalent social or environmental impact. Honorees were vetted by a expert panel of 20 judges, which included sustainable business leaders and academics—more on the judges here.
Visionary Social Entrepreneurs
“When your close family hugs you, it means more than any other type of hug,” said Ashoka's very own Bill Drayton, who is set to be inducted into the SVN Hall of Fame tonight at Gotham Hall.
“There is no possibility of problems outrunning solutions when everyone is a changemaker,” Drayton told Sustainable Solutions. “The key factor for success now is what proportion of your people are changemakers, at what level, and how good of a job you are doing at helping them to be changemakers in an open, fluid way.”
Joining Drayton as SVN Hall of Fame Impact Award Winners are Cheryl Dorsey, president of Echoing Green; Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s; Linda Mason and Roger Brown, co-founders of Bright Horizons Family Solutions; and Pachamma Alliance co-founders, Lynne and Bill Twist.
“The focus for this ceremony will be connecting the next generation of social entrepreneurs to the legacy and values of the pioneers of social entrepreneurship,” said SVN Executive Director Deb Nelson. “The Visionary Social Entrepreneurs created models of social innovation that were very unique at the time of their founding.”
Other Hall of Famers in other categories include Workplace Champion Bruce Poon Tip, Environmental Evangelist Gary Hirshberg, Fearless Financier Muhammad Yunus, and Economic Justice Maverick and Ashoka Fellow Van Jones.
Proceeds from the event will benefit SVN's Bridge Project, an effort to diversify the demographics of the socially responsible business movement by supporting people of color, youth and women entrepreneurs.