Ashoka's Venture Fund for Leading Social Entrepreneurs

Ashoka’s Approach
Social Group
Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship
Architecture
for the
Citizen Sector
Social Entrepreneurs
Venture is the program through which Ashoka supports
social entrepreneurs—role models for the citizen sector and
engines for social change. After a rigorous selection process
and evaluation against our five core criteria, Ashoka provides
Fellows a three-year living stipend and ongoing professional
support. Ashoka continues to build and integrate an array of
services and opportunities for Fellows which are designed to
meet their needs at each different stage of their careers.
Group Entrepreneurship
Ashoka develops frameworks for entrepreneurs to access
each other’s ideas and experiences, collectively changing
entire fields. Ashoka’s mosaic initiatives capture the principles
and strategies of Ashoka Fellows around the world, helping to
spread best practices and instigate widespread change.
Ashoka’s mission is to shape a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen
sector: one that allows social entrepreneurs to thrive and enables the world’s
citizens to think and act as changemakers.
Ashoka’s vision is a world where everyone is a changemaker: a world that
responds quickly and effectively to social challenges, and where each
individual has the freedom, confidence and societal support to address any
social problem and drive change.
To achieve our mission, Ashoka has developed a three-part approach that builds from our core strategy of
supporting social entrepreneurs.
Architecture for the Sector
Ashoka is helping to establish the systems and supports in the
citizen sector that changemakers need in order to succeed.
These diverse programs include: access to financing, diversified
and localized resources, and bridges to other sectors of society.
In particular, Business Social Bridges, evident in many of
Ashoka’s programs, work to create high impact investment
and learning opportunities between the business and citizen
sectors.
For Example:
• Global Fellowship builds platforms for peer learning and
funded collaboration opportunities within the network.
• Strategic Partnerships provide pro bono training and
consulting from McKinsey & Co., Hill & Knowlton, and
others.
• Fellow Security offers prevention strategies and emergency
support to Fellows under threat.
• Changemakers.net is a global online community, which
seeks and improves solutions and sparks collaborations to
create systemic change.
• The Law for All Initiative enables all individuals to live as full
citizens by supporting human rights defenders, facilitating
pro bono legal assistance, and opening access to justice.
• Full Economic Citizenship is demonstrating in four industries
the huge productivity and profit gains possible through new
production and distribution chains that match businesses
with partners from the entrepreneurial citizen sector.
• The Citizen Base Initiative catalyzes citizen sector
organizations to build broad grassroots support for their work:
money, people, and information from diverse sources.