It is with great sadness that after the extraordinary effort by the staff of Up with People, we have to shut down the Voices program and efforts. The Tour of India and the program Voices was designed and orchestrated with great care and a wonderful opportunity for the youth of the world to travel, learn and make a difference, but the financial needs were not able to be fulfilled and the Board of Directors has had to make the difficult decision to cease the efforts.
Up with People is not filing for bankruptcy and is not closing. We will maintain the organisation with its endownment and other assets and liabilities. We are closing the Voices program which has not been able to live up to our financial expectations.
Following our Covid shut-down, Voices was developed after significant research and feedback from young people, students, alumni, foundations and sponsors with the aim to establish a modern program that fit the current interests and needs of students and with a formal curriculum, metrics and outcomes which are required in fundraising today. We lowered the tuition to make the program more accessible and hired professional youth development and fundraising professionals to make the program a reality. The feedback to our first Voices tour through Latin America in the autumn of 2023 were extremely encouraging and we decided to develop 3 programs for 2024 (LatAm, USA and India).
Unfortunately, earlier this year we had to cancel the LatAm and USA tours due to a lower than expected interest of students and funders. All our efforts went into our India tour, which would have been an amazing experience for all involved. However, we are disappointed that we have not been able to raise the required funds to make this tour possible. Even our Board Matching Campaign of $100,000 specifically targeted to alumni fell short of its target.
For the near future Up with People will stay dormant till the Board decides the next strategy. Several alumni have presented ideas how Up with People can continue to make a difference in the world and we are always open to your ideas.
We want to thank Seema Srivastava and her amazing staff for all their efforts over the last 2 years. We have also seen a growing number of alumni and other donors and we thank you for your support, your money along with the board’s match will stay with the endowment. However, unfortunately there remain too few of us willing to fund the program to make our operations viable at the current time.
The Up with People Board of Directors
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