“Social entrepreneurs are the essential corrective force. They are system-changing entrepreneurs. And from deep within they, and therefore their work, are committed to the good of all.”

~ Ashoka founder and CEO Bill Drayton

 

 

 

 

Social entrepreneurs are ambitious and persistent — they conceive and engineer new patterns and paradigms for the world. They are highly contagious role models encouraging many, many others to care and to step into their own power as a changemaker.

They are also mass recruiters of local changemakers -- that is overwhelmingly how they spread their ideas through society.

How we Advance the Field

In 1980, Ashoka began electing Fellows—systems-level social entrepreneurs—providing financial, knowledge, and logistical support to more than 4,000 change leaders in 99 countries. 

Ashoka works to share the wisdom of leading social entrepreneurs with a global audience. We connect Ashoka Fellows with other ecosystem players to imagine new paradigms for the future and move them towards reality.

fellowship photo

Ashoka Venture and Fellowship

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.

Read more

Resources and Reports from Ashoka on Social Entrepreneurship

Collaborative Entrepreneurship: How Social Entrepreneurs Have Learned to Tip the World by Working in Global Teams
The Guide to the Seven Key Questions That All Social Entrepreneurs Should Ask Themselves to have a clearer idea, develop their project and maximize their impact!