User:Abigail Laudesia/YCAB Foundation

General Information
YCAB Foundation

Abbreviation: YCAB Foundation

Year: 13 August 1999

Founder: Veronica Colondam

Type: Social Enterprise

Program: Education, Economy Empowerment

Head Office: Surya Mandala Street I No 8D, Jakarta – Indonesia

Operational Area: Asia Tenggara

History
YCAB Foundation (YCAB) was first established on August 13, 1999, due to Veronica Colondam’s growing concern for the number of adolescents partaking in risky behaviours and the rising rate of high school dropouts in Indonesia. Translated, Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa means ‘Loving the nation’s children.’ As the name implies, YCAB symbolizes Veronica’s love for the nation’s children, which is a response to God’s love in her own life. This idea is reflected in YCAB’s mission, which is to love others by providing hope and opportunities to underprivileged youths. YCAB believes that economic independence can only be achieved through providing access to education and economy that will create sustainable welfare.

Evolution
YCAB began to expand into the world of education by establishing its first Rumah Belajar(Learning Centre) in 2003. In 2010, a mission-driven microfinance program began through Koperasi YCAB. Ultra-micro venture capital loans, conditional to a child’s education, were made available to underprivileged women in order to improve their family’s economy. As the loans were conditional to a child receiving an education, the child was not allowed to drop out of school as long as the mother was still within the program.

This mission-driven microfinance program was designed due to the high number of Rumah Belajar students dropping out from formal schools, and not being able to continue their education in a Rumah Belajar due to unaffordable transportation cost. The program was offered to all women whose children were enrolled in the Rumah Belajars, and these women were encouraged to invite other dropouts within their neighbourhood to enrol in their local Rumah Belajar as well. Since 2014, with permission and license from the Financial Services Authority (OJK), this unique mission-driven microfinance program has been operating under PT. Modal Ventura YCAB, also known as YCAB Ventures.

YCAB’s focus is not only on the underprivileged or marginalized in Indonesia. At the end of 2006, YCAB International Inc. was established in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, structured as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization with its headquarter in New York City. In 2013, YCAB international projects were running in six other countries: Afghanistan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Uganda and Laos.

The program in Afghanistan focused on empowering women through sports. In Myanmar, YCAB implemented two programs: The first providing basic computer training skills to 20 teachers and 100 students (16 year olds) in local public schools, and the second providing health and hygiene check-ups for children by facilitating a mobile clinic. A computer training program for children was also carried out in Pakistan. There, YCAB also empowered local women by teaching them how to sew, in order to improve their family’s economy. In Uganda, a similar women empowerment program was held, this time focusing on leadership training for women.

In early 2013, YCAB ranked 74th on the Top 100 best NGOs in the world by NGO Advisor, an independent media organization that focuses on social and development issues, based in Geneva, Switzerland. One hundred NGOs were selected and ranked based on a few criteria such as impact, innovation, and sustainability of their activities. In 2015, YCAB rose to 63rd and ranked 49th in the Top 500 NGO Advisors in 2016. In 2017, YCAB ranked 44th. In 2019, YCAB climbed up to the 35th rank.

YCAB is one of the few non-profit organizations in Asia, and even in the world, that received an appreciation from '''the United Nations (UN) through the granting of the UN-ECOSOC General Consultative Status. YCAB was also the first NGO in Indonesia to receive the ISO9001: 2008 certification as a guarantee of quality management and succeeded in implementing the Norton-Kaplan balanced score card''' to continuously improve its management quality. Supported by pro bono services from several world consultants such as Accenture, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Palladium and PWC, YCAB is on track to grow continuously with confidence.

Social Impact
The evolution of YCAB from an impact only to an impact first organization is characterized by a more varied and inclusive way of funding; from a donation-based non-profit to a social enterprise that actively undertakes social investments. Since the beginning, YCAB has run several business units and a cooperative (which later became YCAB Ventures) to run the mission-driven microfinance program.

This business model can be seen in the Premise of Change Model (table below) that links economic empowerment with education. This is the key to YCAB's uniqueness because YCAB believes that education has the ability to cut the poverty cycle in a sustainable manner.

Now, YCAB Ventures has reached 158.013 women who are small business owners, according to the data compiled by the end of June 2019. Most of the women are engaged in retail and catering businesses (food stalls) and with financial support for their businesses, they can now improve their family’s economy. YCAB's micro credit interventions have also been proven to succeed in doubling the women’s profit after two years as active borrowers. In fact, most of them now have savings, which is something they were not able to do previously.

The success of this intervention has been included in the academic journal, Emerald Insight in 2016, which proves that YCAB's mission-driven microfinance (loans conditional to education) has significantly improved community welfare. YCAB's founder believes that education can cut the cycle of poverty in a sustainable manner. With this premise or model of change, YCAB is able to integrate educational programs into economic empowerment programs.P

= YCAB Premise of Change =

Access to Capital >> Stable Income
Since 1999, YCAB has empowered millions of children, youth and their families through education and economic empowerment. YCAB, through YCAB Ventures, strived for ‘mission-driven microfinance’ by ensuring the education of the beneficiary’s children became a prerequisite for their access to microloans. Simply put, beneficiaries (underprivileged women) can borrow 1 million IDR - 5 million IDR (USD70-350) on condition that during their period as an active borrower, their children are prohibited from dropping out of school or these women may invite children around them who have dropped out of school to study at YCAB’s Rumah Belajars.

This is the uniqueness of YCAB Ventures’ program compared to other lending institutions - making microloans as a means to an end, namely education for all. This innovation has helped thousands of children, who were out of school, to continue their education and bringing many marginalized families out of poverty.

From 1999 to July 2019, the total amount ofeconomic empowerment loans that have been disbursed is around 1.3 trillion IDR (USD92 Million) with a Non-Performing Loan level of 5.42%. This system has enabled sustainability for YCAB’s operation.

YCAB Ventures offers investors participation in social investment packages that provide market returns with a five-year tenor and clear social impact to the underprivileged.

Stable Income >> Access to Education
YCAB’s Rumah Belajars are focussed on providing education for school dropouts and underprivileged youth. YCAB provides Basic Education, Digital Inclusion and English Literature certification from local universities and YCAB’s vocational classes are certified by industry leaders.

YCAB offers affordable education, to underprivileged families, at 10,000 IDR / month (+/- US $ 1 / month) per student for all programs.

Access to Education >> Working Graduates
More than 53,000 school dropouts have taken part in YCAB’s RumahBelajars of whom took part in one or more educational programs offered since 1999. Education is great, but what they do after they graduate is a far more important factor that will support them into becoming financially independent individuals. Computer, English and vocational courses will enable YCAB graduates to be better prepared to compete in the workforce. Based on YCAB's Impact Report as of December 2019, 86% of YCAB graduates found jobs after graduation.

Independent Children >> Contribution
The last section of YCAB's model is to enable graduates of the program to contribute back.

After the program graduates become independent, YCAB encourages them to:

- Become a YCAB volunteer

- Becomes teaching staff at YCAB’s RumahBelajars

- Put a portion of their income into YCAB Ventures' social investment

YCAB hopes to create mutual funds, specifically designed for education and economic empowerment, that enables Rumah Belajar graduates to contribute. The funds they invest will become part of YCAB’s microfinance loans creating a circular economy delivering large social impact for others. This is how YCAB creates a cycle of sustainable social change.

Starting with six employees, five advisors, and a number of experts acting as volunteers who helped YCAB when it was founded in 1999, YCAB has now grown into a social enterprise with more than 800 employees. In the past two decades, YCAB has also welcomed and hosted 17,227 volunteers from 33 countries. In terms of programs, YCAB has grown exponentially. In 1999, YCAB impacted over 2,000 youths and now it has expanded to serving more than 3.5 million underprivileged youths.

Funding
YCAB's main funding comes from two sources: Internal and external. CSR funds received from partnerships with local and multinational companies count as external funding, which is being continuously invested in YCAB’s programs. This is YCAB’s definition of "social investment" because their business model is indeed capable of turning CSR funds into a sustainable revolving fund.

Internally, YCAB implemented the shared services method to its other business units and that enabled YCAB to allocate 100% of its public donations to directly support its programs.

Over the years, YCAB has evolved into a social enterprise group with several business units consisting of PT YADA Indonesia, PT Terrazone, PT Terra Klinik, and YCAB Ventures. YCAB Social Enterprise's total assets in 2018 amounted to 152.25 billion IDR. (USD10.8 Million)

Target
After twenty years, YCAB continues to strive towards making a bigger impact on society. YCAB’s target, by 2020, is to have touched the lives of five million youths in Southeast Asia. To achieve this, YCAB uses CSR funding and develops its social investment funds through YCAB Ventures.

In terms of programs, there are several, YCAB plans to improve the quality of Indonesia’s labour pool, especially the youths, such as:

- Developing a healthy lifestyle curriculum with the integration of sports, soft skills, coding and multimedia to be applied at the Rumah Belajar and Community colleges that are under the auspices of YCAB.

- Proposing new community college study programs, which serves as a continuation from YCAB’s Rumah Belajars.

- Providing college scholarships to the children of YCAB Venture’s beneficiaries as a way to improve their children's education

- Preparing inclusive financial products that are more focused on education