Skip to main content

aikyam fund

Abundance of good people doing great work...

  1. 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.
  2. 15L-20L Active For Impact , Not For Loss orgs(NGOs) a decade ago(~130-150NGOs/1L Citizens) & the teams working in them.
  3. More Giving. Private philanthropy at 1.3 lakh crore in FY24 (1.05 lakh crore in FY22)

But, scarcity of resilience

  1. 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. 
  2. 6/10 early-stage impactful NGOs do not receive crucial early stage funding due to challenges with compliance, outreach, an ecosystem.
  3. 3/10 mid sized NGOs do not receive repeat funding from trusts and foundations due to compliance burdens, program and monitoring frameworks, and capacity.
  4. 5/10 NGOs (all sizes, stages) have just 3-month cash runway.
  5. 8/10 NGOs (all sizes, stages) struggle to obtain indirect costs funding (capacity building, technology, operational infrastructure) leading to organisation stunting
  6. 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

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

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:

..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"

  1. 12 month program unlocking impact in 4 levels
  2. Goal is to enable early stage non profits/Ideas & at risk non profits become resilient.
  3. 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.
  4. We also support selected Ideas, NGOs with INR 5L-15L as seed funding/support

CleanShot 2025-07-27 at 12.22.59@2x.png

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?
  1. Structured guidance through curriculum focused on building resilience one step at a time across Compliance, Operations, Program, Impact, Fundraising, People.
  2. Office hours with aikyam fellows
  3. Collective Wisdom sharing with other Founders, Frontline workers, Teams
  4. and most importantly - Nurturing an eco-system of "infrastructure" for NGOs through public resources/projects/alliances like:

Our Alliances:

Financial Projections FY26 & FY27

 

Documentation

 

Back to top