YSMnation creates meaningful, hands-on learning experiences for young people—but the best experiences don't have to happen in isolation.
We're interested in working with businesses, educators, professionals, community organizations, and others who can bring knowledge, resources, access, perspective, or opportunity into the work.
You don't need to have a fully formed proposal. A good conversation is enough to start.
A young person can learn about money from a worksheet. Or they can sit with someone who makes financial decisions every day.
They can hear what entrepreneurship means. Or they can ask a business owner what happened when their first idea didn't work.
They can build something inside a program. Or they can eventually see how that work connects to businesses, communities, schools, careers, and people outside the room.
We want YSM experiences to create more of those connections.
Learning gets richer when the world outside the room becomes part of it.
Bring expertise, resources, real-world perspective, or financial support into an experience. That could mean helping young founders understand money, supporting program materials, contributing to Market Day, opening doors to a workplace experience, or helping make participation more accessible to families.
We are interested in working with organizations whose work complements ours. That might mean combining expertise, sharing learning opportunities, contributing content or mentors, reaching families together, or exploring a program experience neither organization would build as well alone.
Young people benefit from seeing the people behind real work—not only the polished version of the story. Entrepreneurs and professionals can share experiences, answer questions, offer feedback, introduce a skill, or help founders understand what a particular kind of work actually looks like.
We're interested in conversations with schools and parent organizations that want young people to have more opportunities for hands-on, project-based learning. YSMnation does not currently have a school-based program in operation. We're exploring what that could look like thoughtfully rather than offering a model before we're ready.
Some people want to help without becoming involved in program delivery. Financial support, materials, meals, founder supplies, access to spaces, event support, scholarships, and other resources can all make meaningful experiences possible.
We're beginning to shape the next Founders Lab and are interested in collaborators who can strengthen the experience through expertise, resources, access, or support.
We're interested in ways young people can encounter money concepts through real decisions—cost, pricing, saving, banking, earning, and the responsibilities that come with them.
We're looking for entrepreneurs, professionals, and organizations willing to let young people see more of how real work, problem-solving, and decision-making happen.
We'd like to explore ways partnerships and sponsorships can make high-quality experiences available to more families without weakening the small, hands-on nature of the program.
Young people learn by noticing, building, testing, communicating, and reflecting—not simply by listening.
We design around young people's ideas rather than asking them to reproduce an adult's solution.
The adult's role is to create structure, ask better questions, and help young people move the work forward without taking ownership away from them.
YSMnation is still early. We document what works, pay attention to what doesn't, and expect the model to become stronger through experience.
We're open to many kinds of collaboration, but not every opportunity will be right for YSMnation.
The strongest collaborations will help create a better learning experience for young people—not simply more visibility for an organization.
If both organizations can explain why the collaboration is better for the young person, we're probably asking the right questions.
Tell us who you are, what interested you about YSMnation, and what kind of collaboration you have in mind.
If there's a potential fit, we'll start with a conversation. We can figure out the details from there.
Either is fine.
If you believe young people deserve meaningful opportunities to solve, create, communicate, and contribute, we'd be glad to hear what you're thinking.