Sport for Changemaking
Activating a sports ecosystem where every person is a powerful contributor to positive social and environmental change.
Sport for Changemaking is an Ashoka global initiative born from the insights of over 100 Ashoka Fellows working to advance a more equitable and impactful work within and through sport. We believe that coaches, business leaders, fans, teachers, and athletes at all levels have a role to play in actively imagining and creating a future in which everyone can thrive. This means changing the field and driving collective action to a sports ecosystem that works for the good of all.
Ashoka Sport for Changemaking
As innovators for the good of all, sport changemakers offer a unique perspective to advance the platform of sport as a contributor to the good of all. Our Insight report "Changemaking Takes a Team" is an invitation to explore together how to intentionally leverage sport as a platform towards a more just, equitable, and regenerative world. We believe this platform can progress and empower all stakeholders within the ecosystem to be changemakers.
The Ashoka Sport for Changemaking initiative identifies and supports system-changing solutions in sport, providing flexible funding and visibility to innovative ideas that drive positive change in the sport ecosystem. We also scale the impact of existing initiatives through strategic advising and collaboration with industry leaders, accelerating their work by leveraging decades of social entrepreneurial experience to launch joint impact-driven initiatives.
Ashoka Sport for Changemaking initiative offers several avenues for individuals and organizations to contribute to transforming sports into a force for positive social change. Reach out to us to engage with ongoing initiatives or learn to co-create tailored opportunities for your stakeholders and to amplify innovative thought leadership to advance your field.
Changemaking Takes a Team
Ashoka’s Sport for Changemaking Initiative harnesses Ashoka's 40+ years of expertise in social entrepreneurship and innovation to work with sports changemakers, policymakers, and industry experts. Together, we aim to activate a sports ecosystem where every person is a powerful contributor for the good of all.
Interested in knowing more? Check our website and connect with us on LinkedIn. You can also sign up for the Ashoka Sport for Changemaking newsletter here.
Ashoka Sport for Changemaking Team
Alex Richmond
Alex is a passionate sports for impact advocate, cultivating experiences playing, managing, researching, and practicing purpose-led sport initiatives. She is co-founder of Ashoka’s Sport for Changemaking Initiative, building exciting collaborations to strengthen the sport for good field’s approach to systemic impact.
Alex holds a PhD in Health Promotion witha special focus on sport for development from the University of New South Wales and an MSc in Sport Policy and International Development from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to Ashoka, Alex worked in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to design, deliver, and evaluate community-based sport for social change initiatives.
Kelly Davies
Kelly Davies is the Director of Ashoka UK, an Ashoka Fellow, and Co-Founder of the Sport for Changemaking initiative. A former Arsenal and Liverpool Ladies footballer, Kelly Davies won 63 caps for Wales during an accomplished professional career.
She is the Founder of Vi-Ability, to tackle the issues of commercially unsustainable football clubs and youth disengagement from education across 16 European countries. Kelly is additionally the Chair of the 'Cymru Football Foundation' - distributing significant funds (Millions) for investing in future, fit-for-purpose grassroots facilities.
Héctor Moyetón
Héctor is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Ashoka Changemakers program and Co-founder of the Sport for Changemaking initiative, leading the design of global social change initiatives that engage and learn from social entrepreneurs as signals from the future to create a shared vision that can transform the world for the common good.
He works with changemakers, partners, media, and other key stakeholders towards building an Everyone a Changemaker world. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology, an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and Arizona State University, and a certificate in Futures Studies and Speculative Design from The New School.
Iveren Ityoikaa
Iveren is the Diaspora Partnership Manager for Ashoka and Co-Founder of the Sport for Changemaking Initiative, leading the initiative that engages impact-conscious African diaspora in social systems-change work going on across Africa. A principal focus of this initiative is engaging African diaspora sport professionals because of the strong unifying force that football and other sporting activities have on the continent.
With a background in IMechanical Engineering, she began her career as a Schlumberger oilfield engineer working across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa prior to founding a Performance and Management Consulting company to provide corporate strategy services to indigenous Nigerian companies and help them achieve their performance goals in each of the Balanced Scorecard segments. Iveren is currently pursuing her MBA from the Gies College of Business, University of Illinois, to complement a host of other certificates.