About Ashoka’s Youth Venture

Ashoka’s Youth Venture® is an international community of young people who are powerful now, changemakers now. Youth Venture inspires and invests in teams of young people to create and launch their own sustainable, community-benefiting ventures.  We support our Venturers by providing guidance, tools, and a process for designing and presenting their venture plans.  After the launch of their Venture, we connect them into a global movement of young changemakers who are together redefining the youth years as a time of leadership and positive social change. This is the foundation of an Everyone a Changemaker™ world – the key factor for success in every part of society. Youth Venture currently operates in 14 countries on 5 continents and online at http://www.genv.net/.

The business sector is at the leading edge of recognizing the need for more changemakers in society, as they realize that the key to their competitive advantage will be the innovation and initiative of their talent. By investing in building the supply of young changemakers who are powerful now, the companies will have the pool of talented leaders they will need to remain successful in the future. It is not surprising that much of Youth Venture’s global expansion has come about through the investment of some of the leading companies in the world.

Read examples of our partnerships with Starbucks, Staples, and PepsiCo below.  For more information or to become a partner, email info@youthventure.org.

Partnerships with Leading Businesses

Starbucks and Youth Venture launched a “Dream it. Do it. Tour” to inspire and support young people to launch social Ventures in 13 major cities across the US. The partnership gives Starbucks the opportunity to connect with and play a positive, inspiring role in the family-centered communities it serves while also providing new and meaningful ways for its Partners (employees) to engage in the community. Two winners from the “Dream it. Do it. Tour” will receive an all expense paid trip to Washington DC for Youth Venture’s first ever gathering. 

Staples Foundation for Learning renewed its commitment to support Youth Venture’s global expansion by providing an additional $500,000 in funding to expand to two new countries, Canada and Belgium. Staples Associates engaged in Youth Venture by participating in YV selection panels, providing expert advice to Venturers, and especially by young Staples Associates launching their own Ventures through Youth Venture. The Staples-Youth Venture collaboration held its first “That Was Easy Competition” among U.S. Venture teams to showcase how their Ventures have created impact in making life easier for others. Five finalist teams were featured on ABC News Now, and each was awarded $1,000 plus a $100 Staples gift card. The grand prize, a $5,000 shopping spree at a local Staples store, was awarded to Kyle Freas, whose Venture Youth Together has engaged 50,000 young people from 70 schools in community service to help abused, homeless and critically ill children.

PepsiCo invested in bringing the Youth Venture program to Chile this year. With PepsiCo’s support, Youth Venture launched 18 Ventures and seeded the YV community in Chile. For PepsiCo, this was an opportunity to support innovation in its future talent pool in Chile as well as enhance the skills, learning and loyalty of its current employees through their participation in the Youth Venture program. Youth Venture and PepsiCo plan to expand the partnership to new countries in Latin America next year.