aikyam fund
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 in India.
- 15L-20L Active For Impact , Not For Loss orgs(NGOs) a decade ago(~130-150NGOs/1L Citizens) & the teams working in them.
- More Giving. Private philanthropy at 1.3 lakh crore in FY24 (1.05 lakh crore in FY22)
But, scarcity of resilience
- Today around 4.1L active NGOs 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.
- 6/10 early-stage impactful NGOs do not receive crucial early stage funding due to challenges with compliance, outreach, an ecosystem.
- 3/10 mid sized NGOs do not receive repeat funding from trusts and foundations due to compliance burdens, program and monitoring frameworks, and capacity.
- 5/10 NGOs (all sizes, stages) have just 3-month cash runway.
- 8/10 NGOs (all sizes, stages) struggle to obtain indirect costs funding (capacity building, technology, operational infrastructure) leading to organisation stunting
- Indian Trusts & Foundations estimate that number of fundable (1 Cr/year) organisations in India is less than 4000.
Components of resilience for NGOs - key functions
| Mostly Internal | External |
| 👩🏼💻 Psychologically Safe Workspaces, Teams |
🏛️ Compliance |
| 🏛️ Efficient Operations | |
| 🌍 Measurable, Impactful Programs | |
| 💰 Diverse, Predictable fundraising streams |
(Estimated) Current state of Key components
TEST: Tiny Experiments for Social Transformation
We didnt have all the answers so we ran 200+ Tiny Experiments with partner NGOs to solve for parts of the above challenges and learnt from each experiment. A few 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 🔗
- 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.
aikyam fund - "Y Combinator for Changemakers in India"
- 12 month program unlocking impact in 4 levels
- Goal is to enable early stage non profits/Ideas & at risk non profits 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 also support selected Ideas, NGOs with INR 5L-15L as seed funding/support
| L4 | Compliant & Efficient Operations | Psychologically Safe Workspace, Teams | Impactful Programs delivered effectively | Diverse, Predictable fundraising streams |
| L3 | System Implementing Processes | Systems aiding in Team/Feild Work, Collaboration | Systems for Monitoring & Last mile delivery | Systems for Discoverability, Fundraising |
| L2 | Policies, Processes & Practices | Capacity & Team Building, Growth, Training | Program Workflows, Monitoring Frameworks | Engagement & Outreach, Fundraising Plans |
| L1 | Regulatory Compliances, Filings, Audits | Leadership on Vision, Mission, Values, Hiring | Vulnerability/Planet centered Program(s) Designing | Storytelling, Theory of Change |
How do we do it?
- Structured guidance through curriculum focused on building resilience one step at a time across Compliance, Operations, Program, Impact, Fundraising, People.
- Office hours with aikyam fellows
- Collective Wisdom sharing with other Founders, Frontline workers, Teams
- and most importantly - Nurturing an eco-system of "infrastructure" for NGOs through public resources/projects/alliances like:
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 FY26 & FY27
| Description |
Y1 (Aug 2025 - July 2026) |
Y2 (Aug 2026 - July 2027) |
| People (Fellowships, Salaries, Consulting, Interns) | ₹67,00,000 | ₹69,68,000 |
| IT Infra for NGOs (Hosting, Subscriptions, Laptops, Devices) | ₹17,50,000 | ₹18,20,000 |
| IT Consulting for NGOs (Customisations of Open Source) | ₹7,00,000 | ₹7,28,000 |
| Office/Space (Rent, Utilities, Medical Insurance, Facilities) | ₹28,00,000 | ₹29,12,000 |
| Space (Furniture, Fixtures, Maintenance) | ₹3,50,000 | ₹3,64,000 |
| Legal & Compliances | ₹2,50,000 | ₹2,60,000 |
| Support/Fund for NGOs/Idea (INR 5L - 15L per unit) | ₹50,00,000 | ₹50,00,000 |
| ₹1,75,50,000 | ₹1,80,52,000 |
Documentation
Company Registration
- List of Directors.pdf
- AoA.pdf
- CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION T4G.PDF
- PAN_T4G.pdf
- License for Section 8 of Companies Act.PDF
- MoA.pdf
- Darpan_Registration.pdf
12A & 80G
CSR Registration
Audit Reports
Income Tax Returns
- FY 2022-23
- FY 2023-24
Annual Reports
Policies