The international organization
Ashoka has been effecting social change for more than 30 years in over 70 countries. So why did Ashoka's national organization look to the Twin Cities to pilot a new kind of local chapter?
"The Twin Cities is great at sort of homegrown solutions," says Jennifer Aspengren, director of the Ashoka Twin Cities. The chapter was launched in January 2010 with a $99,000 startup grant from The John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, a national partner that is "particularly interested in St. Paul," says Aspengren.
Other factors were Ashoka's Minnesota Changemakers and YouthVenture programs, and that its four active
Twin Cities fellows comprise the largest concentration of Ashoka fellows outside of the coasts.
Ashoka fellows are "very, very rare individuals who are making very high-impact systems changes," says Aspengren. They receive $30,000–$50,000 annual stipends, as well as the support of Ashoka's global network of fellow social entrepreneurs and businesses.
Ashoka Fellows Conchy Bretos & Felipe Vergara, both from Miami, will speak at a free
Ashoka Solutions Forum on Feb. 8 at the Walker Art Center. The 7 p.m. forum, sponsored by InCommons, Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, and the Knight Foundation, will focus on three major challenges to growing and expanding a social change initiative: capital, talent, and marketing.
An afternoon session (invite-only) will convene representatives from local businesses including General Mills, Wells Fargo, 3M, and Best Buy.
Private-sector entrepreneurs are an important part of the Ashoka network, says Aspengren, in terms of funding, expertise, and strategic support. "It's the same thing they've been doing in the private sector," she says, "but just trying to push a different question in the public sector."
While Ashoka has local presences in other cities, the Twin Cities chapter is the first to "plant a staff person on the ground," says Aspengren. Its goal is "mapping out how to start building new chapters and integrate Ashoka programs in a new city," she says.
Source: Jennifer Aspengren,
Ashoka Twin CitiesWriter: Jeremy Strattton