Know a leading Social Entrepreneur Based in Switzerland? Nominate Them for an Ashoka Fellowship Today!

This year, Ashoka Switzerland’s Fellowship search focuses on Health for All — and we need your help to identify the next transformative leader!

We’re on the lookout for exceptional social entrepreneurs revolutionising health and well-being in Switzerland. Whether it’s youth mental health, senior empowerment, or improved access to care, we want to support leading changemakers running social enterprises that tackle these challenges with bold and disruptive solutions.

Know a social entrepreneur making waves in health? Nominate them to join the Ashoka community as a Fellow, where they’ll gain access to a global network of innovators, funding opportunities, and the support needed to scale their impact.

Nominations are quick, anonymous, and multiple submissions are encouraged!

 

Want to know the criteria?

1. A New Idea: Ashoka cannot elect someone to the Fellowship unless he or she is possessed by a new idea — a new solution or approach to a social problem — that will change the pattern in a field, be it human rights, the environment, or any other. We evaluate the idea historically and against its contemporaries in the field, looking for innovation and real change potential.
    
2. Creativity: Successful social entrepreneurs must be creative both as goal-setting visionaries and as problem solvers capable of engineering their visions into reality. Creativity is not a quality that suddenly appears — it is almost always apparent from youth onward. Among the questions we might ask: Does this individual have a vision of how he or she can meet some human need better than it has been met before? Does the candidate have a history of creating other new visions?
    
3. Entrepreneurial Quality: Perhaps our most important criterion, entrepreneurial quality is the defining characteristic of first class entrepreneurs. It defines leaders who see opportunities for change and innovation and devote themselves entirely to making that change happen. These leaders often have little interest in anything beyond their mission, and they are willing to spend the next ten to fifteen years making a historical development take place. This total absorption is critical to transforming a new idea into reality, and it is for this reason that Ashoka insists that candidates commit themselves full-time to their ideas during the launch phase.
    
4. Social Impact: This criterion focuses on the candidate's idea, not the candidate. Ashoka is only interested in ideas that it believes will change the field significantly and that will trigger nationwide impact or, for smaller countries, broader regional change. For example, Ashoka will not support the launch of a new school or clinic unless it is part of a broader strategy to reform the education or health system at the national level and beyond.
    
5. Ethical Fibre: Social entrepreneurs introducing major structural changes to society have to ask a lot of people to change how they do things. If the entrepreneur is not trusted, the likelihood of success is significantly reduced. Ashoka asks every participant in the selection process to evaluate candidates for these qualities rigorously. To do so often requires one to resort to instinct and gut feelings, not just rational analysis. The essential question is: "Do you trust this person absolutely?" If there is any doubt, a candidate will not pass.