Social Entrepreneurship is now at the cutting edge of social change and has the attention of leaders the world over. While this is a new field to most people, Ashoka Innovators for the Public created the field of social entrepreneurship 25 years ago and has stayed on the cutting edge, spotting new global trends and defining the growing field.

Since 1981, Ashoka India has grown into a rich fellowship of 300 Fellows who are working in diverse fields across 24 states around the country, out of which almost 50% are involved in various initiatives of Ashoka, as facilitators, co-developers and leaders. Global Ashoka’s rapid growth has been made possible by our strength in developing relationships with Leading Business Entrepreneurs (LBE) ready to invest in new programs. In India we are working towards models that are long-term, will boost the India/Asia Fellowship and would serve as a model for similar partnerships for other Leading Business Entrepreneurs (LBE). One can join Ashoka's Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur Program in India by engaging with Ashoka in a customized way such as the Ashoka-Deshpande Sandbox Project, as a group such as the YPO, or as an individual.

The Ashoka-Deshpande Foundation Partnership: Ashoka has crafted and has just launched a new partnership with Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, an extremely successful Indian-born hi-tech entrepreneur based in Massachusetts. With the recently established Deshpande Foundation, that aims to bring social change to the Hubli-Dharwad area in North Karnataka where Desh grew up, Ashoka is creating what "Desh" Deshpande calls a ‘sandbox’ in North Karnataka : an arena where Ashoka Fellows (and later other local social entrepreneurs) will be able to try out their ideas, collaborate with each other (plus local government bodies, academia and business) and benefit from synergistic support by Ashoka and Deshpande.

The Ashoka- AIF Partnership: In July 2002, the American India Foundation (AIF) and Ashoka started a strategic partnership to extend the mission of supporting social entrepreneurs across India. The goal of the partnership is to increase the number of India-based Fellows as well as build upon both the organisations' experiences of working in India. Over five years, Ashoka and AIF have jointly elected nearly 100 Ashoka-AIF Fellows who are working in a variety of fields including the three pillars of AIF's work : education, sustainable livelihoods and public health. AIF’s support of Ashoka’s recognition and celebration of social entrepreneurs goes beyond this strategic partnership, AIF also invests directly in several Fellows programs.

Ashoka-YPO Partnership : Ashoka is working to connect Ashoka Fellows worldwide with the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a worldwide network of leading CEOs under the age of 45 and an incredible source of potential funding, mentoring, contacts, and information. In India, we are working on creating an opportunity for YPO members to interact with Ashoka Fellows in a structured program which will also include site-visits early next year and create a space where business leaders from India will also have a chance to share their experience of working with the citizen sector with members of YPO.