January 15, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, an Arlington, Va., non-profit group, is spurring a worldwide movement of “social entrepreneurs,” says an article in The Atlantic Monthly (January).
“Ashoka is working against the backdrop of a major global development: the emergence of an international ‘citizens’ sector,” writes David Bornstein, who is working on a book about social entrepreneurs.
“Over the past few decades, as many individuals have sought to address pervasive social problems in new ways, there has been a proliferation of not-for-profit organizations — or what are referred to in development circles as non-governmental organizations — throughout the world.”
Bill Drayton, Ashoka’s founder, initially had problems persuading grant makers that his ideas were sound. “Potential donors’ eyes glazed over when he spoke of ‘investments’ in social entrepreneurs or used the analogy of ‘social venture capital,’ ” the article notes. But after Mr. Drayton received a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1984, the grant money began to pour in.
In the last 17 years, Ashoka has created an international network of almost 600 social entrepreneurs working on topics such as education, the environment, and women’s issues. Mr. Bornstein cites Fabio Rosa, a Brazilian agronomist and engineer, as one example. Mr. Rosa came to the attention of Ashoka after creating an electrical system that could provide Brazilian households with power for $400 to $600 a year — or less than 10 per cent of what the average household was then paying for electricity. With the help of a $25,000 grant from Ashoka, this more efficient household-energy system has now become the norm across Brazil, according to the article.
Ashoka has recently started a similar program in the United States aimed at youths who wish to start their own organizations, the article says. “ ‘We will turn this thing into the twenty-first-century alternative to the scouting movement,’ ” Mr. Drayton told the magazine.
