Ashoka and Unltd UK a different breed of non-profits...

As per our last class I have been reflecting in the roles of organizations such as Ashoka and Unltd UK that focus on individuals rather than organizations for local development of impactful projects.

I feel that basically this specific type of NGOs really fill an existing gap in the non-profit sector by concentrating on developing and supporting social entrepreneurs at a local level in a project by project basis always bearing in mind the potential coming from spreading ideas/projects among vaster geographies/situations. Hence I believe that the added value comes from their ability to assess at a local level the potential impact in the community of a particular project whilst prioritizing funding of different projects that compete for funding at a national, regional and global level enabling at a later date the generalization at a larger scale of the major breakthroughs.

Ashoka and Unltd UK although sharing the same philosophy they differ slightly differ in their target audience/projects. In one hand Ashoka is a global organization with international funding that seeks projects at a large scale often exceeding several thousands of euros of funding during extensive periods (eventually for life) and on the other hand Unltd UK that focus on the UK community necessities funding social entrepreneurs in three different potential levels but often with a roof of a few thousand euros. If in the case of Ashoka its aid comes in after the inception of the project in the case of Unltd UK they provide aid right from the idea and provide even consulting services for their clients (the social entrepreneur). Nevertheless a common root connects both organizations: they both aim for local, impactful and sustainable change whilst enhancing knowledge development that can be further applied at a larger scale. They also try to create the necessary conditions for a flow of real-time interchange of ideas and know-how.

These three factors: (1) funding of selected individual's projects and ideas at a local level, (2) active management of knowledge ensuring both development of general frameworks and "formulas" as also enhancing interpersonal exchange and (3) effective life cycle support of implementation and measure of effectiveness certainly do create social value hence providing "la raison d'etre" of Ashoka and Unltd like NGOs.