Ashoka Key Ideas

Browse the latest news and updates about what Ashoka is doing and thinking: storiesevents, and a curated collection showcasing the top insights from Ashoka's global community of change leaders.

 

You can find the curated collection of insights below:

Bob Smietana book

Why the decline of the church matters to everyone?

Around the world, trends are similar: more and more people consider themselves “spiritual but not religious”. In the context of the United States, relief organizations and faith-based organizations...

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Interfaith America is building bridges of cooperation

Ashoka Fellow Eboo Patel is the founder of Interfaith America (previously known as Interfaith Youth Core) and is working to create a truly multicultural approach to the understanding of faith in the...

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Giving-Tuesday

Bill Drayton: "Changemaking is the new literacy"

In a recent interview with IDR India, Bill Drayton emphasizes that everyone has the right, and ability, to be a giver. And to be able to give in today’s world where everything is changing, everybody...

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Photo shaded in dark blue. Three people huddle over a few laptops, smiling and looking at the laptops, as if they are working on something together

Ashoka releases the "The Unlonely Planet 2022" Report

Ashoka’s global study of systems-changing social entrepreneurs outlines 11 key strategies to building an Everyone a Changemaker world.

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Rebecca photo from her children's book

The Maasai Changemaker: Rebecca's Changemaker Journey

Addressing climate change and environmental degradation in Kenya through student-led education and advocacy.
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Logo for the business journal Quartz. Black rectangle with capital white letters in the middle saying "QUARTZ"

How to Teach Empathy to Children

Translating empathy into action is tricky. Bill Drayton—the founder and CEO of Ashoka—has some ideas.

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Nature based education with youth in a forest

How does nature-based education change the way we live?

"Most of our planetary problems stem from dysfunctional relationships — with ourselves, with others, and with nature. Our education systems have forgotten about nature. They are still very egocentric...

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blooming building

When the rules of the game lead to climate change, change the rules

Looking across the work of countless social entrepreneurs working on Planet & Climate, we’ve noticed an encouraging pattern. Social entrepreneurs are creating showing us that everyone has a role to...

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Public hearing in Roraima’s Chamber of Deputies.

Brazil's Indigenous Leaders Stand Up As Land Protectors

A lot is at stake for the Borari and Arapium people in Ednei's region. Since the mid-1990s, they have been the target of lawsuits fighting against the official recognition of their lands (still in...

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Welcoming America

How we build welcoming communities as borders re-open (for some)

Ashoka Fellows David Lubell and Clara Jiménez Cruz bust myths on immigration and show why belonging begins with us.

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colourful arrows

Six ways to bring people & planet back into balance

In a world where the rate of change is increasing exponentially and where the shelf life of solutions is diminishing rapidly, we must investigate a whole spectrum of insights across fields and...
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Ali Raza Khan

Trust Young People to Lead

What if our schools were designed to let young people drive positive change around them? This question has been animating Ashoka Fellow Ali Raza Khan for nearly 20 years.

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Debora Spar

How Technology Is Re-Shaping Our Families

We can now reproduce ourselves through this kaleidoscope of family forms thanks to advances in reproductive technologies. The traditional, heteronormative nuclear family is not going away, but it won...

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Gbenga Sesan

Nigeria’s Twitter ban and what it means for democracy

Engineers: don’t be selfish! Make policy as mainstream as engineering in the tech world. And global companies: hire diverse local experts to become truly global.

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Akkai Padmashali

From Trans Visibility To Liberation – The Freedom To Be Our Authentic Selves

Until we stand together as one community, it is highly difficult to speak about any sort of liberation. I am here not only for Trans* liberation, but for the liberation of every human being.

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Mary Gordon

Why children need empathy, especially now

Mary Gordon on empathy in the pandemic, what young children are feeling right now (by their accounts), and the pandemic’s enduring effects on families and children.

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India Covid

Social entrepreneurs respond to India’s deepening Covid crisis

Why decentralized approaches, long-term thinking and tough questions have been key to responding to the Spring 2021 COVID crisis in India.

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Riccarda Zezza

Caring Is Our Super Power—Let’s Lead With It

We have to stop wasting the resources that mothers, women, diverse people, caregivers, and all the so-called minorities — i.e. the majority of the population — contribute. The world needs exactly what...

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Gemma Galdon

Make Algorithmic Audits As Ubiquitous As Seatbelts

In the near future, we'll look back at 2020 and be like, how come we were deploying algorithms back then that were not being audited? It's like selling a car without a seatbelt. It will be unthinkable...

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Planet & Climate report thumbnail image of leaf

Thinking differently – ideas for action on planet & climate

Ashoka Fellows around the world are working in the field of Planet & Climate, distilling decades of experience and spotting patterns between their diverse approaches

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Lybian-Canadian woman wearing a headscarf and flora shirt, with black background

From Patriarchy to Inclusion: When Outrage Leads to Power Sharing

"Outrage is mobilizing. But hope is sustaining. That is the piece we're often missing. People have every right to be outraged at the current system and the existing sexism and racism in the system...

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Students National Honor Society

Insights on Changemaker Education

Tactical learnings and ideas from educators on creating a school culture that supports early changemaking.
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EACH video

Ashoka: Everyone a Changemaker

Ashoka envisions a world in which everyone is a changemaker: a world where everyone is powerful and contributes to change for the good of all. Join our Everyone a Changemaker movement today.
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McKinsey Quarterly image

Answering Society’s Call: A New Leadership Imperative

How do transparency, empathy, and meaning work in practice?

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The New Reality

Living in a Changemaker World Requires a New Framework for Thinking and Acting

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Bill Drayton on the Big Think:

Tearing Down the New Inequality

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A New Age has Dawned: Our Young People Need to be Changemakers

What We Need to Learn to Make the Most of Our Disrupted World

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The Changemaker Effect

Henry De Sio describes the key to success in an era of explosive social change

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Good Grief! Is It Possible to Bridge Our Differences?

“We Need a Way to Talk Openly”

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New Paradigm for Leadership – Everyone Leads

See the World Differently – Doing Differently

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Rebooting Our Politics and Schools to Engage Young People

It’s a paradigm shift they feel happening under their feet

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Why Empathy is as Important as Reading and Math

Transformative education must begin with a fresh look at the societal landscape our children and youth are stepping into. A historical shift has radically changed the complexion and complexity of the...

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A Team of Teams World

The rate of change has been accelerating exponentially since 1700 at least. So has the number of people causing change. This acceleration also applies (and I believe this is especially important) to...

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Want true equality? Make everyone powerful.

You can’t play the change game unless you are a changemaker.

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Empowering teachers to empower young people

Living and thriving in a new world

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How Fluid Teams Create Good Business

Allowing an organization to remain competitive and relevant.

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The Age of Empowerment is here

The key to a better world: let people create that world for themselves

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Everything You Change Changes Everything

It’s time for a reality check. That was the cautionary message in my last post. The world is changing. Society is tearing down its system of silos and hierarchy, and our world defined by repetition...

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WHAT DOES LEADERSHIP MEAN IN THE 21ST CENTURY?

Creating frameworks for others to take decisions and make change

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WHY WE FACE A CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP

Global executives really fail in the area of human interaction

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WHY OUR OLD LENS ON LEARNING WILL FAIL

New skills are needed in an “everyone leads” environment,

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