I started Marpu Foundation when I was eighteen years old.
I had no funding. No connections. No experience running anything larger than a college club. I did not know what a trust registration was. I had never written a proposal in my life.
Six years later, Marpu operates across 23 states with over 250 corporate partners and more than a million volunteers. We have implemented projects worth crores and built a team that runs programs I could never have imagined in 2019.
I am not sharing this to impress you. I am sharing it because if I could do this starting from absolute zero, you can create real impact too.
But there are things I wish someone had told me when I started. Things that would have saved me years of confusion and mistakes. This is what I have learned about how young people can actually create social impact in India.
Stop Waiting for Permission
The biggest thing holding young people back is waiting.
Waiting to finish college. Waiting to get a job first. Waiting to have money. Waiting to have experience. Waiting for someone to tell them they are ready.
Nobody is going to tell you that you are ready. You become ready by starting.
When I registered Marpu, I was a college student with no business being a founder. Every logical argument said I should wait. Get a degree first. Work somewhere to learn how organizations run. Build savings so I have a safety net.
If I had listened to that logic, Marpu would not exist.
The truth is that there is never a perfect time to start. You will never feel fully prepared. The gap between where you are and where you need to be will always look impossibly wide.
You close that gap by moving, not by waiting.
Start With What You Have
Young people often think they need resources before they can create impact. Money, connections, infrastructure, a team.
You do not need any of that to start. You need to start to get any of that.
When I began, my resources were a smartphone, a few friends willing to help, and weekends that were not filled with anything important. That was enough to organize our first activities.
Those first activities, however small, created proof. Proof that we could execute. Proof that people wanted to participate. Proof that communities welcomed our efforts.
That proof attracted more volunteers. More volunteers meant larger activities. Larger activities attracted attention. Attention brought our first partnerships.
Everything compounds. But the compounding only starts when you begin with whatever you have right now.
Solve Problems You Actually Understand
Many young people want to create impact but do not know where to start. They look at the world’s problems and feel overwhelmed. Poverty, education, healthcare, environment, gender inequality. Everything feels urgent and everything feels too big.
Here is my advice. Start with problems you have actually seen.
When I was growing up, I noticed specific things in my community. Specific gaps. Specific needs. These were not abstract global issues. They were concrete problems I had witnessed with my own eyes.
Starting with problems you understand gives you an advantage. You know the context. You can recognize what solutions might actually work versus what sounds good on paper. You can talk to affected people as a peer rather than an outsider.
You do not need to solve climate change on day one. You need to solve one specific problem in one specific place. Scale comes later.
Build With People, Not For People
Early in my journey, I made a mistake that many young changemakers make. I designed solutions and then tried to convince communities to adopt them.
This does not work.
Communities know their problems better than you do. They have tried things. They know what has failed before. They understand constraints that you cannot see from the outside.
Real impact happens when you work with communities rather than for them. When you listen before you propose. When you ask what they need rather than assuming you know.
This shift in approach changed everything for us at Marpu. We stopped arriving with predetermined solutions. We started arriving with questions. What is the biggest challenge here? What has been tried before? What would actually help?
The answers shaped our programs. And because communities had input into the design, they had ownership of the outcomes.
Learn to Tell Your Story
Impact that nobody knows about does not spread.
I was uncomfortable with self-promotion when I started. It felt wrong to talk about the work when the work should speak for itself. I thought focusing on communication was vanity.
I was wrong.
Storytelling is not vanity. It is how you attract volunteers, partners, funding, and attention to causes that need all of those things.
When you share your work authentically, you inspire others. You give potential supporters a reason to join. You create visibility for issues that would otherwise remain invisible.
I had to learn to talk about Marpu’s work. To write about it. To document it. To share it on platforms where people could discover us.
That communication brought us volunteers from across India. It brought us corporate partners who found us through our content. It brought us opportunities that would never have come if we had stayed silent.
Tell your story. Not to boast, but to build.
Embrace Being Underestimated
When you are young and trying to create change, people will underestimate you.
They will assume you are not serious. They will expect you to give up when things get hard. They will treat your efforts as a hobby rather than a mission.
This used to frustrate me. Now I see it as an advantage.
When people underestimate you, they leave space you can fill. They do not see you as competition. They do not guard their territory against you. They give you access because they do not think you are a threat.
Use that space. Show up consistently. Deliver what you promise. Over time, the same people who underestimated you will become your advocates.
Being underestimated is only a disadvantage if you let it stop you. If you keep going, it becomes part of your story.
Find Your People
Creating impact alone is possible but painful.
The journey is long. There will be setbacks. There will be moments when you question everything. Having people who believe in what you are building makes those moments survivable.
I was fortunate to find people early who shared my vision. Teammates who showed up when there was no money, no recognition, and no certainty. Friends who encouraged me when I doubted myself. Mentors who guided me through decisions I had no framework for.
Finding your people takes effort. Attend events where changemakers gather. Join communities focused on social impact. Reach out to people whose work you admire. Most will not respond. Some will. Those connections matter more than you realize.
Learn to Handle Failure
If you are trying to create real impact, you will fail. Repeatedly.
Projects will not go as planned. Partners will back out. Volunteers will disappear. Communities will reject your ideas. Funding will fall through.
Every single one of these things has happened to me. Some of them have happened multiple times.
The question is not whether you will face failure. The question is how you will respond to it.
Failure teaches you what success never can. It shows you where your assumptions were wrong. It reveals weaknesses in your approach. It forces you to adapt.
The founders and changemakers who create lasting impact are not the ones who never failed. They are the ones who failed and kept going.
Think Longer Than Others
Most people think in weeks or months. They want quick results. They lose interest when progress is slow.
Real social impact takes years.
When I started Marpu, I was not thinking about what we would achieve in six months. I was thinking about what we could build over decades. That long-term orientation shaped every decision.
We invested in things that had no immediate payoff but would matter over time. Building systems. Developing team capabilities. Creating processes that could scale. Nurturing relationships even when they had no obvious benefit.
Six years later, those investments have compounded enormously. Things we built in year one are still serving us. Relationships we nurtured early have become our strongest partnerships.
Think longer than others. Play games that compound over time.
Impact Is Not a Career Detour
Some young people see social impact work as something you do before your real career starts. A gap year activity. A resume builder. Something to tick off before getting serious.
That framing is backwards.
Creating impact is not a detour from your life’s work. For some of us, it is the work.
I could have pursued conventional career paths. I had opportunities. But I chose to build Marpu because I believed it was the most valuable thing I could do with my time on this planet.
That belief has only strengthened over six years. The skills I have developed, the people I have met, the experiences I have had, none of them would have come from a conventional path.
If you feel called to create impact, do not treat it as a phase. Treat it as a path.
Start Today
The difference between people who create impact and people who talk about creating impact is simple.
One group starts. The other keeps planning.
You do not need more preparation. You do not need more resources. You do not need more clarity on exactly how everything will work out.
You need to take the first step. Then the next one. Then the one after that.
Six years ago, I took a first step that I could not see the destination for. Today, I am still walking. The destination keeps moving further. But the path has become clearer with every step.
Your path is waiting for you to start walking.
If you are a young person thinking about creating social impact and want to talk through your ideas, feel free to reach out. I cannot promise I will have answers, but I am always happy to listen.
Write to me at hi@kadiriraghuvamsi.com.
