Ashoka is an international organization that promotes social entrepreneurship by affiliating individual social entrepreneurs into the Ashoka organization. Their stated 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 identifies leading social entrepreneurs with solutions to social problems who seek to make large-scale changes to society. Ashoka searches for individuals who have vision, creativity, and determination and are motivated by public gain rather than personal gain. Social entrepreneurs who pass the selection process are called Ashoka fellows. Each Ashoka fellow receives a financial stipend that the fellow can use to pay for their personal expenses so the fellow can fully devote the fellow's time in pursuit of the fellow's innovative social ideas. The size of the stipend is decided on a case by case basis, according to the cost of living in the entrepreneur's local area. The stipend is available for up to three years. The organization is very clear that the stipend is only for living expenses and not for funding the social entrepreneur's initiative or organization. Ashoka fellows are connected with successful entrepreneurs in order to help the fellows succeed in implementing their social ideas. Ashoka fellows are expected to regularly participate in meetings with other Ashoka fellows. Ultimately, the Ashoka fellow is expected to convert an innovative solution into a self-sustaining institution. Ashoka funds the stipends by raising funds from donors, which it uses as venture capital. Of Ashoka fellows with ventures that are more than five years old, Ashoka says that more than 80 percent have had their solution implemented by others; 59 percent have directly affected national policy; and each Ashoka fellow is helping an average of 174,000 people.
Organizational policies
Ashoka says it does not accept funding from any government. Ashoka says that its donors are Western charitable foundations and wealthy individuals. While Ashoka says it does not petition governments for social change, Ashoka will provide advice to organizations such as the World Bank when requested.
Citizen-sector organization
While the United States Internal Revenue Service has approved Ashoka's headquarters as a 501 nonprofit organization, and some countries consider Ashoka to be a non-governmental organization, Ashoka itself prefers the term citizen-sector organization in order to emphasize what it is, rather than what it is not. According to Ashoka, citizen-sector organizations are groups of citizens who care and act to serve others and cause needed change.
