Ashoka's Venture Fund for Leading Social Entrepreneurs

What People are
Saying About Ashoka
We believe one measurement of an effective
community is exhibiting durable communication
channels, networks, and collaborative alliances.
Ashoka provides us with a great model for best
practices – The engaged global community of
social entrepreneurs that Ashoka has fostered
helps each one of them to have more impact
than would have been possible individually.
- Iqbal Paroo,
Omidyar Network
Our collaboration with Ashoka: Innovators for the
Public in Latin America has convinced us of the
unparalleled power of the Ashoka idea. Ashoka
and the social entrepreneurs it supports have
caused social change in the developing world,
helping millions to lead better lives.
- Stephan Schmidheiny,
President, AVINA Foundation and
Founder, GrupoNueva
[Google] is a company that believes deeply in
entrepreneurship. And this is a company that
believes deeply in the power of information. We
don’t think there’s another organization that
combines these two things in a more compelling
way than Ashoka.
- Sheryl Sandberg
Former VP, Google
COO, Facebook, Inc.
It’s one of the most hopeful and helpful trends
around. These folks aren’t famous, but they are
showing that what it really takes to change the
world isn’t so much wealth or power as creativity,
determination, and passion.
- Nicholas Kristof,
New York Times
Columnist
Ashoka is well placed to create a partnership of
the future between business and society. It’s a
good idea for all of us to support Ashoka.
- NR Narayana Murthy,
Founder, Infosys
Ashoka has quietly given Philanthropy a new
dimension: it has shown how to invest successfully
in pattern-breaking, powerful ideas and the
people behind them and how to do so early when
a little makes an enormous difference - when
hope can overcome cynicism, when tenacity can
prevail over inertia. It has given us all lessons in
how to harness the most powerful energy in the
world - human talent - to the task of adapting to
the demands of the 21st century.
- Peter Goldmark,
Former CEO, International Herald
Tribune and Former President,
Rockefeller Foundation