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
A team of young people receives a small sum of money, given with trust rather than conditions. It is not a donation, and it is not a loan.
If it works
The team pays the investment back, plus a share of what they earned during the challenge itself.
After that
Everything they earn from then on is theirs. The venture belongs to the team, not to us.
If it does not work
They owe nothing. The trust was the point, not the collateral.
What comes back seeds a revolving fund, so the same money can back the next team, and the one after that. Each Hub sets the share itself: Ali Raza Khan's original model asks for half of the profit made in the first four weeks, while our Zimbabwe Hubs work with a tenth. Either way the principle holds. A team keeps the business it built.
How teams grow: an example from Zimbabwe
Hubs run the challenge at the scale that fits them. Our Zimbabwe Hubs use three levels, where each completed round unlocks a larger stake and a longer run:
Level 1
~$25
4 weeks
Start something and earn the first money.
Level 2
~$50
6 weeks
A bigger stake and a longer run to build on it.
Level 3
~$100
8 weeks
Grow the venture into something that lasts.
An example, not a rule. Each Hub sets the stake and the length to fit its context and budget.
What a Changemaker Hub is
An institution that runs the challenge becomes a Changemaker Hub: a place where young people are trusted to act before they have proven themselves. A Hub can be a school or a university, but just as easily a church, an NGO, or a youth centre.
What makes it a Hub is not the building or the budget. It is the decision to hand over three things that institutions usually hold back: a little money, real permission, and the trust that comes with both. Becoming one is a change in how an institution works, not a certificate we hand out.
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