Frequently Asked Questions
“The Ashoka Changemaker Campus initiative is engaging students in the kind of work that will be necessary to confront the social challenges of today and those of tomorrow. I have been privileged to address Changemaker Campus participants and have witnessed their passion—for transforming barriers to quality education into opportunities for social entrepreneurship.
Educators have the privilege of supporting the growth of America’s young people and therefore America’s future. As an educator, I am thrilled to see Ashoka’s Changemaker Campus helping to make that happen.”
—Aleta Margolis
Executive Director, Center for Inspired Teaching
Ashoka Fellow, Class of 2001
1. What is Ashoka?
2. What is Ashoka’s vision and mission?
3. How does Ashoka U fit into Ashoka?
4. What is Social Entrepreneurship?
5. Who are a few good examples of social entrepreneurs?
6. What is the Ashoka Changemaker Campus Initiative?
7. Who are the Ashoka Changemaker Campuses?
Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system-changing solutions that address the world’s most urgent social challenges. Since its founding in 1980, Ashoka has launched and provided key long-term support to more than 2,500 leading social entrepreneurs in over 70 countries. It provides these “Ashoka Fellows” start-up stipends, professional services and a powerful global network of top social and business entrepreneurs, helping them to spread their innovations globally.
Working with these social entrepreneurs, Ashoka builds communities of innovators who work together to transform society and design new ways for the citizen sector to become more entrepreneurial, productive, and globally integrated.
2. What is Ashoka’s vision and mission?
Ashoka envisions 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.
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.
3. How does Ashoka U fit into Ashoka?
Ashoka U is an initiative of Ashoka that is focused exclusively on universities. It is not a separate organization and it does not have its own 501c3.
Housed within Ashoka, Ashoka U leverages the entire Ashoka eco-system, from the leading social entrepreneurs who are Ashoka Fellows, to the collaborative online community found at Changemakers.com.
Having spent its first 30 years investing in the people driving today’s systems-changing solutions, Ashoka is now working to spread those cross-cutting insights and innovations around the world, and to infuse that same spirit and approach in the next generation of changemakers. Universities are a natural place to start.
4. What is Social Entrepreneurship?
A social entrepreneur identifies and solves social problems on a large scale. Just as business entrepreneurs create and transform whole industries, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss in order to improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches and advance sustainable solutions that create social value.
Unlike traditional business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs primarily seek to generate “social value” rather than—or increasingly, in addition to—profits. And unlike the majority of non-profit organizations, their work is targeted not only towards immediate, small-scale effects, but sweeping, long-term change.
5. Who are a few good examples of social entrepreneurs?
Social Entrepreneurs share a common approach to looking at a problem, and persistence in how they solve it. They emerge from every conceivable background, and can be found in every field, everywhere. Some social entrepreneurs who have gained recognition globally include:
- Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank
- Wendy Kopp, Teach for America
Learn more about some of the leading social entrepreneurs in the US here!
6. What is the Ashoka Changemaker Campus Initiative?
The Ashoka Changemaker Campus Initiative works with teams of entrepreneurial students and faculty from select universities to accelerate their growth as hubs of social innovation. By distilling key strategies and practices common among the campuses and sharing those innovations throughout our wider global network, we aim to set a new standard for social entrepreneurship education. Together, we’re out to ensure that one day, universities everywhere serve as an enabling environment where every individual has access to the resources, learning opportunities, role models, and peer community needed to actualize their full potential as changemakers.
7. Who are the Ashoka Changemaker Campuses?
The Ashoka Changemaker Campuses are leaders in setting a new standard for social entrepreneurship education.
The current Changemaker Campuses are: Arizona State University, Babson College, College of the Atlantic, Duke University, George Mason University, Marquette University, The New School, Tulane University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and University of Maryland.
To learn more about the program, and the innovative work of each of our partner campuses, click here.
