How it works
How the YES Challenge works
It is not a single two-week activity. It is one mechanic that works at three scales: trust, plus a small investment.
Most programs ask young people to prove themselves before anyone will invest in them. The YES Challenge inverts that. It gives a small amount of money first, with trust rather than conditions, and lets young people show what they can do with it.
One mechanic, three scales
The same act of trust operates at the level of a youth team, an institution, and a society.
Youth
A youth team
becomes Changemakers
Trusted with a small investment, they start a real venture in days.
Institution
A school, university, church, NGO or youth hub
becomes a Changemaker Hub
The institution becomes a place where young people are trusted to act before they prove themselves.
Society
A funder, foundation or ministry
becomes an activator of a network of Hubs
One investment activates many Hubs and reaches many young people at once.
The mechanic: trust-based investment
Teams of young people receive a trust-based investment, not a donation or a loan, and grow it across three levels. If a team makes no profit, they owe nothing; the trust was the point. Successful teams return the investment, plus a 10% profit share that seeds the next cohort through a revolving fund.
Level 1
$25
3 weeks
Start a venture and generate a profit.
Level 2
$50
4 weeks
Repay the investment, plus a 10% profit share.
Level 3
$100
6 weeks
Grow the venture; repay again, plus 10%.
Amounts and levels vary by Hub and country. The three-level structure shown here is how our Zimbabwe Hubs run it. Ali Raza Khan's original model works with $25 to $50 per team in a four-week cycle: teams that profit return the investment and contribute half of the first four weeks' profit to the next cohort; everything beyond belongs to the team.
Why "Changemaker Hub", not "campus"
When an institution runs the challenge, it becomes a Changemaker Hub: a place where young people are trusted to act. We say "Hub", not "campus", on purpose: the model fits churches, community organisations and NGOs just as well as schools and universities. "Changemaker Hub" describes what an institution becomes; it is not a label we own.
At its widest, the YES Challenge is a question to society.
Do we trust our young people enough to let them act before they prove themselves? Institutions answer it one Hub at a time.
Become a Changemaker Hub