THEINNOVATIONFUND

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.

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

“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

FELLOW TESTIMONIALS

THE INNOVATORS

DAVID WISHDavid’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

KIRSTEN TOBEY & KRISTIN RICHMONDKirsten & 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

PAUL BRADLEYPaul 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

PHILIPP SCHMIDTPhilipp 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 collaborate throughout the course development process, beginning with design, and extending through co-teaching and peer evaluation.

In two years time, Peer 2 Peer University has grown to a community of 1,000+ and is on the path for major scale.

https://p2pu.org/en

JASON MCLENNANThrough 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

SASHA CHANOFFSasha 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

FLETCHER HARPERFletcher 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

CONTACT INFORMATIONPaula Recartprecart@ashoka.orgKila Englebrook kenglebrook@ashoka.org717-443-1595

https://www.ashoka.org/donate/usa