Would you like to work with a team of diverse changemakers, learn about creating change and use your skills to contribute to a better world? Support a Social Entrepreneur in developing an effective systems change strategy!
If this interests you, and you can prioritize 2-3 hours per week from February-June 2024, please apply by December 1st. You will then be considered to participate in a 3-4 volunteer Thought Partner team working alongside a leading social entrepreneur (an Ashoka Fellow) to maximize their social impact.
The opportunity to use skills and expertise to contribute towards a better world by supporting Social Entrepreneurs who are employing effective solutions to critical problems across the globe.
The opportunity to use skills and expertise to contribute towards a better world by supporting social entrepreneurs who are employing effective solutions to critical problems across the globe.
Learning about different approaches to creating longer lasting, effective, systems change.
The Globalizer offers Thought Partners a great opportunity to broaden connections and learn from a huge diversity of thought. It is an amazing opportunity to both give back in some small way whilst learning a huge amount about topics I might never have worked on.
Helen Chorlton
Senior Manager- Cities & Urbanization, PwC
The opportunity to partner with Ashoka and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship has helped me grow as a person and as a leader. It has exposed me to more opportunities to create a better everyday life for the many people as well as tools I can use in my daily business.
Rob Olson
Chief Operating Officer, IKEA United States
The world is full of great projects to heal wounds, but what we really need to aim for is to fix the broken systems that cause those wounds. This is what we learn and apply in the Globalizer, and impacts my daily life as a Social Biz Consultant.
Andrea Mörike
Founder / CEO, Moerike Consult
I find it very rewarding to help someone who is so passionate about their cause & receptive of different perspectives the team is able to offer. My role includes providing alternative options to think about, helping structure the thought processes and help shape what we feel is a path forward to enact system change.
James Caffrey
Leader of Strategic Projects & Ventures, Business Group, Philips
I've gotten exposure to inspiring changemakers enacting systems change in unique ways. Interacting with them has also allowed me to broaden not just my network but also my perspective on how I might further leverage my talents to drive even more social/environmental impact in my career.
Massimiliano Hasan
Advisor at Topiku & FinTech executive
Being on the Ashoka Globalizer program has been a greatly inspiring and rewarding experience. I came out of the project with a huge sense of accomplishment. Having such immediate positive "social" impact in only a couple of hours per month felt amazing.
Ignacio Perez
NavVis’ EMEA & Ecosystem VP and former McKinsey Consultant
What I loved about the engagement is the opportunity for both the Fellow, as well as Thought Partners to learn from each other & embark on a co-creation journey.
Maya Narayan
Co-Founder, Holon Perspectives LLP
Role Description
Using a Globalizer template for spreading impact and systems change as a guide, along with the rest of the Thought Partner team, you will:
Immerse yourself in a new perspective and methodology;
Serve as a thinking partner and a sounding board to help the social entrepreneur develop a robust system-changing social impact strategy;
Learn by doing, applying your skills and focusing them towards social impact;
Review and comment on content prepared by the social entrepreneur and their team.
Time commitment
3-4 hours/week for a period of 16 weeks. Generally, 1.5 hours is spent on a weekly team video conference call and the other time is spent reviewing materials, commenting and preparing for the next call.
Thought Partners will be selected and matched with the Social Entrepreneurs to be their sounding boards in their systems change strategy development process, based on:
their strategic thinking expertise- to contribute with knowledge, questions and critical thinking to the development and or refinement of the system change strategy, pushing on feasibility and consistency;
geographical location (to match the geographical diversity of the participating social entrepreneurs;
their competence and background to support with one of these functions.
Strategy Keeping
Facilitating and structuring an organizational planning process to implement a system change strategy;
Helping think through and creating content for the Systems Change Strategy document to be used at the Summit.
Ideal Background: a Senior executive or entrepreneur
Research & Deck Designing
Helping with research and analysis, harvesting and organizing important information through the process and preparing it for subsequent rounds of discussion;
Working closely with the social entrepreneur on preparing the Strategy Document and 7-minute Presentation to be used for the Summit.
Ideal Background: Associate, Business Analyst or MBA candidate
Process Management
Facilitating the process by hosting meetings and managing work plan for the team with timeline and goals to achieve by the Summit;
Offering analytical support to projections and content prepared by social entrepreneur’s team;
Ideal Background: an Engagement Manager or Senior Associate
Topical Expertise
Contributing to the social entrepreneur’s strategy development by sharing insights based on research and your background in systems change or the topic of work of the social entrepreneur;
Helping sustain the alignment of the strategy with what is happening in the system.
Ideal Background: Systems Change practitioner or an expert in the field of work of the Social Entrepreneur
The Ashoka Globalizer Program helps you unlock your changemaking potential by becoming a Thought Partner for Systems Change.
The 16-week accelerator encourages Social Entrepreneurs working on addressing different complex challenges to focus on their vision for systemic change, by activating the brightest minds from the business world as co-leaders for a world in which systems change is possible - an Everyone A Changemaker World.
Rather than merely expanding operations, through the Globalizer process, the social entrepreneurs are challenged to further refine their leading social innovations and consider how to open up access to their ideas so that they can become the new norm in society and have the most efficient, longest-lasting systemic impact.
Throughout this intense process, they are supported by experts from the Globalizer team, working alongside 3-4 experienced Thought Partners from consulting firms, partner organizations and the Ashoka Support Network of business leaders and experts committed to social change.
Here is an outline of what the program design looks like:
💡 Phase 1: Developing the System Change Story
Using a range of systems change tools and methodologies, Ashoka Staff work with social entrepreneurs to analyze the problem they aim to tackle, identify the systemic conditions that keep it in place, set goals to change it and outline a targeted systems change strategy. During this phase, the Thought Partner team gets to develop a shared understanding of the big problem, the social entrepreneur’s work, the Globalizer process and Ashoka’s System Thinking Perspective.
⚡ Phase 2: Building the Organizational Strategy
This is where the changemaking potential of the Thought Partner team gets even more activated. Equipped with a systemic goal and some key milestones for how to get there, Thought Partners apply their skills and expertise to develop an organizational strategy with the social entrepreneur in order to achieve the Targeted System Change goal.
🔥 Summit
Social entrepreneurs present their strategies to Strategy Thought Partners- high level entrepreneurs, executives and experts from companies, international organizations, foundations, and NGOs who will engage in a 1 on 1 conversations to help social entrepreneurs strengthen their strategies, open doors to key contacts and potentially provide support to implement them. By accompanying a social entrepreneur in developing their systems change strategy as a Thought Partner, you will familiarize yourself with the system thinking perspective and develop the ability to apply your professional skills for changemaking.
Reflections from Alumni Social Entrepreneurs
This program is a great re-alignment of our core goals, to really figure out how we can change the system and to make it more concrete. This process has been a huge benefit for me, as a leader and changemaker, and has had a positive impact on my team members who participated in the program.
Melissa Malzkuhn
Founder and CEO, Motion Light Lab, United States
Our work has always focused on systemic change and impact. What the Globalizer did for our project was to create the space, discipline, and approach to introduce new perspectives and significantly accelerate outcomes.
Brent Kopperson
Founder and CEO, Windfall Ecology Center, Canada
Becoming a Globalizer Fellow has given me access to resources and connections far beyond my expectations. Much more importantly, though, I now see myself and my project in a completely new light: I’m not just building an organization, I’m building a movement.
Thorkil Sonne
Founder & Chairman, Specialisterne, Denmark
Globalizer has pushed me to think even more broadly about the impact I can have as a social entrepreneur. I am challenged to think beyond the success of my organization to really think about success of the social mission in a more transcendent way.
Katherine Lucey
Founder & CEO, Solar Sister, Uganda
None other than me knows how challenging and result oriented the Globalizer is. It not only pushes to pass through rigorous grilling sessions but also it actually opens up vistas of knowledge. After Globalizer, I have totally changed Bhungroo scaling up proposition.
Biplab Paul
Director, Naireeta Services, India
The Globalizer program is a much needed experience for social entrepreneurs who have gained traction in their work. It is a truly helpful exercise for those who are actually scaling and those who are looking to scale creating long lasting impact.
Abu Musuuza
Co-founder & CEO, Village Energy, Uganda
Our Cohort
Currently, we are in the process of selecting the next cohort of Ashoka Fellows. We anticipate having the final selections confirmed by early December.
APPLY TO BE A THOUGHT PARTNER
If the time commitment works for you, and you are interested in being considered to be a part of the Thought Partner team and support a leading social entrepreneur (an Ashoka Fellow), kindly register by clicking the below button and we will be in touch as soon as possible to review possibilities.
WE CANNOT GUARANTEE SPOTS FOR ANYONE YET, as we need to juggle many factors while matching, but we look forward to exploring ways we might engage you in this round.
Ashoka Fellows aim to reach system and frame change with their social innovations.
Scaling is not just about serving more and more people via one’s own organization, but about influencing many others to promote and adopt the new model. In this way, the idea is no longer dependent upon one social entrepreneur or one organization, but can continue to grow through and with others, until it becomes the new norm in society.
Systems change often requires indirect as well as direct impact.
It takes many changemakers to change a System...
The world is rapidly changing and sometimes not in the right direction. To be able to make sure the world develops for the good of all, Ashoka supports changemakers and encourages everyone to be one. Ashoka Fellows are selected for their potential to change systems to tackle specific social problems.
However, in order to do so, they need allies –Thought Partners who are willing to connect and unlock their own changemaking potential and explore what it takes to change a system and improve social conditions.
Ashoka
