WHO’S WHO IN MICROFINANCE: Ashoka

In the third century B.C., a military leader known as Ashoka the Great traversed the Indian subcontinent with his armies, determined to unify the region. Subsequently horrified at the bloodshed that was involved, Ashoka renounced violence, embraced tolerance, and embarked on a campaign to spread development and social welfare throughout his empire. More than two millennia later, a U.S.-based non-profit organization emerged, bearing his name, to face the modern challenge of raising similar visionaries with sufficient means to achieve their visions.

Ashoka has since grown to become an association of 1,800 “social entrepreneurs” across 60 countries. Founded in 1980, it grants three-year stipends to individuals with ideas for innovative and sustainable ventures that have the potential to effect social change. These individuals become life-long Ashoka Fellows. Through the course of their projects, Fellows are periodically surveyed on the impact of their activities. They are also plugged into a global network of Fellows, collaborating with one other and contributing to an infrastructure of access to capital, academia, and business partnerships. In the end, Ashoka’s goal is the proliferation of a “citizen sector,” a segment of society that is distinct from the governmental and corporate sectors and is motivated to mount social challenges.

Ashoka’s funding comes from individuals, foundations, and business entrepreneurs worldwide; government financing is not accepted. In 2006 (Annual Report), the organization received USD 32 million in public support and revenue. Expenses totaled USD 26 million, of which USD 23.5 million was spent on program services.

Last March, MicroCapital.org reported that Deutsche Bank Americas partnered with Ashoka and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) in committing USD 20 million to the Eye Fund I, an instrument to invest in affordable eye care.

Ashoka CEO and founder Bill Drayton’s life (Ashoka Team) seems to be a reflection of his organization’s root principles. A civil rights activist in high school, Drayton started the Ashoka Table at Harvard University and a legislative student organization at Yale Law School. He also attended Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship. Drayton honed his business acumen as a management consultant with McKinsey and Company for ten years before moving on to the public sector. With the Environmental Protection Agency, Drayton helped develop budget, energy, and economic policy, including the introduction of emissions trading and corporate incentives for compliance. In addition to some White House service, he taught law and management at Stanford University and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Drayton has been named a MacArthur Fellow and in 2005 was named one of America’s 25 Best Leaders by U.S. News and World Report.

Dr. Diana Wells is the Co-President of Ashoka and has been with the organization since the 1980s. She created one of Ashoka’s core programs, Fellowship Support Services; led the selection process for Ashoka Fellows; expanded the organization’s geographic reach; and implemented the standard tool for measuring the effectiveness of Ashoka Fellow enterprises. Wells obtained her undergraduate degree from Brown University, where a year studying abroad in India showed her the extent to which local solutions could help solve global problems. She was named both a Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson scholar and earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University. Wells also serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and the Board of GuideStar International. She has taught at Georgetown University and participated in several journal and book publications.

Sushmita Ghosh, President Emeritus, leads Ashoka’s Global Academy for Science Entrepreneurs and Changemakers magazine. A graduate of the University of Delhi, she was a journalist for Surya magazine and freelanced for several other publications in India before becoming Ashoka’s India country representative. She is a board member of several non-profit organizations in India, including the Consumer Unity and Trust Society, the Energy Environment Group, and Gender Action and Advisory.

Scott Edward Anderson is Ashoka’s Vice President for Global Development. Previously he was with the Nature Conservancy, the world’s leading biodiversity conservation organization, where he led resource development for Global Priorities and a was major fundraiser, serving in the philanthropy cabinet. Anderson has been involved in entrepreneurial publishing with the arts and culture magazine Rockstop, the online literary journal Ducky Magazine, and a blog called the “Green Skeptic.” He also developed two social networking sites, gather.com and squidoo. Anderson was a John Sawhill Conservation Fellow, is currently a Senior Fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program, and is a member of the advisory board of Green Microfinance, LLC.

Valeria Budinich, an Ashoka Vice President leading the Full Economic Citizenship Intitiative, came to Ashoka from her role as VP for New Initiatives at BDA, a consulting firm specializing in business process redesign and technology innovations. From 1997 to 1998, Budinich served as founding VP for Latin America at Endeavor, a foundation focused on linking emerging-economy entrepreneurs to U.S. investors. From 1986 to 1996, she worked for Appriopritate Technology International (ATI), a global non-profit that provides technical and financial assistance to rural small and medium entrepreneurs, where she became Chief Operating Officer. Budinich has also served as an advisor to Women’s World Banking, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and UNIFEM.

Olivier Kayser is a Vice President of Ashoka based in London. Prior to joining the organization in 2003, he was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he served a wide variety of clients for 18 years. Kayser graduated from HEC, a French business school, before starting his own consulting firm at the age of 23.

Lisa Nitze is Vice President of the Global Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur Program at Ashoka. She previously was a consultant, focusing on developing public-private partnerships, and was Executive Director of the New Jersey Governor’s Commission on the Preservation and Use of Ellis Island. Nitze also created an economic development initiative called Prosperity New Jersey. With the World Trade Center Baltimore and World Trade Institute in Maryland, she attracted foreign investments in the state. Nitze is on the board of directors of the American University of Cairo. She holds an M.B.A. from Stanford and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

Beverly Schwartz, Vice President of Global Marketing, was previously with Fleishman Hillard, a global communications agency, where she helped build and maintain its social issues portfolio. Schwartz was Executive Director of the Minnesota Association for Non-Smoker’s Rights in the 1970s before moving onto the Center for Disease Control, where she helped design the first education and preventative campaign for HIV/AIDS and directed the Office on Smoking and Health’s public information function. She also developed an eye care project for the American Academy of Ophthamology and worked at the Academy for Educational Development. Schwartz is an Associate Editor of the Social Marketing Quarterly and a Steering Committee member of the Innovations in Social Marketing conference. She received her Masters of Science degree from the University of Minnesota and the City University of New York.

By Stephen Son

Additional Resources:

Ashoka.org: About Us; Ashoka Fellows; Citizen Sector; Annual Report 2006; Our Team

MicroCapital.org article, March 9, 2007: “Deutsche Bank Expands on its Microfinance Platform through the Creation of Eye Fund I”

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