Ashoka’s vision is of an Everyone a Changemaker society, where every person — and young people in particular — have the confidence, ability, and support to be changemakers for the good of all. In a world defined by rapid change, interconnectedness and uncertainty, and where our social problems are deep and urgent, changemaking must become the new literacy. Such a shift is significant and will require a movement that fundamentally re-examines how young people grow up and learn — in and out of school — and how we see and support them today as change agents. It will require more than any specific curriculum or skill set, but rather a new mindset and new priorities.
We are seeking a dynamic and strategic Consultant to lead Ashoka's work on a critical partnership, Time for Change, that promotes changemaking in Canadian schools serving low-income and historically disadvantaged communities. This role is ideal for someone with a strong track record in building cross-sector collaborations, managing stakeholder relationships, and driving strategic value through partnerships.
What You'll Do:
- Partnership Management
- Serve as the primary point of contact for key partners, particularly First Book Canada, ensuring strong communication and alignment.
- Co-create and manage partnership work plans, deliverables, and timelines with First Book Canada to achieve the goals of the Time for Change project.
- Monitor partnership performance and impact, providing monthly updates and reports to the Project Management team.
- Troubleshoot challenges and ensure mutual value creation.
- Produce three progress reports with qualitative and quantitative data in January 2026, July 2026, and December 2026.
- Collaborate with Ashoka's internal teams outside of Canada (e.g., programs, communications, fundraising) to align partnership efforts with organizational priorities.
- Partnership Development
- Identify, research, and engage potential additional partners aligned with programmatic goals to expand the impact of the project.
- Design and implement outreach strategies to engage new partners across sectors (corporate, nonprofit, government, academia).
- Facilitate introductory meetings and represent the organization in external engagements.
What You Bring:
- You have extensive professional connection to and understanding of the education/youth and/or social impact sector in Canada.
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build trust and influence across diverse stakeholders.
- You are a strategic thinker with a results-oriented mindset.
- A proven track record with partnership development, creating value-driven strategies to expand impact.
- Excellent writing and presentation skills.
Core Criteria
- Entrepreneurial Quality: Compelled to take creative initiative and ownership (e.g. founding an organization or company, starting a movement, or re-shaping the work of an existing organization). Demonstrates relentless and realistic how-to-thinking and passion for seeing their ideas come to life.
- Understanding and Belief in the Everyone a Changemaker: Understands and believes the Everyone a Changemaker vision at a gut level. To be able to innately ‘get’ this, candidates should have a broad and inquisitive intellectual and a thinking pattern that connects the dots between historical trends and current social context.
- Emotional and Social Intelligence: Ability to work efficiently and respectfully in teams, putting organizational/team goal first (personal glory second).
- Ethical Fiber: Exceptionally strong ethical behavior. Is self-reflective and has strong empathy skills. Trustworthy.
- Self-Definition: The person expects that changing the world in big ways and on a continental scale is what he/she will do in life.
About Ashoka:
Ashoka is the world’s largest community of leading social entrepreneurs, having pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship over 40 years ago. We support a robust network of more than 4,000 Ashoka Fellows in 90 countries who have successfully implemented systems-changing solutions to human and environmental problems globally. By learning from and collaborating with our Fellows and other social entrepreneurs, Ashoka identifies patterns and key levers to help society gain a new framework for living in the world as a changemaker.
Our current work is centered around the "Everyone a Changemaker" (EACH) movement, which stems from our belief that everyone has the potential and responsibility to make positive change in an ever-changing world. We continue to grow a global movement of social entrepreneurship, recognizing that the rate of change is accelerating and our problems are growing faster than our solutions.
