Ashoka, seeks out leaders who will tackle social issues of global consequence.  Most of the
Fellows come from and serve the third world, including many countries that fail to thrive in
the global economy. To be selected as an Ashoka fellow, applicants go through an intensive
screening process. 

Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, emphasizes the ethical component to this evaluation.
In his own words:

"One of our four criteria is ethical fiber for selecting fellows, and ditto for staff.  It’s not
accidental, it’s very carefully thought through, as we think that values are absolutely
critical.  They’re critical for efficacy.  You can’t get people to change the primary patterns
in what they do in their lives, which involves all sorts of subtle power changes, unless
they trust you.  You can’t lead people if they don’t trust you.  And I don’t believe that
you can fake it…We can’t build a fellowship, which absolutely requires openness and
trust and mutual respect, if even a tiny number of people were not trustworthy…we
just don’t want to add to [the] supply of untrustworthy public figures."