Starting a new organisation comes with both excitement and challenges. Along with passion and commitment, there is a need to build strong systems and develop the skills needed to create lasting impact.
About a year after our organisation was registered, our organisation, Inspiring Youth Foundation, had the opportunity to join the FRC 2026 Community Connect programme. It has been a valuable milestone in our journey.
As part of our learning, our team attended capacity-building workshops organised by FRC. The sessions covered key topics such as compliance, communication, narrative building, storytelling, fundraising, and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL). For a young organisation like ours, these sessions provided practical knowledge that we could immediately apply to our work.
After the workshop, we reviewed our internal processes and introduced new systems. We strengthened our approach to compliance, improved our communication, and learned how storytelling can help us share the experiences of the communities we work with. We also gained a better understanding of fundraising and the importance of monitoring and evaluating our programmes.
One of the most valuable lessons was about safeguarding. With guidance from FRC, we developed and adopted our Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Policy. We also created Finance and Human Resources (HR) policies, helping us become a safer, more transparent and better organised organisation.
Our learning has continued through FRC’s regular online workshops. These sessions have helped us strengthen our organisational practices and reminded us that learning is an ongoing process.
Today, we are implementing a three-year programme that engages around 350 young people. The programme encourages them to identify issues in their communities and take action to address them. We also work with girls in Grades 6 to 8 through a programme that promotes scientific thinking by encouraging curiosity, critical thinking and a love of science. Over time, we have seen a clear increase in both participation and confidence among the girls.
Alongside this, we run a Learning Lab for adolescent girls and women, focusing on entrepreneurship, skill development and livelihood opportunities. Despite limited resources, the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. Many more girls and women want to participate than we are currently able to support, which motivates us to continue growing.
One of our proudest achievements has been seeing former participants become leaders. Siddhi, Tauqeer and Muskan joined our programmes as participants and are now facilitators in our team. Their journey reflects the positive impact of creating opportunities for young people to learn, grow and lead.
The knowledge, guidance and continued support we have received from FRC have played an important role in strengthening our organisation. We have improved our systems, built our capacity and become more effective in serving our communities. As we move forward, we hope to continue learning from FRC, build stronger partnerships with like-minded organisations and strengthen our fundraising efforts so that we can reach even more young people, girls and women in the future.
Note from FRC
Our partner, Inspiring Youth Foundation, is based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The organisation works to promote inclusion for marginalised communities and young girls, advance STEM education for girls, and foster constitutional values among children and young people.
Their story reaffirms our commitment to strengthening systems within new grassroots organisations working with children and facilitating youth leadership. It is encouraging to see how stronger organisational foundations can lead to greater impact and support thoughtful planning for the future. It also reinforces our belief that investing in community-based organisations is essential for creating lasting change.
Learn more about their work on their website: www.inspiringyouthfoundation.org
Also connect with them on Linkedin: linkedin.com/inspiring-youth-foundation