Ashoka Fellows

Ashoka Fellows
Name	Ashoka Fellows
Founded	1980
Founder	Bill Drayton
Headquarters	Arlington County, Virginia
Region served	Global
Focus	Social entrepreneurship

Ashoka Fellows are individuals recognized for leading social innovation and systemic change through entrepreneurship, nonprofit leadership, and civic initiatives. The network connects change-makers across continents, supporting work in health, human rights, environment, and technology through peer networks, funding, and institutional partnerships. Fellows have collaborated with international bodies and philanthropic institutions to scale initiatives and influence public policy, legal reform, and social movements.

Overview

Ashoka identifies and supports social innovators who propose scalable solutions to entrenched social problems, linking them to peers from networks such as Skoll Foundation, Echoing Green, Clinton Global Initiative, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Ford Foundation. The organization engages with global institutions including the United Nations, World Bank, European Commission, African Union, and Inter-American Development Bank to mobilize ecosystems around Fellows’ projects. Regional hubs coordinate with entities like Startup Chile, India AIDS Initiative, Brasilsem Energia, Ashesi University, and municipal partners in cities such as New York City, London, Delhi, São Paulo, and Nairobi.

Selection and Criteria

Candidates are evaluated on criteria including innovative idea, social impact, creativity, ethical fiber, and entrepreneurial quality, assessed through panels comparable to processes used by MacArthur Fellows Program, Rhodes Scholarship, Nobel Prize committees, and selection mechanisms of Harvard Kennedy School fellowships. Due diligence involves collaborations with legal teams, philanthropic advisors, academic researchers from Stanford University, University of Oxford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and evaluation frameworks influenced by reports from OECD, UNESCO, and World Economic Forum. The nomination pipeline includes referrals from alumni networks, civic leaders, and institutions such as Coca-Cola Foundation, UNICEF, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and national governments.

Notable Fellows

Prominent individuals associated with the network have included leaders who later engaged with organizations like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon (company), UNICEF, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, and movements tied to figures such as Muhammad Yunus, Wangari Maathai, Malala Yousafzai, Desmond Tutu, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon, Jacinda Ardern, Greta Thunberg, Marina Silva, Wang Qishan, Leymah Gbowee, Rigoberta Menchú, Shirin Ebadi, Leyla Zana, Anote Tong, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Vandana Shiva, Aruna Roy, César Chávez, Lech Wałęsa, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Christine Lagarde, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, Esther Duflo, Paul Farmer, Hans Rosling, Jeffrey Sachs, Muhammad Yunus, Witold Kieżun, Mariana Mazzucato, Yuval Noah Harari—many have intersected in conferences, panels, and advisory boards across global venues like World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, TED Conference, Skoll World Forum, Clinton Global Initiative, and national summits.

Impact and Contributions

Fellows have catalyzed policy shifts, legal reforms, and social enterprise models adopted by institutions such as United Nations Development Programme, World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and national ministries in India, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, and Indonesia. Initiatives have influenced public procurement, regulatory frameworks, and community-led interventions similar in scope to projects by BRAC, Habitat for Humanity, Grameen Bank, PATH, and CARE International. Collaborations with universities like Columbia University, Yale University, University of Cape Town, and think tanks including Brookings Institution and Chatham House have produced research, policy briefs, and curricula adopted by trainings at Harvard Business School and professional programs at London School of Economics.

Fellowship Benefits and Support

Support mechanisms mirror those offered by peer institutions—stipends, leadership training, pro bono legal services, and access to investor networks such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Acumen Fund, Kiva, and impact investors coordinated with platforms like Global Innovation Fund and Skoll Foundation. Fellows receive mentorship from alumni, governance advice from trustees with links to Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and board members who have served in roles at UNICEF, World Bank, International Rescue Committee, and multinational corporations including IBM, Siemens, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble.

Criticisms and Controversies

Critiques have addressed selection transparency, scalability claims, and impacts compared with evaluations by J-PAL, GiveWell, Center for Global Development, and academic audits published in journals associated with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and periodicals like The Economist, The Guardian, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. Debates trace lines to controversies over nonprofit metrics, partnerships with corporations such as Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, and tensions when Fellows’ projects intersect with national policy disputes in countries like China, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and Venezuela.

Related Programs and Partnerships

Ashoka collaborates with accelerator and fellowship programs including Echoing Green, Schmidt Futures, Acumen Fellowship, Skoll Fellowship, Schwarzman Scholars, and university programs at Stanford University d.school, MIT Solve, Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center. Global partnerships extend to foundations like Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, MacArthur Foundation, and networks such as C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, ICLEI, Global Partnership for Education, and corporate CSR platforms from Microsoft Philanthropies and Google.org.

Category:Social entrepreneurship