The document promotes Ashoka's innovation fund, highlighting its investment in over 3,000 social entrepreneurs worldwide who tackle significant social challenges. It outlines the impact of selected Ashoka fellows, providing examples of their transformative work in areas such as education, nutrition, and refugee assistance. Contributions to the fund support these initiatives which aim to catalyze social change and empower communities across various sectors.

1. THE
INNOVATION
FUND
THOSE OF US WHO INVEST IN ASHOKA – WITH
OUR TIME, OUR MONEY, OUR IDEAS – DO
SO BECAUSE WE SEE IN ASHOKA A UNIQUE
OPPORTUNITY TO CATALYZE BIG CHANGE.

2. Over the last 30 years, Ashoka has built the world’s largest association of leading
social entrepreneurs – over 3,000 men and women in 70 countries. These Ashoka
Fellows are practical visionaries who introduce and fully commit themselves to
realizing an important new idea to solve pressing social problems. With creativity
and entrepreneurial skill, they push ahead their idea until it changes a pattern
and transforms their field, in the process opening new opportunities for citizens
to be changemakers.
Today, we offer you the opportunity to catalyze the work of leading social
entrepreneurs in the United States through a fund of seven fully vetted Ashoka
Fellows.
With a tax-deductible financial contribution, you can partner with Ashoka to shape
the future of the country by investing in game-changing social innovations across
many fields, from health to education to the environment. 100% of your money
will go directly to these Ashoka Fellows.
· Fund Total:
$600,000
· Closing date:
August 31st, 2012

3. FELLOW TESTIMONIALS
“If one organization has had a profound impact in Lumni’s
evolution, that organization is Ashoka.”
Felipe Vergara, Lumni Founder and CEO, Ashoka Fellow since 2006
“Trust me, Ashoka is indispensable for social entrepreneurship to survive, grow and thrive.”
Gregory Van Kirk, Founder of The New Development Solutions Group, Ashoka Fellow since 2008
“I have been constantly blown away by the generosity and vision of
Ashoka. They have been unselfish in sharing donors. They have been
unmatched as a thought partner, helping me and my organization to
see connections in our work that transcend geographic boundaries
and the usual discipline silos. And they have been unparalleled as a
connector. My own experience as an Ashoka Fellow has been nothing
short of transformational.”
Jill Vialet, Founder of Playworks, Ashoka Fellow since 2004

4. THE INNOVATORS

5. DAVID WISH
David’s organization, Little Kid’s Rock, uses music education to offer children
and teachers heightened opportunities to engage with each other as fearless co-
creators and active, inspired learning partners. David is introducing an approach
to learning music that builds twenty-first century skills, helping children see that
they can generate content, fail without fear, iteratively advance toward a goal, and
work in teams.
Begun in 2001 in New Jersey, the effort now reaches over 160,000 students and 700
teachers in 24 cities across the United States.
http://usa.ashoka.org/fellow/david-wish

6. KIRSTEN TOBEY & KRISTIN RICHMOND
Kirsten & Kristin, both former educators, understand that the food served in schools significantly impacts students’ performance and
lays the foundation for behavioral patterns around eating that extend both to the home and into adulthood. As such, Kirsten & Kristin
are transforming nutrition in low-income communities by providing healthy, fresh school lunches and changing attitudes of principals,
teachers, and parents about what’s expected and possible with regard to nutrition standards in schools.
Today their organization, Revolution Foods, reaches 70,000 students and Kirsten & Kristin expect to double their reach and impact in
the next 2 years.
http://usa.ashoka.org/fellow/kristin-richmond
http://usa.ashoka.org/fellow/kirsten-tobey

7. PAUL BRADLEY
Paul is creating a scalable approach that enables the country’s 2.7 million
homeowners in manufactured home communities, also known as “mobile home
parks”, to achieve economic security, fuller protections against excessive rents,
reduced threat to health, safety and eviction, and full economic citizenship by
cooperatively buying and managing the land on which their homes sit.
His organization, Resident Owned Communities (or ROC USA), arranges the
financing and other supports to allow residents to jointly own the land under their
homes, build assets over time, and democratically manage their community. In
just four years, ROC USA has helped co-ops purchase communities in 12 states,
preserve over 2,100 affordable homes, and leverage over $71 million in commercial
financing.
http://usa.ashoka.org/fellow/paul-bradley

8. PHILIPP SCHMIDT
Philipp has set out to change not what we learn, but how we learn. Through his
organization, Peer 2 Peer University, peer learners from around the world connect
around topics they care about and skills they wish to master, harnessing the vast
wealth of high-quality, openly licensed education materials currently available over
the internet. Students act as both teacher and learner, and are thus able to col-
laborate throughout the course development process, beginning with design, and
extending through co-teaching and peer evaluation.
P2PU currently serves more than 30,000 members, and is poised to connect the
millions of potential learners around the world looking for a better and more cost-
effective means of education.
https://p2pu.org/en

9. JASON MCLENNAN
Through the International Living Buildings Institute, Jason is challenging the
building industry to go much further than conventional green standards – so
much so that buildings operate more like plants and trees, adapted for their
unique environments. The result of Jason’s approach is that builders and designers
conceptualize buildings and neighborhoods as a whole ecosystem and build them
in ways that both improve health and well-being and preserve our diverse natural
world.
Jason also launched the Living Building Challenge – the world’s most stringent,
progressive green building certification – to demonstrate his model and enable
building industry stakeholders to re-imagine their roles using a range of incentives.
Currently, there are four Certified Living buildings and 100 projects that have
registered to become certified. By 2017, Jason’s goal is to have 50 certified buildings
with 500 projects registered and – importantly – shared.
http://usa.ashoka.org/fellow/jason-mclennan

10. SASHA CHANOFF
There are over 15 million refugees in the world today, and many estimate that
hundreds of millions of people will be displaced this century. Sasha and RefugePoint
work to find lasting solutions for the most vulnerable refugees. He is pioneering a
new role for effective citizen organizations in the refugee resettlement process. His
organization, RefugePoint, works to transform and improve the sphere of refugee
resettlement through a variety of interlinking strategies centered around creating
the infrastructure and know-how for an appropriately trained citizen sector to work
with the United Nations Refugee Agency and governments in ways that improve
equity and access to life-saving solutions for the most vulnerable refugees.
While the citizen sector used to account for one percent of refugee resettlement
referrals from Africa before RefugePoint came along, thanks to Sasha’s pioneering
work, it now contributes to more than 25 percent of referrals today.
http://usa.ashoka.org/fellow/sasha-chanoff

11. FLETCHER HARPER
Fletcher and his team at GreenFaith, inspire, educate and mobilize people of
diverse religious backgrounds for environmental leadership. Working through
an interfaith approach, the work is based on beliefs shared by the world’s great
religions - they believe that protecting the earth is a religious value, and that
environmental stewardship is a moral responsibility.
Through his organization GreenFaith, Fletcher aims to realize wide impact over
the next decade, bringing a broad faith-based network into the environmental
action fold and position the religious sector as a key ally, distribution network
and partner for environmental improvement.
http://usa.ashoka.org/fellow/fletcher-harper

12. https://www.ashoka.org/donate/usa
CONTACT INFORMATION
Paula Recart
precart@ashoka.org
Kila Englebrook
kenglebrook@ashoka.org
717-443-1595