How do you change the world? According to Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs, it starts with people—social innovators capable of challenging the status quo and driving concrete, systemic transformation. These are individuals who don’t just respond to symptoms, but tackle the root causes of complex social issues, building solutions that can be scaled and replicated.
Ashoka’s new report, released on the occasion of its 10th anniversary in Italy, offers an updated picture of who today’s changemakers are—at least in the Italian context. Presented during the Changemaker Days 2025 in Milan, the report shows a reality that’s often overlooked by mainstream narratives:
- the average age of Italian social innovators is 37
- 64% are women
- 78% live and work in small towns or rural areas, far from the large urban centers
This confirms a powerful insight: real change often begins at the margins, within communities closest to the problems they seek to solve.
What Is social innovation, really?
For Ashoka, social innovation is not just a good idea or a charitable project. It’s about creating deep, structural change—what the organization calls systems change. This means not only solving a local issue, but influencing public policy, shifting mindsets, opening up new markets, and redesigning how systems work.
Globally, Ashoka has supported over 4,000 Fellows in 98 countries. On average, each Fellow is estimated to positively impact the lives of 600,000 people.
In Italy, social entrepreneurship is also gaining recognition as a distinct and growing sector. As of 2024, there are over 14,700 registered social enterprises, generating more than €18.5 billion in annual production value. These organizations work in areas like education, healthcare, climate, youth inclusion, and urban regeneration—always with an eye toward long-term impact.
The Italian changemaker profile
The mapping, conducted by Ashoka Italy in collaboration with the University of Turin and the organization Forwardto, offers valuable insights:
- 93% of respondents hold a university degree or higher
- Most work in health, climate, human rights, education, civic participation
- Main obstacles: funding, bureaucracy, cultural resistance
- Main needs: collaborative networks and flexible financing models
Ashoka addresses these challenges by offering a powerful support package to its Fellows:
- A monthly stipend for three years (approx. €20,000/year in Italy)
- Global visibility and mentorship
- Access to partnerships, training, and a thriving community of peers
3 new Italian Ashoka Fellows for 2025
During the Changemaker Days in Milan, Ashoka Italy introduced its newest additions to the Fellowship: Martino Corazza, Aurora Caporossi, and Hannes Goetsch. Each of them embodies a unique and scalable approach to social change.
🔸 Martino Corazza – Inclusion Through Mixed Ability Sports
A former teacher from Turin and lifelong rugby fan, Martino Corazza co-founded IMAS (International Mixed Ability Sports), a non-profit that enables people with and without disabilities to train and compete together in mainstream teams. The approach is now active in 30 countries, with over 275,000 participants.
“If a Mixed Ability team exists, then we are all equal. All athletes. All celebrated for our diversity,” says Corazza.
With Ashoka’s support, IMAS aims to expand into schools, community centers, and public policy, reframing sport as a vehicle for inclusion—not segregation.
🔸 Aurora Caporossi – Mental Health Advocacy with a Human Voice
After battling anorexia for 10 years, Aurora Caporossi founded Animenta, a nonprofit offering peer support, clinical care, and awareness campaigns for eating disorders. Since 2021, Animenta has reached over 40,000 students, trained hundreds of volunteers (mostly recovered patients), and launched “Come stai”, a startup making integrated therapy more accessible across Italy.
“I created the space I wish had existed when I was struggling,” Aurora shares. “Telling stories helps others recognize themselves—and realize there’s hope.”
Her mission: bring mental health support into schools and communities, not just hospitals.
🔸 Hannes Goetsch – A Rural Hub for Social and Economic Innovation
From a former military barracks in the remote Val Venosta region in northern Italy, Hannes Goetsch created BASIS, a hybrid hub blending coworking, arts, sustainability and youth empowerment.
Through BASIS, he helped launch the valley’s first community energy project, involving 13 municipalities. The space hosts creative residencies, concerts, training programs and cross-cultural events, attracting hundreds of young people across the region.
“We’re rethinking what rural areas can be. Innovation isn’t just for cities—it’s for communities ready to rewrite their story,” Goetsch explains.
Education for Changemaking
Ashoka strongly believes that changemaking starts in school. That’s why it invests in two major education programs in Italy:
- Transformative Education, which trains schools and teachers to foster empathy, initiative and collaborative problem-solving
- The Youth Program, which engages students in real-world projects and policy-making through Youth Advisory Boards and changemaker journeys
Since 2017, Ashoka Italy has partnered with over 11 Changemaker Schools, reaching more than 5,000 students and forming a vibrant network of educators and youth leaders.
The ultimate goal? A society where everyone is a changemaker—a person who sees a problem, feels responsible, and acts to solve it. Ashoka calls it Everyone a Changemaker™, and it’s the movement at the heart of all its global initiatives.
The Future is built together
As Arianna De Mario, Co-Director of Ashoka Italy, puts it:
“The future isn’t something we wait for. It’s something we build—together—through our actions, every day.”
The next frontier is building ecosystems that connect schools, institutions, businesses, and citizens in shared changemaking. Whether in big cities or mountain villages, the power of social innovation lies in its ability to include, activate, and transform.
Ashoka’s Italian mapping shows that systemic change is not an abstraction—it has a face, a name, and a community behind it. And it often starts from the margins.
