Case Study: Hill & Knowlton and Ashoka Innovators for the Public

Hill & Knowlton provides communications and public relations services to build global awareness of Ashoka and to advance the organization’s efforts as a global leader in social entrepreneurship.

The Opportunity

Ashoka’s mission is to develop and advance social entrepreneurship around the world. It searches for social entrepreneurs with new and big ideas for changing their communities in the areas of education, health, environment, human rights, civic participation and economic development.
 To ensure that the leading ideas for social change are fully developed and sustained, Ashoka has designed an approach that offers critical interventions on three levels—the individual, the group, and the sector. 
First, the Ashoka Fellows Program identifies and supports individual social entrepreneurs—financially and professionally—throughout their life cycle. Second, Ashoka brings communities of social entrepreneurs together to help leverage their impact, scale their ideas, and capture and disseminate their best practices. Finally, Ashoka helps build the infrastructure and financial systems needed to support the growth of the citizen sector and facilitate the spread of social innovation globally. These three levels are mutually reinforcing; together they are bringing Ashoka’s vision of “Everyone a Changemaker” closer to reality.

Hill & Knowlton’s Pro Bono Investment

Hill & Knowlton has supported Ashoka since January 2002, when 15 Ashoka Fellows attending the World Economic Forum in New York received media and message training from Hill & Knowlton counselors. Since then, Hill & Knowlton offices around the world have provided ongoing strategic communications counsel and media relations support to Ashoka, the firm’s largest and long-standing pro bono client. To date, more than 100 employees in 25 Hill & Knowlton offices on five continents have contributed to this important effort.
 Based on their geographic proximity to Ashoka teams and Ashoka Fellows, Hill & Knowlton offices around the world have provided a broad range of ongoing support with an emphasis on strategic communications: message development and messaging sessions, speech and op-ed writing, media and presentation training, media tool kit preparation, event strategy, awards nominations, staff development, media outreach, global stakeholder engagement, partnership development, market positioning, and public affairs assistance.

The Impact

Hill & Knowlton’s support and counsel have effectively prepared and positioned Ashoka employees and Ashoka Fellows for success, giving them the tools, training and confidence necessary to create and convey powerful messages, earn more media coverage, reach critical audiences, tap into new potential funders, earn increased third party recognition, and establish thought leadership in an increasingly crowded marketplace of ideas.
 For more than 25 years, Ashoka has helped change the lives of millions all around the world through its Fellows, other programs, and staff. Today, Ashoka has invested in more than 2,000 Ashoka Fellows from 70 countries working in every area of human need – from health care and education, to civil justice and the environment. Fellows have had extraordinary impact in terms of systemic change—shifting societal perceptions, encouraging new behavior patterns, and revolutionizing entire fields.
 More information on the significant impact Ashoka Fellows have made around the world can be found here.

About Ashoka

Ashoka is a global nonprofit organization that searches the world for social entrepreneurs with innovative ideas for change in their communities. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia since 1980, Ashoka has invested in more than 2,000 Ashoka Fellows from 70 countries. Ashoka helps emerging social entrepreneurs by electing them to an international Fellowship of their peers, and by providing “social venture capital” and an array of demand-driven, non-financial services to address major societal challenges with systemic responses. Ashoka’s non-financial services aim to grow these entrepreneurs’ enterprise and to help them collaborate with like-minded peers around the world. Ashoka does not accept government funding; instead, its work is privately financed by individuals, volunteer chapters, foundations and business entrepreneurs.

About Hill and Knowlton

 Hill & Knowlton Inc. is a leading international public relations and public affairs firm, providing services to local, multinational and global clients. The firm is based in New York, with 73 offices in 41 countries, as well as an extensive associate network. The agency is part of WPP, one of the world’s largest communications services groups.The Project

Hill & Knowlton provides communications and public relations services to build global awareness of Ashoka and to advance the organization’s efforts as a global leader in social entrepreneurship.