For more than 35 years, Ashoka has built and nurtured the largest network of leading social entrepreneurs in the world. After a rigorous selection process, they are introduced to a life-long fellowship, where every member is committed to championing new patterns of social good. We encourage Ashoka Fellows to take ownership of the network and we partner with them to co-create Ashoka’s vision of an Everyone a Changemaker world.
Why Leading Social Entrepreneurs are Critical Today
In a world defined by change, success comes from everyone leading. Social entrepreneurs define the new roadmaps that allow people to thrive in this new environment, while providing solutions and demonstrating the how-tos.
Ashoka engages the world’s largest and most powerful network of social entrepreneurs by searching for and selecting the world’s leading social entrepreneurs: Ashoka Fellows. Ashoka pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship more than 35 years ago, and today it continues to build the largest global network of leading social entrepreneurs.
Ashoka Fellows champion new ideas that transform society’s systems -- providing benefits for everyone and improving the lives of millions of people. Ashoka Fellows are the ultimate role models in today’s world.
Ashoka identifies patterns that are emerging from our Fellows—types of solutions, strategies, topic areas, etc.—that often point to areas ripe for major change. These learnings from across our Fellowship guide Ashoka’s work and investments in strategic initiatives that empower every person to be a changemaker.
Ashoka searches the world for leading social entrepreneurs through an intensive, human-centered process, selecting them into our global, trust-based fellowship of peers.
Ashoka Fellows are the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. They champion innovative new ideas that transform society’s systems, providing benefits for everyone and improving the lives of millions of people.
I founded Nafisika to create safer communities through the reduction of reoffence among prison inmates. Over the ten years that she have engaged with the prison system in Kenya. The trust has become an essential partner in the delivery of behaviour change and economic empowerment skills training to...
Vickie Wambura
Founder Nafisika Trust. Ashoka Fellow since 2013
Ashoka is unlike any other organization I’ve worked with. And this is a good thing. Forget about hierarchies and decision-trees. Forget about caveats and we’ve-never-done-that’s. I have never worked with a more committed group of people whose first response is ‘why not!,’ whose job descriptions say...
Eric Dawson
Founder of Peace First. Ashoka Fellow since 2007
Do you know someone with a pathbreaking idea?
Are they creative, entrepreneurial problem-solvers tackling big social problems?
Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) and Ashoka have partnered together in promoting innovative solutions to challenging health problems since 2010. By exploring the intersection of social entrepreneurship, employee talent development, and healthcare networks the teams have co-designed "win-win" solutions to global healthcare challenges. Solutions have come through increasing individuals’ access to healthcare and community health issues, especially underserved populations. Over 5 years, the team has supported 75 Making More Health fellows in 47 countries, launched 3 global open-source competitions finding 800+ health innovations worldwide, and engage 10% of BI's global workforce of 45,000.
