Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka, is not only a social entrepreneur, but one of the people who popularized the term in the first place. Social entrepreneurs are the “innovators for the public” Ashoka seeks out and supports.
Devex sat down with Drayton at the Social Capital Markets conference in San Francisco to talk about the future of what he calls an “everyone a changemaker” world. He emphasized the need for replication rather than scale, calling this Silicon Valley buzz word not only overused but also misleading and unhelpful.
Drayton identified three levels of impact — direct service, pattern change and framework change — explaining that “scaling” is only appropriate for direct service. And he said that once a social entrepreneur does his or her prototype work, the focus has to transition to pattern change and mindset change.
About the author
Catherine Cheneycatherinecheney
Catherine Cheney is the Senior Editor for Special Coverage at Devex. She leads the editorial vision of Devex’s news events and editorial coverage of key moments on the global development calendar. Catherine joined Devex as a reporter, focusing on technology and innovation in making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining Devex, Catherine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, and worked as a web producer for POLITICO, a reporter for World Politics Review, and special projects editor at NationSwell. She has reported domestically and internationally for outlets including The Atlantic and the Washington Post. Catherine also works for the Solutions Journalism Network, a non profit organization that supports journalists and news organizations to report on responses to problems.
