Ashoka
Interview with Ashoka's Anne Evans: Can Faith Power Social Change?
"Anne Evans joined Ashoka’s leadership team in 2010. A member of Yale SOM’s Charter Class of 1978, she has worked in every sector, including as a partner in a management consulting firm, the executive administrator for the National Gallery of Art, and a co-founder of the Nomadic Kenyan Children’s Educational Fund. Since 1981, the nonprofit Ashoka has helped social entrepreneurs learn to be “changemakers.” A new collaboration with Trinity Church Wall Street (Faith and Changemaking), launched by Anne Evans ’78, aims to harness the passion among people of faith for making positive change."
Ashoka insight
An excerpt from the Interview with Anne:
"With everything Ashoka does, we see empowered changemaking as an imperative especially given the historical moment that we’re in—moving away from a period of hierarchy and transactional relationships to information being widely available in everyone’s pocket, which gives everyone a certain amount of power. This shift requires fluid, collaborative systems and leaders who understand that success means generating a sense of ownership in others through enabling individuals to have an impact and groups to be motivated and powerful.
We came to the idea of the Faith and Changemaking program because even as there’s energy, creativity, and innovation among people of faith, organizations don’t know how to adapt. Hierarchy is alive and well in faith institutions...
There’s a bubbling up of creativity and innovation among people of faith, especially young people. They’re eager to make faith communities more relevant in the 21st century. But there isn’t a narrative at large about how much renewal is happening. We felt that the time was right to give faith-inspired changemakers a way to come together, learn, and support each other with Ashoka as a neutral host."