Knowledge Products

Every three years, Ashoka conducts a study to understand how its Fellows are driving lasting social change. In 2021, we quantified how Ashoka Fellows shift mindsets, change policies, and activate others as changemakers. A total of 817 Ashoka Fellows participated in the global survey and 32 Fellows...

Vol. 11 (2022) of the Social Innovations Journal was dedicated to the latest learnings from Ashoka's global fellowship, based on the 2021 Global Fellows Study. In this issue you can find articles about main Ashoka programs, as well as specific areas of work and impact of Ashoka Fellows. Read more...

The Learning and Action Center in collaboration with the Making More Health (MMH) team took stock of the past 10 years of partnership between Ashoka and Boehringer Ingelheim in the field of global health. After in-depth conversations with various stakeholders involved in MMH at different stages and...

The threats facing our planet are changing quickly, as are the proposed solutions. There are new entrants daily, ever-increasing public awareness, and growing support for action. At the same time, we are racing past planetary boundaries faster than anyone had anticipated. The rate of change is...

Systemic and Empowering. Social Entrepreneurship in the Time of Philanthrocapitalism is the latest report from Ashoka's Learning and Action Center and Globalizer teams. It shows how social entrepreneurs can contribute to meaningful social change in a way that counters common criticisms. Without...

Towards a Shared Understanding of Funding Systems Change

WHAT does an organization that brings people together to do arts and crafts and an organization uniting mothers to address extremism have in common? They both work to systemically change the way we do democracy . Democracy is a skill that must be constantly practiced, or it becomes severely weakened...

Europe faces increasingly complex social challenges that require a continuous reassessment of underlying causes, potential approaches and emerging stakeholders. For the past 38 years, Ashoka has identified the most innovative ideas and dedicated social entrepreneurs. Ashoka Fellows go beyond...

The pandemic not only raised immediate healthcare challenges, but it has also highlighted deeper systems’ fragilities and failures – from healthcare to education, to our political and economic systems – and the interconnectedness of the problems we face. The aim of Changemakers United has been to...

Changemakers United is a collective effort to support social innovators at the forefront of the COVID-19crisis. In Europe, the project was conducted between April –September 2020 and it continues in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021.

Ashoka Fellows frequently report that their most impactful work – the kind that is focused on system change – is generally the least funded. This presents a clear challenge and opportunity for funders to grow the impact of their funding by adopting a system change approach. Fortunately, funding...

Major waves are poised to rip through our society. Demographic shift, global mobility, urbanization, and digitization of the working world – our traditional perspective no longer suffices to answer all the questions raised. Yet we need solutions to these questions – socially and economically. Social...

Within the next 10 to 20 years, 65% of all activities that are currently performed by humans will be automatable. According to a report from the McKinsey Global Institute on “Harnessing automation for a future that works” 1,5% of all tasks currently performed by humans are automatable with...

Ashoka, founded in 1980, is the world’s leading network of social entrepreneurs. Our founder Bill Drayton coined the term “social entrepreneurship”. According to NGO Advisor, Ashoka is the 5th most influential NGO in the world. Every year, we spot around 150 leading entrepreneurs worldwide with the...

The empowerment and boosting of social entrepreneurship; key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Spain. Madrid – January 22 nd 2020. Social entrepreneurship has become key in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG´s). This is the main argument made in the joint report on how...