The Ashoka
Visionary Program —

Join a new generation
of leaders.

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Are you an executive, a current or future entrepreneur, a changemaker from any sector? Are you striving for a new career, business or social impact pathway in society? Ashoka’s part-time executive leadership program offers a place for you to thrive and become a leader of change.

  • Imagine acquiring all the tools for systems-changing social entrepreneurship including systems change, social business modelling and storytelling in one comprehensive learning journey.

  • Imagine connecting to a community of peers, meeting Ashoka Fellows, and learning how groundbreaking social entrepreneurs are creating a better world.

  • Imagine putting your learnings into practice, combining entrepreneurial success with social impact to solve societal problems in ways you hadn’t thought of before.

Learn more about the program.

Through the Ashoka Visionary Program, we are giving our participants from all sectors exclusive access to Ashoka’s 40 years of know-how founded on our global experience, tool kits and networks of social entrepreneurs, changemakers and partners.

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But wait, who is Ashoka?

Ashoka is the global organisation that has developed the field of “social entrepreneurship” since 1980 and the first and largest community of system-changing social entrepreneurs (aka Ashoka Fellows).

We find and support entrepreneurial talents and system-changing ideas that solve social problems, and then scale their impact. Over 40+ years, we have worked with leading social entrepreneurs, corporations, the finance industry, and public institutions to address the world’s toughest problems in unprecedented ways. We cover topics ranging from civic engagement and full economic citizenship to youth, environment, health and human rights. And we’re on an ambitious mission: to change whole mindsets and systems towards an “Everyone a Changemaker”-world.

Now, we share the best of our experience in the Ashoka Visionary Program.

What our alumni say 

About the program for changemaker skills, entrepreneurial success & social impact

We have 300 alumni in 30+ countries from the private and public sectors, foundations, NGOs as well as social entrepreneurs. We have a special word for them: visionaries.

Discover their success stories

A hands-on co-creation lab empowering a new generation of leaders since 2015

Since 2015, the Ashoka Visionary Program has been a laboratory of changemaking, in which a new culture of cooperation emerges and new ideas are developed. But this description doesn’t do it justice, so read on to find out more.

A man with grey hair and a younger woman with brown hair standing and talking at an evening event of the program in Central and Eastern Europe. We bring leaders of change together and spark conversations.

5 Reasons to join the pioneering leadership program

1

Bring your changemaking and responsible leadership skills to the next level. Dive into social entrepreneurship on a global scale and learn everything you need to know about the topic to implement your ideas. Expect hands-on, interactive learnings on everything from social innovation to the art of storytelling from the whole spectrum of Ashoka’s expertise.

2

Reflect on your changemaker journey and strengthen your commitment to impact and system change. Get the motivation and purpose you need to act.

3

Or even start (co-)creating your own innovative social entre- or intrapreneurial initiative? Implement your learnings into practice right away by supporting a social entrepreneur or developing your own social enterprise.

4

Learn from expert speakers and other participants from all over the world and receive the key essence of the experiences of the top-notch practitioners who have led their own way. Exchange experiences with like-minded changemakers from diverse sectors and coming up with new ideas together.

5

Become part of the Ashoka Alumni Network, a supportive community of peers within the social entrepreneurship scene with new friendships and opportunities for partnerships.

Hard Facts

  • Part-time program, 9 months (October-June for the CEE region), 7 practice-based modules, program held in three regions: Central-Eastern Europe (CEE), Mediterranean, East Africa
  • 15 days of in-class sessions (Friday-Saturday)
  • Support a social entrepreneur or develop your own social enterprise
  • Group work, case studies, peer reviews, coaching, mentoring etc.
  • 30 multidisciplinary participants in your cohort, per region and year
  • Executives and leaders of change from the corporate world, the public sector, and civil society as well as foundations = pioneers striving for new careers, business and social impact pathways in society
  • Pioneering practitioners as speakers: Ashoka Fellows, other Social Entrepreneurs and experts from the private, public, and non-for-profit sector; last but not least, unconventional thinkers from academia
  • Fulfil three minimum requirements: the desire to become a thought leader and changemaker, minimum 5 years of work experience, English skills.
  • More info about our ideal candidate at About the program.
  • Don’t be shy – go for it! Your future self will thank you. Apply from any country globally. And clarify any questions in our FAQ section (yes, you can join the program if you have a disability, and working full-time isn’t even worth mentioning!).

With ground-breaking social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows) and key experts from business, non-profit, research and the public sector as speakers. Learn more about our value proposition, content and international speakers on the About the Program page.

Group Picture of the program in Central and Eastern Europe in 2021, standing in a long-stretched courtyard with light houses and trees. Arms raised.

How we learned to change the world
so that we can share it with you now

All across the globe, humans are pioneering and implementing real-life solutions — answers to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. These individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset tackle social problems at the root cause with their innovative and practical solutions. We call them social entrepreneurs. In the last 40 years, we’ve selected and supported close to 4000 of the world’s ground-breaking innovators and leading social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows) from more than 90 countries.

Our network of social entrepreneurs provides us with knowledge ahead of the curve: systemic, practical and full of „how to’s“ on how to create systemic impact to meet the needs of communities across the globe. And our work doesn’t stop here. We see patterns and frontiers of innovation that show a way to a better future. We weave a community of innovators committed to building this “Everyone a Changemaker”-world in which everyone is powerful, in which everyone is a giver. We share our findings and insights with the world.

More about Ashoka
Black-and-white image representing the diversity of the Ashoka Fellows and changemakers through a collage of portraits.
Grou picture of the opening of the Ashoka Visionary Program in CEE, in autumn 2021. Participants are standing up, in movements, raising their hands inside the WU University in Vienna.

30 leaders of change transforming together

Learn more about the Visionary Program! Find out what impact the program has had till now and which other details you need to know before applying:

Let’s learn more
About the program 🚀