What We Do

Ashoka's activities in Switzerland

Through Ashoka's presence in more than 90 countries, we are building and amplifying this global movement through three areas of activity. Discover who we are here.

See below the programs that are active in Switzerland, for programs active in other countries check the bottom of the page.

1. Identify and support the world's leading social entrepreneurs

We find and cultivate social entrepreneurs in every corner of the world, whose system-changing innovations solve deep-rooted social problems.

Search and selection of social entrepreneurs (Venture)

We developed a rigorous selection process to identify the world's leading social entrepreneurs in every corner of the world, whose transforming bottom-up solutions solve deep-rooted social problems. The successful candidates are elected as Ashoka Fellows. Discover Ashoka Fellows elected in Switzerland.

The Venture program

Support of social entrepreneurs (Fellowship)

We provide Fellows access to strategic guidance, capacity building and a lifetime membership into an broad network of peers and partners, enabling them to have greater impact. Ashoka Fellows can access a European co-learning and co-creation community along with ASN members and partners.

We also join forces with other actors to strengthen our support to social entrepreneurs. Thanks to the collaboration with UBS and other partners, we have launched the Social Investment Toolkit, to help social entrepreneurs navigate the world of social finance, providing them with the essential support to unlock access to funding opportunities. In 2019 launched the first Social Investment Accelerator in Africa on agro-business.

The Fellowship program The European Fellowship program

2. Accelerate the "Everyone a Changemaker" world

We mobilize a network of individuals and organizations, and build collective capacity to address global challenges by unlocking their potential to act as changemakers. We partner with a range of stakeholders: foundations, universities, corporations, civil society organizations, media and other.

Ashoka Support Network

It is a global community of committed leaders who share and advocate for Ashoka’s values and vision. ASN members finacially and strategically support Ashoka, while unleashing their own potential as changemakers.

It is a transformative journey, both on the collective and individual level. Collectively, ASN members are part of a community dedicated to fostering social change. Individually, they have the chance to reflect on how they want to make a difference in the world and – ultimately – are empowered to take action.

The Ashoka Support Network

Working with companies

We support corporates to remain relevant during times of rapid change, by looking at new ways to create value, uncharted market opportunities, and build collaborative leadership models.

We bring together pioneer companies and social entrepreneurs who are convinced that combining social impact and business is a necessity as well as an opportunity to reinvent the business world.

Our work with companies

3. Equip everyone to be a changemaker

We inspire and enable changemaking in the public-at-large, and work to give all individuals the confidence and tools to solve problems for the good of all.

Learning and Action Center

Our European think-tank leverages the insights and patterns of 3,600+ Ashoka Fellows to understand what the future needs, and makes this knowledge actionable for collective solutions to build a better world.

For instance, the Swiss Fellow Nicola Forster was featured in the study around the strategies adopted to foster democracy in Europe.

The Learning and Action Center

Ashoka Changemakers and the Visionary Program

We are building a global movement where anyone, anywhere, can take action to solve a social problem in in their community. For instance, we have partnered with C&A Foundation on the global initiative "Fabric of Change" to support innovators for a fair and sustainable apparel industry.

Ashoka Changemakers The Visionary Program

Our Partners in Switzerland

Discover our programs around the world

Above you have explored Ashoka's programs active in Switzerland, many of them are also active worldwide. There are other programs though, that are either active in other specific countries or globally, but haven't yet found a local application in Switzerland. Browse them to discover the full Ashoka universe.

Discover the programs

Our reports and legal information

Ashoka as a Global organization is registered as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization in the United States of America, and is registered as a foundation with no profit-making purposes in Switzerland.

Find out more about our legal information, our activities in Switzerland and our Annual and Partnership reports by clicking below.

Find out more