Day 1
$25 of trust, no selection process
Three young people, a little starting capital and no business plan. Usually, by the end of the first week, a team has an idea, has tried selling it and has its first customers.
For anyone who remembers being given a chance
Be someone's first yes.
Sometimes, all it takes is someone believing in you before you've proven anything.
In Zimbabwe, three young people receive around $25 to turn their own business idea into reality. No pitch. No business plan. Just a little starting capital, support from local facilitators, and the freedom to try.
Your €25 can help give the next team that same chance.
- ✓Your gift makes a real difference. €25 can provide the initial seed funding for a team of three young people.
- ✓Follow their journey. Receive updates from a team you support and see what they build, learn and achieve.
- ✓Your gift can keep giving. When a team makes a profit, the seed funding is returned to help another team get started. If they don't make a profit, they owe nothing.
EUR
✓€25 can provide the seed funding for a team of three young people.
🔒 Donations are processed securely by betterplace.org, a German nonprofit platform. SEPA, card, PayPal.Your gift supports seed funding and the local people who make these challenges possible. You can cancel a monthly donation at any time through betterplace.org.
The results so far
87 of 90
teams in Chitungwiza made a profit during their challenge. Six challenges since May 2024.
95%
of the seed funding came back and helped the next teams get started. Since May 2024.
220+
teams have taken part in Chitungwiza and Seke since 2019, around 660 young people.
In Chitungwiza, a city just outside Harare, the challenges are run by The Work Under The Tree Trust, a local nonprofit founded and led by Moud Chinembiri. Her team works directly with young people in the community.
Figures since May 2024 come from the weekly dashboards the trust keeps with every team. Figures since 2019 come from the project records of the trust and the YES Founders Foundation. “Made a profit” means a team's sales were higher than its costs over the challenge. It does not tell you whether the business is still running today.
What your gift pays for
Small gifts start a team. Larger gifts carry it through.
Seed funding
€25Starting capital for a team of three young people in the first stage of their challenge, paid out in US dollars. Teams that make a profit pay it back, and it helps the next team get started.
A full challenge
€300Takes one team through every stage: seed funding, plus the local facilitators, workshops, materials, meals, transport and internet.
Most of the seed funding comes back, so most of what you give pays for the part that doesn't: the people and the work that help each team along.
How a challenge works
A small start. Real experience. A chance to grow.
Every team starts the same way: three young people, one idea and about $25. In Chitungwiza the first stage lasts three weeks. Teams that make a profit pay back their seed funding and move on to the next stage with a little more. A full round takes three to five months, and facilitators check in with every team each week.
During the challenge
Learning by doing, with real customers
One team bought a bale of second-hand clothes for $20 and took in sewing orders on the side. The facilitators record every team's numbers each week.
Showcase
One team's success helps the next
This team started out selling bread and now makes concrete bricks for building sites in Chitungwiza. Teams that make a profit pay back their seed funding, so the next team can start.
Photos: The Work Under The Tree Trust, Chitungwiza.
Follow a team
Real progress, reported by the teams themselves.
Every team reports its numbers each week. This is a real row from a Chitungwiza dashboard, Challenge 1, May to October 2024. The updates you receive come from the same dashboards, good weeks and bad ones.
Clothing and cosmeticsChitungwiza · Challenge 1 · 2024
$990
sales over four stages
191
customers served
$275
seed funding, all stages
$275
seed funding repaid
"Managed to buy a digital phone to enable them to market themselves." From the facilitators' report, September 2024. This team had the highest sales of the teams that completed all four stages of Challenge 1.
Shown with the team's consent. We only share names and photos when a team agrees.
9:41
Three updates from one challenge
YES ChallengeKick-offThe next challenge has started.Meet the team you're following and hear what they plan to sell.
YES ChallengeWeek 3The first numbers.Sales and customers from the team's weekly report, and what they've learned so far.
YES ChallengeShowcaseShowcase day.What the team built, what didn't work, and whether they made a profit.
First Yes Circle · monthly
Community programmes need more than seed funding.
When a university runs the YES Challenge, it pays the people who run it. Chitungwiza is a community programme, so there is no university to do that. Local facilitators check in with every team each week, keep the dashboard and gather the news for your updates. Monthly gifts from the First Yes Circle pay for them and for the challenge itself: workshops, materials, transport and internet.
€25 a month adds up to €300 a year, the full cost of one team's challenge. A new challenge starts three times a year, so Circle members get updates from each one.
€300 once
Covers one team's full challenge, from kick-off to showcase, local facilitators included.
€10a month
€120 a year. Covers the cost of supporting one young person through a challenge.
€25a month
€300 a year. Covers one team's full challenge.
€50a month
€600 a year. Covers two teams' full challenges.
A note from the founder
Who said yes to you first?
I started my first company at 23. And I kept wondering why nobody at school or university had ever shown me that starting something of my own was even possible.
Years later, I came across the work of Ali Raza Khan in Pakistan. His idea was beautifully simple: give young people a small amount of money and trust them to do something with it.
I wrote to Ali and asked if I could come and learn from him.
His answer? “Sure, be my guest.”
In 2017, I spent almost two weeks travelling with him across Punjab, visiting schools and universities, meeting young people who were building their first businesses, and talking for hours in his silver Corolla, which was also his office, meeting room and occasionally his kitchen.
I came back convinced that young people often don't need someone to tell them what to do. They need someone to believe they can do it.
If someone once believed in you, here's your chance to pass it on.
Thomas Jakel
YES Founders Foundation
Questions
What people ask before they give.
Do I get a donation receipt?
Yes. Donations are processed by betterplace.org, a German nonprofit platform, which issues the receipt. For donations up to €300, betterplace emails you a simplified receipt as a PDF. For larger donations, you can download the official receipt from your betterplace donation overview, from 30 days after your donation. It's a German tax receipt, so it can't be used for UK Gift Aid.
When will I hear about a team?
Your first update comes when the next challenge starts. Challenges start three times a year, so that's within about four months. Several donors usually follow the same team.
What happens if a team doesn't make a profit?
They owe nothing. Trusting them was the point. In Chitungwiza, 95% of the seed funding has come back since May 2024, and the shared pot covers the rest.
Where exactly does my money go?
betterplace keeps 2.8% for payment processing. In its form, betterplace also suggests an optional contribution to its own work; you decide whether to add it. The rest of your donation goes to the challenges in Chitungwiza: seed funding for the teams, the local facilitators, workshops, materials, meals, transport and internet.
Who runs the challenges?
The Work Under The Tree Trust, a local nonprofit in Chitungwiza founded and led by Moud Chinembiri, runs the challenges with its own team of facilitators. We, the YES Founders Foundation in Berlin, have worked with the trust since 2019 and co-fund the programme.
Can I cancel a monthly donation?
Yes. You can cancel your monthly donation at any time through betterplace.org.
What do you do with my email?
We send you updates from a team you support and occasional news from the YES Challenge. You confirm your email once and can unsubscribe at any time. Details are in our privacy policy.
Would you rather support the foundation as a whole? Write to us.
team@yesfoundersfoundation.orgDonations processed securely by betterplace.org (Project #188440). YES Founders Foundation gUG (haftungsbeschränkt), a German non-profit company.