Mission:
To help enable the creation, sourcing, and scaling of the most innovative social solutions by building a global, online "open source" community that generates solutions to social problems and collaborates to refine, enrich, and implement those solutions.

Background:
An initiative of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public — a nonprofit organization that provides financial and professional support to individual social entrepreneurs — Changemakers is a global platform for dozens of open source competitions designed to connect individuals with a passion for a better world with social innovators who are making a difference in their communities. The competitions, which invite ideas from all over the world on a specific social issue, are sponsored by corporate collaborators such as Nike, National Geographic, and Citibank.

Outstanding Web Features:
The Changemakers Web site maps the collaborative competition process from start to finish. Social entrepreneurs submit entries online, where anyone can view and discuss the issue, share stories, and offer advice and encouragement in group forums. An icon associated with each stage of the competition (i.e., upcoming, enter, discuss, vote, winners announced) alerts visitors to the status of a particular competition. Registered visitors can save their favorite projects and e-mail them to friends. The site, which was designed with low-bandwidth connections in mind, provides four language options: English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.