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Virginia · Nonprofit

ASHOKA

ASHOKA (Virginia) receives grants from 163 organizations whose IRS filings report $56,222,721 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($10,847,550). 106 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$42M
Funders on record
163
Grants received
$56M
Net assets
$75M
106/163 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 38%
01What it does

What Ashoka does

Mission

The creation of an association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs - men and women with system-changing solutions for the world's most urgent social problems - and fostering a global culture of everyone being a changemaker for the good of all.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. One search: finding, selecting and supporting the world's leading changemakers. Onesearch is Ashoka's unified methodology for identifying and activating exceptional changemakers across all engagement pathways - fellows, staff, entrepreneurs-to-entrepreneurs (e2s), next generation leaders, and partners.

    $6,945,473 spentof which $2,398,880 as grants$260,600 earned by the program
    20% of program spending
  2. One community: bringing the full Ashoka community together to support each other and collectively solve problems. Ashoka has built a global community of around 4,000 fellows, Ashoka young changemakers, staff, and partners united by the everyone a changemaker (each) mission.

    $9,561,783 spentof which $690,628 as grants$1,387,638 earned by the program
    28% of program spending
  3. Each/new purposes: building movements of changemakers to advance society where the world most needs to change. Ashoka deploys its global network to catalyze paradigm shifts in five arenas: civic participation, economic development, environment, growing up, and gender/women. Rather than running direct services, Ashoka elects breakthrough social entrepreneurs and leverages institutional partners - governments, universities, unions, media - to scale proven models until change becomes self-sustaining.

    $11,688,719 spentof which $1,280,336 as grants$438,570 earned by the program
    34% of program spending
  4. Core stakeholders: selecting and engaging key partners who will work with Ashoka to create societal change.Ashoka identifies and activates a collaborative ecosystem - including next generation leaders, jujitsu partners, e2 business entrepreneurs, senior fellows, media and publishing partners, government officials, and cross-sector influencers - who have the credibility, networks, and values alignment to co-lead the everyone a changemaker (each) movement in their sectors and communities.form 990, part v, line 2a:the number shown in part v, line 2a, represents number reported on 2024 form w-3. There are 343 employees, across the filing organization's foreign subsidiaries and global offices.

    $6,137,364 spentof which $113,789 as grants$230,279 earned by the program
    18% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $34,333,339.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($18M) Expenses 100 ($21M) Net assets 100 ($33M)2018 Revenue 223 ($41M) Expenses 180 ($37M) Net assets 152 ($50M)2019 Revenue 322 ($59M) Expenses 197 ($40M) Net assets 204 ($67M)2020 Revenue 231 ($43M) Expenses 180 ($37M) Net assets 229 ($76M)2021 Revenue 288 ($53M) Expenses 199 ($41M) Net assets 290 ($96M)2022 Revenue 249 ($46M) Expenses 197 ($40M) Net assets 288 ($95M)2023 Revenue 140 ($26M) Expenses 224 ($46M) Net assets 234 ($77M)2024 Revenue 229 ($42M) Expenses 238 ($49M) Net assets 228 ($75M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (229)Expenses (238)Net assets (228)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $82M to $104M (+27%).

$38M
$59M
$76M
$82M
$104M
$102M
$89M
$97M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2022 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

94% of ASHOKA’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 391 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$2.1M
’17
$4.0M
’18
$19M
’19
$5.6M
’20
$12M
’21
$5.6M
’22
−$20M
’23
−$6.8M
’24
3.8
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

Chief executive

William Drayton

CEO

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed1717181616171616
Joined·+5+4+4+0+5+1+4
No longer listed·5360424
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 44 funders to 63 funders, grant income rose $2.5M → $7.8M.

37 of 163 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of ASHOKA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 163 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

ASHOKA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left

44% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ASHOKA.

19%
largest funder
40%
top three
~13
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 21% · 2019 28% · 2020 24% · 2021 17% · 2022 57% · 2023 39% — growing more concentrated.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

47% of ASHOKA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

ASHOKA draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 27 states in all.

VT
WA
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
IA
OH
PA
NJ
CA
CO
MO
KY
VA
MD
DE
AZ
TN
NC
DC
LA
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Virginia out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $20M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

ASHOKA is better cushioned than half of the 363 international nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−16% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve3.8mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)13% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 363 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024

Government funding ASHOKA receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $189 on record.

State$189
Top programs
  • REFUNDS - GENERAL $189

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like ASHOKA

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Virginia

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

83% of spending goes to programs.

Program 83%Management 12%Fundraising 5%

Governance

5
board members
80%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

81%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 27 states

NH
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
PA
NJ
RI
CA
UT
KY
WV
VA
MD
NM
KS
AR
TN
SC
HI
MS
AL
GA
FL

Part of a family of 32 related entities

  • Ashoka LLC · disregarded
  • Ashoka Empredendores Sociales Asoci · disregarded
  • Ashoka Gemeinnutzige Gmbh · disregarded
  • Ashoka Brasil · disregarded
  • Fundacion de Liderazgo Social Ashoka · disregarded

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ASHOKA: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds ASHOKA?
ASHOKA (Virginia) receives grants from 163 organizations whose IRS filings report $56,222,721 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($10,847,550). 106 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does ASHOKA have?
IRS filings report 163 organizations giving $56,222,721 in grants to ASHOKA, 106 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ASHOKA?
NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $10,847,550 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ASHOKA find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 163 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing