The Ashoka Fellowship

For more than 40 years, Ashoka has built and nurtured the largest network of leading social entrepreneurs in the world by electing them as Fellows.

Upon election, we invite Fellows into a life-long Fellowship and a global community of peers, where every member is committed to championing new patterns of social good. While some receive financial support in form of an unrestricted, needs-assessed stipend, the main value of the Fellowship lies in the support Fellows access throughout their entrepreneurial journeys, for example, through access to pro-bono legal advice, coaching and leadership development. Ashoka offers both structured courses and trainings, such as online webinars on systems change and social finance, as well as ad hoc and personal support. While we navigate and channel our Fellows’ needs and opportunities, it is our community that expands and adds most of the value we can provide.

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Who is an Ashoka Fellow?

Ashoka engages the world’s largest and most powerful network of social entrepreneurs by searching for and selecting the world’s leading social entrepreneurs: Ashoka Fellows. These leading social entrepreneurs define the roadmaps that allow people to thrive in this new environment, while providing solutions and demonstrating the how-tos.

What are the criteria to be an Ashoka Fellow?

At the heart of our process to elect Fellows are five criteria shown below which all candidates must meet to become a Fellow. These criteria help maintain the integrity of the Fellowship and allow for consistency and mutual respect within the diversity of the network.

What is the process to be elected an Ashoka Fellow?

Before becoming a Fellow, a candidate undergoes an intensive process of interviews, background checks, and critique at a local and global level. Successful candidates will have founded or co-founded their organisation, and they must be able to commit 100% of their time to implementing their new idea for at least three years from election. And while Ashoka celebrates the contributions of all social entrepreneurs, it focuses its support on those operating not-for-profits.

The Search and Selection process allows Ashoka to screen candidates against its criteria to maintain quality and integrity in the Fellowship.

Nomination: A candidate can either be nominated by someone within the Ashoka network, someone in their field, or even themselves. All nominations are recorded by local country staff for further review.
First Opinion Review: Local Ashoka Representatives now review a candidate, interview them, perform site visits, check references and the candidate's background. In this step they carefully assess that the candidate meets Ashoka's criteria within the context of the region.
Second Opinion Review: If local staff proposes the candidate for the Fellowship, they are then interviewed by a senior member of the Ashoka network approved as a representative from the global Board of Directors from outside the region to assure an unbiased application of the criteria.
Selection Panel: If the 2nd Opinion Review was successful also, the candidate is then interviewed by three experts and entrepreneurs (including an Ashoka Fellow) from the region who can appropriately assess the newness of the idea and the other criteria. A final recommendation of election is then made to the Global Board of Directors.
Global Board Review: After rigorous revisions, final materials about each candidate are presented to the Global Board of Directors for final approval.

From start to finish, the selection process generally takes from four to nine months.

Ashoka Fellows Change Policy, Market Dynamics, and How People Think

Ashoka also identifies patterns that are emerging from our Fellows—types of solutions, strategies, topic areas, etc.—that often point to areas ripe for major change. These learnings from across our Fellowship guide Ashoka’s work and investments in strategic initiatives that empower every person to be a changemaker. In 2018, Ashoka led one of the largest and most diverse studies of system changing social entrepreneurs ever conducted: Unlonely Planet Impact Report. And we found that Ashoka Fellows are having systems-level impact — 74 percent have achieved change in public policy or legislation, while many others are changing market systems, and mindsets.

Ashoka Fellows know that in order to spread their idea quickly and turn it into society’s “new normal,” they must employ innovative strategies to get their idea into the hands of as many people as possible. We define independent replication as when an independent organisation or institution takes on a Fellow’s idea, further increasing the scale and impact.

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of Fellows have seen their idea replicated by independent groups

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have achieved change in public policy or legislation

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have seen their idea replicated within their country of residence

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have seen their idea replicated in other countries

Systems Change

At Ashoka, we believe that the most powerful force for good is a systems-changing idea in the hands of a formidable social entrepreneur. True systems change is the result of scaling social impact and not growing an organisation; it is the result of letting go of control of an idea, and enabling and encouraging others to join in and implement change. Ashoka Fellows embody this concept and their ideas have positively impacted on countless people around the world.

Learn More

Collective Impact For Systems Change

Discover how we ignite collaborations and collective impact around Europe´s most pressing challenges: Biodiversity, Democracy, Anti-corruption, the impacts of COVID-19 and more.

The Ashoka Europe Fellowship Program

The Ashoka Europe Fellowship Program is a co-learning and co-creation community to leverage Ashoka's local and global experience, resources and networks in order to advance social entrepreneurship and changemaking for the good of all - across the continent. The Program empowers and connects change leaders and key players in the social entrepreneurship eco-sytstem in Europe to learn from one another and aim for systems change in co-creative ways.

The Ashoka Globalizer

The Globalizer program taps into Ashoka’s broad network of changemakers across the business, government, and citizen sectors. It begins with a three-month advisory phase where a support team of volunteer advisors—leading strategy consultants and high-level business leaders—help Ashoka Fellows reflect on key issues and establish a solid strategy to spread their impact.

Do you know someone with a pathbreaking idea?

Are they creative, entrepreneurial problem-solvers tackling big social problems?

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Recently Elected Ashoka Fellows in the UK & Ireland

All Fellows In The UK & Ireland

Agamemnon Otero

Ashoka Fellow since Aug 2023

United Kingdom

Energy Garden

Lisa Wilkins

Ashoka Fellow since Aug 2023

United Kingdom

DigVentures

Stephanie Brobbey

Ashoka Fellow since Aug 2022

United Kingdom

The Good Ancestor Movement

Alison Tickell

Ashoka Fellow since Aug 2022

United Kingdom

Julie's Bicycle

Hera Hussain

Ashoka Fellow since Aug 2022

United Kingdom

Chayn

Tessy Britton

Ashoka Fellow since May 2022

United Kingdom

Participatory City

Mark Campanale

Ashoka Fellow since Aug 2020

United Kingdom

Carbon Tracker Initiative

David Robinson

Ashoka Fellow since Aug 2020

United Kingdom

Relationships Project

Immy Kaur

Ashoka Fellow since Mar 2020

United Kingdom

CIVIC SQUARE

John Christensen

Ashoka Fellow since Feb 2020

United Kingdom

Tax Justice Network