Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA, USA, supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of elevating the citizen sector to a competitive level equal to the business sector. The organization currently operates in over 70 countries and supports the work of over 2,000 social entrepreneurs, elected as Ashoka Fellows. Ashoka also creates what it calls "mosaics" of best practices that map the commonalities and intersections of key principles that guide Fellows’ individual solutions. Ashoka’s initiatives include Changemakers, Youth Venture, and Full Economic Citizenship.
Read more about Ashoka: Innovators For The Public: History
Famous quotes containing the word public:
“The last public hanging in the State took place in 1835 on Prince Hill.... On the fatal day, the victim, a man named Watkins, peering through the iron bars of his cell, and seeing the townfolk scurrying to the place of execution, is said to have remarked, ‘Why is everyone running? Nothing can happen until I get there.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)