aikyam fund - Making resilience accessible to early stage NGOs, ideas & at risk NGOs

Making resilience accessible to early stage NGOs & at risk NGOs

Abundance of good people doing great work...

Right to information(RTI), Forest Rights Act - FRA, Protection of Children from sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Juvenile Justice Act, Right to Education, Internet Freedom, Digital Personal Protection Act, 2023(DPDP Act) are a reality because of Civil Society efforts in India.
Just 10 years ago - 15L-20L Active For Impact , Not For Loss orgs(NGOs) (~130-150NGOs/1L Citizens)
Donations have increased. Private philanthropy at 1.3 lakh crore in FY24 (1.05 lakh crore in FY22) even with FCRA Inputs reducing.
More Talent studying, preparing to work in the Social Sector (TISS, APUs, IRMA, etc)

But, there is scarcity of resilience in Civil Society

Only 4.1L active NGOs (July 2025) are listed on DARPAN. The ratio of NGOs to citizens in India is approximately 28 NGOs per 1L citizens, compared to 186 in Brazil, 64 in China, and 200 in Russia.
Indian Trusts & Foundations estimate that number of fundable (>1 Cr/year) organisations in India could be less than 4000.
6/10 early-stage NGOs do not get funding due to challenges with capacity around compliances, outreach.
3/10 mid sized NGOs do not get repeat funding from trusts and foundations due to capacity and systems around compliance challenges, program delivery and monitoring frameworks.
5/10 NGOs (all sizes, stages) have less than 3-month cash runway.
8/10 NGOs (all sizes, stages) struggle to obtain indirect costs funding (capacity building, technology, operational infrastructure, team building) leading to organisation stunting

Components of resilience for NGOs - key functions

Working with partner NGOs, we broke down Resilience to its key components

Mostly Internal and can be controlled	Mostly External/Changing
👩🏼‍💻 Psychologically Safe Workspaces, Teams	🏛️ Compliance
🏛️ Efficient Operations
🌍 Measurable, Impactful Programs
💰 Diverse, Predictable fundraising streams

Current state of Resilience of Civil Society Orgs based on key components

Below is a an estimation (Desk research, Inputs from 80 NGOs) of the maturity level across each of the key components of resilience

CleanShot 2025-07-28 at 11.27.47@2x.png

TEST: Tiny Experiments for Social Transformation

We didn't have many of the answers to improve the above metrics so we ran 200+ Tiny Experiments with partner NGOs to solve for parts of the above challenges and learnt from each experiment.

One of our objectives was to understand the key barriers in increasing maturity levels across various components of resilence (e.g Website is not a tech challenge but a storytelling challenge, ERPs are not a tech challenge but a Internal Policies, Training Challenge, Firing is a hiring problem, etc)

Problem & Barrier	Tiny Experiment	Learnings
Driving Values, Mission & Vision from Leadership to Team Level.	A 1 Day workshop with all team members co-facilitated by the organisations leadership	Workshops around Listening, Appreciative Inquiry, Shared Values, Imagine the Future on a regular basis in psychologically safe spaces helps towards mission aligned teams. Should be led by Leaders(s) Link

A few TESTS are listed here:

Can workshops around listening enhance team work and org vision? Details 🔗
Can we make high quality Compliance Content accessible & discoverable? Details 🔗
Can online forums encourage finance teams to ask questions to experts? Details 🔗
NotebookLM's podcast tool make complex laws accessibel to gig workers? Details 🔗
Vulnerability centered program design leads to better fundraising request? Details 🔗
Psychologically safe physical spaces helps team reflect, collaborate better? Details 🔗
Scarcity of safe spaces to bring like minded folks together? Details 🔗
How can we make vulnerable art/music more accessible to everyone? Details 🔗
How to nurture a highly engaged community of practitioners from NGOs? Details 🔗
Can zero code tools like Ghost be used by NGOs to amplify reach? Details 🔗
Can high quality job descriptions help talent find right social impact jobs? Details 🔗
Monthly fellowship income to change-makers makes their ideas resilient?

..and many more.

This approach by running experiments on actual problems and creating live solutions with feedback helped us to create a first draft framework for solving this in a systematic way for our partner NGOs/Ideas/projects.

aikyam fund - Making resilience accessible to early stage NGOs, ideas & at risk NGOs

What is aikyam fund?

A 12 month program for early stage social impact Ideas, non profits & at risk non profits
Goal is to enable them to become resilient.
Resilient means
- Compliant & efficient, sustainable operations,
- Mission aligned teams in a psychologically safe workspace,
- Impactful (measurable) programs delivered to vulnerable communities,
- Diverse, predictable and reliable fundraising streams.
We support select Ideas, NGOs by covering costs (INR 5L-15L) to implement recommendations during the programme. (Cost of expert consultant on compliance, Financial Support for Founders if no income source, etc)
Ego-system to Eco-system approach by creating public free open high quality infrastructure (like PATTIC) for NGOs for their tech, fundraising, compliance, storytelling, etc needs.

Making resilience accessible to early stage, at risk NGOs

Image: Making resilience accessible to early stage, at risk NGOs - 1 Level at a time

The table below shows our level by level approach to achieve the highest level across each of the key components of resilience. Our program helps them navigate through each box.

Compliance & Efficiency Optimized

(Zero compliance violations, tech systems and SOPs adoption rate >80%, cost per beneficiary optimized, Mentoring other CSOs)

Psychologically Safety achieved in Workspace

(Team recommends org to others, <15% annual attrition, mental health support available to staff, Innovation time/support for new ideas by team, sharing best practices with others in the ecosystem)

Impactful Programs delivery demonstrated

(Replicable program models that are recommended or adopted by others working on similar challenges, providing support to others replicating/improving the model)

Financial Resilience Achieved

(6+ months cash flow reserves, Revenue streams diversifed with no source more than 40% of total annual income, multi year grants secured (1-2), Individual Giving retention >60%,

Tech Systems Integrated

(Accounting, Fit for purpose ERP, Compliance Calendars, Quarterly internal audits, SOPs for key processes)

Collaboration Systems ready

(Communications platforms, project management tools, knowledge management tools, regular knowledge sharing sessions)

Program Monitoring Active with monthly feedback from community

(Mid course corrections, annual impact assessment, feedback loops with communities at risk)

Diverse streams of fundraising active

(Individual giving CRM, 1-2 CSR/Trust Partnerships established, Grant Management systems, Active Website, Engagement with stakeholders through newsletters, events))

Core Policies Implemented

(Team trained on HR, Procurement, Travel, Expense Claims policies. PoSH ICC Committee formed. Data Privacy, Financial Procedures manual and Monthly reporting

Team Development Active

(Onboarding, induction process in place, Team Building and capacity building plans created and first sessions started)

Community driven Monitoring System Operational

(Program workflows mapped, output indicators tracked, outcome indicators defined with baseline, program review rhythm established with community)

Outreach Plan Active

(Fundraising plan in place, Donor lists, engagements, key fundraising opportunities identified, 1-3 Funding proposals submitted, Individual Giving started with 30-50 regular givers)

Regulatory Foundations Complete

(12A, 80G, DARPAN, Audits, Statutory Filings, Banking, PAN)

Leadership framework Established

(Vision, Mission, Values Statements, Board, Founding team roles, Hiring process, First hirings)

Program Design co-created with agency to communities they work with.

(Identify stakeholders, their needs & vulnerabilities, barriers to those needs, solution, feedback loops.)

Story & Impact Framework Ready

(Why they exist, what they do, Theory of Change, 3-5 impact case studies, basic website, A basic clear communication deck/document)

How do we do it?

Structured guidance through workshops, bootcamps, trainings, actual implementation support around
- Support Compliance, Day to Day Operations
- Support Team Building, Mission & Leadership, Collaboration, Psychological Safety
- Co-design programs that are Impactful and measurable with vulnerability at the center of design
- Support to build Diverse, predictable and reliable fundraising streams
Office hours with aikyam fellows
Conversations and mentoring with other Founders, Frontline workers, Teams
Nurturing an eco-system of "infrastructure" for NGOs through public resources/projects/alliances like:
- aikyam space - Convening, Co-working, Reflective spaces for NGOs in Fort Kochi Details 🔗
- aikyam jobs - Hand curated jobs in social impact Details 🔗
- aikyam school (WIP) - Courses, Workshops for Capacity Building Details 🔗
- aikyam fellows - Program, Design, Tech, Strategy help for NGOs
- Our Alliances:
  - PATTIC - Community, resources for statutory & regulatory matters Details 🔗
  - OASIS (Partner) - Making Open Source Software accessible to NGOs Details 🔗
  - PoSH (WIP) - Resources for gender neutral safe workspaces

Financial Projections (Aug 2025 - July 2028)

S No	Description	Y1 (Aug 2025 - July 2026)	Y2 (Aug 2026 - July 2027)
1	People (Fellowships, Salaries, Consulting, Interns)	₹67,00,000	₹69,68,000
2	IT Infra for NGOs (Hosting, Laptops, Devices)	₹17,50,000	₹18,20,000
3	IT Consulting for NGOs (Customisations of FOSS)	₹7,00,000	₹7,28,000
4	Office/Space (Rent, Utilities, Medical, Facilities)	₹28,00,000	₹29,10,000
5	Space (Furniture, Fixtures, Maintenance)	₹3,50,000	₹3,64,000
6	Legal & Compliances	₹2,50,000	₹2,60,000
7	Support/Fund for NGOs/Idea (Average 10L per unit)	₹50,00,000	₹50,00,000
8	*Support/Fund for NGOs/Idea (Average 10L per unit)*	*₹1,00,00,000*	*₹1,00,00,000*
		₹2,75,50,000	₹2,80,50,000

Note on #1 to #7 above: Samagata Foundation is considering supporting aikyam for 2 years to cover operational costs plus a cohost of 5 NGOs/Ideas

Note on #8 above:

Support/Fund for NGOs/Idea will be used to cover urgent and important expenses for the projects in the cohort. Basic Salaries for Founders, Compliance Consulting costs, Medical Insurance, Workshops, Capacity Building, any other expenses as they go through the 12 month journey.
We will reach out to other funders to top this fund as we progress and enroll more ideas/projects/NGOs. The goal is to grow this to a INR 2-3 Cr/ year fund over the next 2 years.
Moonshot - to raise a Corpus of 200 Cr in 5 years that could potentially make aikyam fund sustainable in the long term.

Detailed Financial Projection