Latest News | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

Browse the latest news and insights from Ashoka's global network of changemakers

When technology meets equality: creating tech job opportunities for at-risk groups

Frédéric Bardeau created SIMPLON in 2013 as an alternative route to the technology institutions that exclude disadvantaged groups from training and, therefore, the job market.

Banner for the Brookings / Economic Architecture Project's Valuing Homes in Black Communities Challenge

Ashoka and Brookings Institution's Valuing Black Homes Initiative Highlighted as Key to Innovation in Housing Equity

MARYLAND, USA — After WUSA 9 published a report last November detailing allegations of home appraisal bias in Prince George’s County, more families have come forward with similar experiences. These families claim because they’re Black homeowners in majority-Black neighborhoods, some home appraisers...

a blast of oranges and blue overlaid by five figures in black and white. Moving clockwise from the top left is a young girl wearing a hijab, an older man in a suit with glasses, a young woman with dark hair, a small boy lifting his arms up, and a young girl with glasses and a jacket.

Bill Drayton shares how everyone can become a changemaker

During a time of political tensions, climate disruptions and rising uncertainties, there has never been a more crucial moment to become a changemaker.

Image for Hello Europe Ukraine Article; Photo of Ukrainian refugees approaching a border crossing out of Ukraine as a result of the 2022 Russia–Ukraine war

Refugees in Europe: how to help in a systemic way?

"Once again, our news feeds are filled with heart-breaking images and stories of hundreds of thousands of people on the move, fleeing from the Ukrainian crisis and other conflict points, seeking refuge across Europe: especially Central European Countries like Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary...

Na tle niebiesko-zółtej flagi Ukrainy niebieski napis "Our world is unpredictable. That's why we need to be ready to respond to unexpected events. Learn how Ashoka Fellows and other members of the community in the countries bordering Ukaine are responding to the war in Ukraine and imagining new reality."

Ashoka Fellows' response to the Ukrainian crisis

As we watch a humanitarian crisis unfold in the middle of Europe, Ashoka’s network and community of changemakers are taking action to support the most vulnerable

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.

System-Changing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in a Post-COVID-19 World

It is January 2020 and I am looking at data about broken markets: One in nine people in the world go hungry each day and hundreds of millions of children are malnourished, even though there is enough food to feed us all. About two billion people lack access to safe water, including millions in...

Photo of a faith and climate change protest. Large banner in front saying "People of Faith Rise Together to Protect Our Common Home." Lots of protest signs behind it with a number of people from all different faiths walking on a street. Background of palm trees, and a clock tower

Interview with Ashoka's Anne Evans: Can Faith Power Social Change?

"Anne Evans joined Ashoka’s leadership team in 2010. A member of Yale SOM’s Charter Class of 1978, she has worked in every sector, including as a partner in a management consulting firm, the executive administrator for the National Gallery of Art, and a co-founder of the Nomadic Kenyan Children’s...

Solutions Innovaton Journal and Ashoka Publish "Global Trends in Social Entrepreneurship: Developments in a COVID-19 World"

The newly released collection builds a narrative thread of how social entrepreneurs have managed to achieve systemic changes at local, national, and international levels since 2018.

Transforming long-term care for the elderly: Lone Koldby

Lone is a changemaker, social-entrepreneur and trained physiotherapist who works to humanize elderly care. She does so through her organization Activity Dose, which encourages caring for the whole individual using an empathy-based and individualized approach to caring for the elderly in nursing...

How to Teach Empathy to Children

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

3 girls chatting over coffee at Impact Africa Summit

Strong societies are made up of many changemakers.

When crises occurs and we see humankind responding to uncertainty, it's a test of our potential as society to unlock people's potential as changemakers building better futures for all

Graphic for the cover of the book "The Systems Work of Social Change" by Cynthia Rayner and Dr. François Bonnici. Dark blue background. 5 books with an orange spine stacked horizontally against each other. In the center, Cover of The Systems Work of Social Change – Half the cover is orange with scribbles, the other half a gradient going from light blue to white at the bottom. Words at top in white: The Systems Work (in big bold letters, all undercase) of Social Change (in smaller letters, all lower case).

Ashoka Fellows Featured in "The Systems Work of Social Change" by Cynthia Rayner and Francois Bonnici

In their new book The Systems Work of Social Change, social innovation researcher, writer and lecturer Cynthia Rayner and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Director Dr. François Bonnici argue that if we want change at a systemic level, we need to approach this kind of work in a radically...

Grahpic outlining the Diana Award recipients

Five Ashoka Young Changemakers from India receive the prestigious ‘Diana Award’

**This press release was originally written by Mphasis Bengaluru, India | August 19, 2021 Five Ashoka Young Changemakers have been recognized with the prestigious Diana Award, a recognition for highly inspiring efforts by a young person for social action or humanitarian work. Established in the...

Picture of two young children playing a board game with a health care responder on a medical bed. Background of other people within a medical facility on or walking around medical beds.

Twenty-five Ashoka Fellows Named to WEF Top 50 COVID-19 Responders

Ashoka joined the World Economic Forum’s COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs, which was set up in April 2020 with the mission to stand by social entrepreneurs as first responders to the COVID-19 crisis and as pioneers of a new normal. Over a year later, the crisis is far from over and...

Ashoka & TED Countdown Partner to Harness the Power of Everyone To Take Action on Climate

When we look across the work of hundreds of Ashoka Fellows working to bring a new equilibrium to Planet & Climate, many patterns emerge. Chief among them is the undeniable fact that the scale and complexity of the issues and the speed of change needed requires the efforts and involvement of...

Ashoka Receives Support to Advance Equity in Changemaking

On Wednesday June 16, Ashoka received a transformative investment that will advance equity and support Changemakers globally

Ashoka Fellow David Bornstein's #BriefButSpectacular Take on Telling the Whole Story

Ashoka Fellow David Bornstein is transforming news reporting through Solutions Journalism that integrates in depth reporting on challenges and solutions to them

Remembering Wimar Witoelar

Ashoka CEO Bill Drayton remembers close friend to Ashoka, Wimar Witoelar (July 14, 1945 - May 19, 2021)

Photo of a globe that has India in the middle. Other countries in Asia all around it. Each of the countries are color coded

How trust and collaboration are key in India’s last-mile response to the COVID-19 crisis

"It is a story that is playing out all over India – and indeed the rest of the world. At a time when governments and health systems have been overwhelmed, social entrepreneurs have stepped up in their thousands to fill the gaps. Most of these entrepreneurs are making a difference in the so-called...