Ashoka relies on its community—partners, peers, colleagues, and supporters—to surface the world’s most promising social entrepreneurs. If you know a changemaker whose work is shifting systems and expanding opportunity, we welcome your recommendation for the Ashoka Fellowship.
Please read the selection criteria carefully before nominating to ensure the candidate aligns with Ashoka’s definition of a leading social entrepreneur.
Why recommend someone to Ashoka Fellowship?
Ashoka cannot identify every exceptional social entrepreneur on its own. Nominators play a vital role by providing continuous leads to promising candidates and by offering on-the-ground perspective about emerging innovation. Your nomination helps Ashoka find people who are not only solving immediate problems, but who are changing the structures that cause those problems.
Ashoka’s commitment to equity and inclusion
Ashoka envisions a world free of systemic oppression—where everyone has access to resources, safety, power, and self-expression. To realize that vision, Ashoka is committed to identifying and reducing structural, institutional, and historical barriers that have marginalized people and communities, including women, Black people, Indigenous peoples and People of Color, religious minorities, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, working-class people, and those living in poverty.
Ashoka welcomes nominations that increase diversity among Fellows and that highlight changemakers working with and for underrepresented communities. If you represent or work closely with such communities, your nominations are especially valuable.
How to recommend a candidate
When you click the recommendation button, you will be asked to provide information about the candidate and their work. Useful information to include:
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Candidate’s full name, organisation, and location
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Brief biography and relevant background (3–5 lines)
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Description of the candidate’s idea/initiative (what is new or different?)
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Evidence of impact to date (reach, adoption, measurable outcomes)
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Examples of leadership and entrepreneurial commitment (time invested, sacrifices made, track record)
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Why you think the idea can change the field or scale nationally/regionally
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Any relevant publications, reports, websites, or media coverage
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Your contact details and relationship to the candidate
The more concrete examples and evidence you provide, the easier it is for assessors to evaluate fit against Ashoka’s selection criteria.
Ashoka’s Five Selection Criteria
All candidate nominations are reviewed against five core criteria. Make sure your nominee demonstrates strengths across these areas.
1. New Idea
The nominee should be driven by a genuinely new idea—an approach or solution that changes the pattern in a field. Ashoka evaluates whether the idea is innovative relative to historical and current practice, and whether it has the potential to alter systems.
2. Creativity
Top social entrepreneurs are creative visionaries and practical problem solvers. Look for indicators of lifelong creativity—novel thinking, unique problem-solving, and a track record of generating new visions or approaches.
3. Entrepreneurial Quality
Entrepreneurial quality is the defining trait of an Ashoka Fellow. Candidates should demonstrate single-minded commitment to their idea, a willingness to devote the next decade (or more) to realizing it, and the capacity to build institutions or movements that sustain change.
4. Social Impact of the Idea
Ashoka is interested in ideas that will change fields at scale. A project that merely launches one more service (e.g., a single clinic or school) must be connected to a broader strategy for systemic change—policy reform, replication models, structural redesign—to qualify.
5. Ethical Fiber
Change agents must be trusted by the people and institutions they ask to change. Ethical fiber covers integrity, credibility, and the interpersonal trust necessary to mobilize communities and partners. If a candidate cannot be trusted absolutely, they are unlikely to pass selection.
Practical tips for strong nominations
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Provide concrete evidence (metrics, testimonials, pilot outcomes) rather than only aspirational language.
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Demonstrate scale potential—explain how the idea could be adopted widely or influence systems.
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Highlight community-centered design and engagement with those affected by the problem.
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Note collaborations, partnerships, and any demonstrated ability to mobilize resources.
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If the candidate is from an underrepresented group or works with marginalized communities, make that explicit.
Use the button HERE to submit a recommendation.
What happens after you nominate?
Nominations are reviewed by Ashoka’s scouting and selection teams. Strong candidates may be contacted for additional information, interviews, or field visits. Ashoka’s selection process is rigorous and confidential; not every nominee will be elected, but submissions are invaluable for building the pool of possible Fellows.
By recommending a candidate, you help surface changemakers whose ideas can reshape social systems and expand opportunity. Ashoka appreciates your time and insight—your nomination could be the first step toward a major social innovation movement.
Ashoka welcomes recommendations of outstanding social entrepreneurs year-round. There is no fixed deadline to nominate a candidate for the Ashoka Fellowship, and submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.
To know more about such opportunities, click here.
