One thing I don't really understand about the reading is what Ashoka does. What I've gathered so far, which is part way through chapter 10, is that Ashoka decides to call someone a fellow, and gives them a stipend for one to four years. Is the rest up to the fellow? Are they essentially left to pasture (aside from small but crucial support)? If so, it is fantastic that such simple ideas can be so powerful. This is the kind of reading that gives me hope that I can do something profound with my life (because simple ideas can be so powerful).

This sounds a lot like what CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society), which operates at a few UC campuses - including our own. Prof. Davis has mentioned it a few times, and we hosted the talk last Friday. A lot of what we do is 'spreading awareness' in a way, as we have regular webcasted lectures dealing with tecnology during the better part of the academic year, but the organization at its most basic is a way for people with ideas to receive funding.

www.citris-uc.org

Social entrepreneurs are a special kind of people. Ashoka look for characteristics in people before allowing them to become fellows. Creativity, entrepreneurial quality, social impact of the idea, and ethical fiber are requirements that fellows must meet to be considered. Motivation is a really important one, without motivation the person may not have the drive to complete the long-term project. There are two kinds of motivation, to make money or to help people. It is essential that the fellow always keep people in mind as part of their goal. People need to have a lot of trust in the person that they are considering to be a fellow. Any problems that arise culturally will need to be evaluated individually and dealt with what will be best accepted in that specific culture. I think it is important to have a criterion of what kind of people should be part of Ashoka because the fellows receive resources that should potential help a lot of people. The ability to self-correct is really important along with motivation and trust. While working on a project some things may not go as expected, a leader needs to be able to admit mistakes and take steps to correct what is not working.

I think that Ashoka helps to get ideas off the ground by providing some start up money and support. I think the book has a great title! "How to Change the World" Reading things like this is motivational and empowering thinking that people can make a difference with the right support.

Matthew Johns said:

One thing I don't really understand about the reading is what Ashoka does. What I've gathered so far, which is part way through chapter 10, is that Ashoka decides to call someone a fellow, and gives them a stipend for one to four years. Is the rest up to the fellow? Are they essentially left to pasture (aside from small but crucial support)? If so, it is fantastic that such simple ideas can be so powerful. This is the kind of reading that gives me hope that I can do something profound with my life (because simple ideas can be so powerful).

I liked the whole idea of Ashoka going around from city to city and town to town all around the world asking people questions and finding individuals who can make a change in their communities AND then funding those individuals to make that change.

It is a great way to turn great ideas into something tangible but I was also scared by the idea of how much control Ashoka had in this sector. When the book discussed how the lady had to fight to get a telephone line that she needed Ashoka to provide I thought it was a bit ridiculous. Ashoka because of its presence in the global community has the ability to approve or deny any great idea that comes its way. If anything ashoka needs more funding and more support from anyone who can provide it because at the end of the day if your idea is going to cost just a little too much even if it would pay itself off quickly or help thousands of people ashoka won't fund it because it costs too much.....

that passage about the phone was particularly discouraging to me...i think he should have given it to her without question.

Matthew Johns said:

One thing I don't really understand about the reading is what Ashoka does.

Hi Matthew and the rest of the class. I am an Ashoka East Africa Fellow so perhaps I can give you a more personal perspective than what you already know about what Ashoka does. When I was named a fellow in 2001 I honestly had no idea. Now years down the line there are ways that Ashoka has undeniably been an important influence on my life's work.

I very often explain Ashoka laughingly as an organization that actually pays mad-scientist types like me to conduct all kinds of experiments on humanity. We are indeed an odd breed. First and foremost, Ashoka has worked for the past 26 years to legitimize the existence of people like me, whose lives are consumed with catalyzing micro and/or macro-level change.

The Ashoka selection process was a major turning point in my life. My family and others close to me thought I was absolutely nuts, and yet here was a global professional network saying you are one of us and we want to support you. But that wasn't until after a grueling process of around 10 hours all together of panel and one on one interviews, where I was asked to extrapolate my vision 20 years into the future. They pushed me - and every other Fellow I've talked to - to an emotional breaking point in the process. They tested my sincerity, commitment and motivations. They needed to see that I believed I could actually make the change I was seeing in my mind happen - crazy as it all seemed at the time!

Making it through that process means that my work now falls under the Ashoka brand. Because the selection process is so rigorous, people who know about it have a lot of faith in the brand. I can't tell you how many people have written to me saying they'd been watching my work online but just noticed I was an Ashoka Fellow - it makes an impression. Practically speaking, there are opportunities for Ashoka Fellows that the label provides access to - even though Life in Africa is not a 501c3 organization, for example, we can list projects for funding at globalgiving.org because of the Ashoka label. People at very high professional levels who know what Ashoka is take me seriously (when actually I think of myself most of the time as just a work at home mom!)

But all of that is the concrete part that is easy to understand.

Ashoka is also a network of some of the most amazing people I've ever had the privilege to spend time with. Here in Uganda I've collaborated with many and getting together to support each other in times of failure and success is really valuable. We are all hectic and ever-evolving and imperfect and relentlessly passionate. There are few who understand us, but we understand each other, and sometimes that helps us to understand - and legitimize - ourselves and our crazy ideas. That, to me, has been the more important benefit of what Ashoka does.

Editing to add that yes, there is also a stipend from Ashoka... they encourage Fellows to use it to live on so we don't have to work at another job while we develop self-sustaining projects that can afford to pay us.

Some factors that I felt the Ashoka fellows had in common throughout the chapters are: motivation, creativity, trustworthyness, being realists, and being possessed by an idea. Moreover, they had a combination of goal setting and problem solving creativity.

One of the problems that Drayton ran into is the issue of dictatorships within countries like Indonesia. Moreover, "lossing face" was a cultural sensitivity in that country as well. However, I don't recall how he was able to overcome these issues.

The quality that speaks to me the most is, "Willingness to Sefl-Correct," because it displays how motivated and committed a person truely is to his or her idea. I think that those that are willing to correct themselves and look at new ways to solve problems create projects that are of greater benefit. For example, Bornstein stated that this quality "distinguishes young entrepreneurs from older, better-established counterparts" and he gave an example by mentioning the failure of the IMF, which represents old ways of thinking.

A really important part of the reading and what Ashoka as an organization does is how difficult it is to recieve a grant from them. Not every idea works, and not every individual is able to see an idea through. Ashoka's requirements to get this money is based on so many tests that ensures that the person is really ready to change the world. I think that if society was a little more selective with its organizations, it would be a lot more effective in getting help to those who really need it, instead of getting bogged down by the overwhelming work that is necessary to solve a social problem

Wow. Thanks Christina for your excellent post. Could you tell us a little about your vision/work that brought you to Ashoka (or brought them to you)?

If you check out this search on onet you will get a lot of information that might clarify what Ashoka does. We have a couple of members who are Ashoka fellows and as far as I can figure, most of the members here from Uganda and Kenya are here because of Ashoka members.

Jonathan Finger said:

Could you tell us a little about your vision/work that brought you to Ashoka (or brought them to you)?

http://www.ashoka.org/fellows/vi ewprofile3.cfm?reid=144022

that description was written in 2001. There was a time a few years ago when I felt it was very far from the direction I'd evolved in, but these days it's feeling like a fitting description again. After starting with an online microfinance program through lifeinafrica.com back in 1999, I understood that the audience who was engaging with our borrower also wanted to engage on other levels (buying crafts, in-kind gifts, donations etc.) that we weren't prepared to handle.

After receiving the Ashoka fellowship, I spent a long phase (2002-2004) doing research and development on how to connect communities online. The past 2.5 years have been spent actively building up a grassroots African community that people in the rest of the world can connect to.

Right now I'm working on a new lifeinafrica.com that will be the beginnings of an online superstore of impact alternatives for Africa - tried and tested first in a very depressed and war-torn context. An example I have often given in the past for what kind of impact generation I was after was that you'd eventually be able to buy home-made peanut butter from a widow you read about online for delivery to a local orphanage you also read about online and thereby maximize the impact of every dollar you spend. These past couple of years have been extremely useful in understanding a community's needs and assets. So the new site will provide a framework for generating targeted impact resources that not only the Life in Africa WE Centers but also other orgs can tap into... in fact, my plan is to work exclusively with Ashoka projects in the first stages of scaling the concept beyond the LiA communities.

Meanwhile, all these years down the line, I've actually now got a real widow making peanut butter connected with a food aid program for children in northern Uganda. :)

this long story leads to another interesting point about Ashoka - they don't select projects but people. On average, the people they select start making a visible national level impact 5-7 years after being awarded the fellowship, and not necessarily with the work that led Ashoka to them.

First of all let me just say HOLY CRAP THERE IS AN ASHOKA FELLOW POSTING IN THE THREAD. Awesome.

ahem

I think that it's an incredible organization, especially from a business standpoint. These guys aren't in the business of making money- it's all for the people and the embetterment of society as a whole. Not many organizations can boast something like that, especially ones that have lasted as long as Ashoka.

Another interesting trait is that they are not well known. I'd never heard of the organization until I took this course. One wonders what kind of support they would get if the media gave them the kind of attention they deserve.

Jared Rosen said:

First of all let me just say HOLY CRAP THERE IS AN ASHOKA FELLOW POSTING IN THE THREAD. Awesome.

ahem

Invite some of the other ONet members who are Ashoka fellows to join the discussion. Ask the author of the book who is an ONet member to join the discussion.

ASHOKA is such a simple idea but by God is so revolutionary. Its basically a think tank of people who have solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. I just don't understand why this hasn't gotten that much press, if there were more of a public "push" the number of social entrepreneurs could double if not triple.

It was suprising to me the way that fellows were chosen by the organization to be sponsored. I didnt realize in the beginning of the reading that there would be so many applicants and that the selection process is so specific and fine tuned. The fact that there has to be an unanimous decision is suprising to me but a great way to weed out the truly dedicated people who are willing to put their whole lives into changing and helping a social issue in the world. One of the interesting parts of the reading for me was the personalities of the people who were chosen to be sponsored by Ashoka and this relates to some of the criteria of being chosen. The people were someone that the people of Ashoka could trust, someone who was willing to give credit to everyone who worked on the project. All in all the people who were chosen seemed to be downright good people. They were giving, honest and kind. They were trustworthy and they cared about people all around the world. After reading the chapters about Ashoka not only do i have a lot of respect for the organization itself but also the good people they choose to sponsor who are willing to give so much time and efforts to help people who are suffering around the world.

I think that organizations such as Ashoka are amazing and needed more around the world. I am amazed by the trust that leaders of Ashoka are willing to put on new entrepreneurs, even though becoming one of the fellows for Ashoka seems like a very rigorous process I think that if someone has a good idea and good method of developing it, he/she can easily get funding from this org. After reading about the many projects that people have or are currently developing thanks through funding from Ashoka, I feel encouraged to pursue the idea that my project is developing.

The quality that stuck out to me most about the Ashoka fellows was to allow others to get the credit for your work. It is something that I think bugs a lot of people when someone gets credit for their work, so to make sure someone has the characteristic to allow this happen is amazing. It shoud not be about who is doing something, but that something is getting done.

Jared Rosen said:

First of all let me just say HOLY CRAP THERE IS AN ASHOKA FELLOW POSTING IN THE THREAD. Awesome.

Let me add that Christina has posted in some of our other threads as well. Among other things Christina encouraged me to encourage you to explore Omidyar.net more fully. What are the other people here doing? Hmm.. in fact I'll go make up an assignment about that now. =)

I believe the class will find that some amazing people have been giving them comments throughout the quarter. For example Linda Nowakowski has posted quite a bit and among other things has been involved in projects providing treatment for illness caused by unclean water. I suspect she knows a few things about water filtration, and proposal groups trying to learn about water treatment might try dropping her a note.

Linda "Blessed by Gulu!" Nowakowski said:

Invite some of the other ONet members who are Ashoka fellows to join the discussion. Ask the author of the book who is an ONet member to join the discussion.

Your professor hasn't got a clue who these other Ashoka memebers are (other than Christina who posted in this thread and who I had already "met".) Students in my class shouldn't be waiting around for me to find them and invite them. If you want to hear what they have to say, figure out who they are and invite them. There are 90 of you in the class, and one of me. You'll probably be faster to figure it out. =)

I found an article recently about Ashoka that is very relevant to this class. Ashoka and Staples, Inc. announced the winner of a social entrepreneur contest targeted at young people making a positive change in the world. The prize is a 500,000 dollar grant.

To see the article: http://www.csrwire.com/News/8355 .html

I really liked one quality that Bornstein mentioned. He said that one thing social entrepreneurs possess is the ability to work quietly and not concern themselves about being in the limelight. I think this quality is essential to what the Ashoka organization considers a Ashoka because it exemplifies the humility involved in this business of making money to not profit but solve social problems. Although it seems like something that should be obvious, one could assume that some will want to do this (like some philanthropists) to get their name out and make a public image of a good person. But Bornstein clearly states that real social entrepreneurs are not out for this which further confirms that this is a true business and that these people are really out to help and change the world. :)

Jonathan Finger said:

What are some factors that all the Ashoka fellows have in common in these chapters?

The thing I found most interesting was what answers they wanted to hear from people during the interview. When asked a question, if they gave a broad theoretical answer it was look at as a bad sign. If they gave a small practical answer it was seen as a good sign. This way of thinking that stresses actual tangible progress is essential for social entrepreneurship.

The six qualities of successful entrepreneurs, the first quality the “willingness to self-correct” was the one that jumped out at me the most. Some of the others I had thought about after reading the title but before the chapter. The discussion at about how it is very hard to admit that you were wrong or have failed is incredibly difficult and hardly ever is one successful on their first attempts. When entrepreneurs willingly do this over and over one can see the true dedication to the project trying to be accomplished.

Bornstein writes of six qualities of successful entrepreneurs. Which one of these speaks to you the most, and why? Are they too restrictive or not enough

The one that catches my attention the most is the willingness to share credit. It sounds so trivial and something that every one should have learned in elementary school but it's such an important part of cooperation. Even well meaning social entrepreneurs have a self centered side that wants all the credit for their enterprise. There's nothing wrong with that, its just human nature but for those that can swallow their pride and rise above the need to be touted in society, so that everyone knows just how awesome they are, these are the ones that will make a true difference.

what all the people written about in these chapers had in common was an undying sense of social servitude. These people not only saw a problem with the way the world is, but acted upon it, which in this day and age, is rare. Their passions are what drove them to a life of near poverty, and empathy for their fellow beings. I really appreciated the sustainability factor that Ashoka emphasized. Ashoka is run much how the speaker from benetech said that they were run. Ashoka is a socially benefiting organization, but is run like a business. It is still not for profit, but, is able to hold it's own in a business oriented world. This is what made it relate to the class: not only is ashoka, and places like benetech, helping people, but they are not a drain on any other economic entity. It's not charity, is a business. The one quality that I feel is the best thought out one is the ability to change ones idea. To be able to adapt a plan into what it needs to be while it is in progress is essential to its success. There will always be unforseen factors that need to be accounted for, and if the plan isn't changed, then the plan is bacially dead.