“Change maker,” the term Bill Clinton used repeatedly to characterize his wife and nominee was probably an unfamiliar term to most in the convention hall and television audience, and not one familiar probably to most political journalists. But to those of us who spent time in the Yale Law School library, as I did (I graduated in 1969, before the Clintons arrived), it strikes a chord. It’s the term used by Bill Drayton, Yale Law 1970, who founded and still heads Ashoka, a non-profit which encourages and supports “social entrepreneurs” and “change makers” in countries around the world.

Drayton is one of the most thoughtful and intellectually and morally serious people I have ever encountered. Ashoka does not accept any form of government support and the change makers it supports span a wide ideological range. It seeks to encourage individual initiative and the formation of voluntary associations, to sustain and strengthen civil society, and has had remarkable successes. Disclosure: it’s one of the organizations to which I contribute money every year.