Going to School

What Going to School does

Going to School is an Indian nonprofit trust founded in 2003 and headquartered in New Delhi, with additional offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kishanganj (Bihar), Raichur (Karnataka), and New York. Its mission is to equip young people, with a primary focus on adolescent girls in government schools, with the dynamic skills required to stay in school and transition to sustainable enterprise or employment, using a proprietary design-driven story methodology that delivers content through offline, outside, and online modalities. The organization's product portfolio comprises six interconnected programs — Outdoor School for Girls (its flagship), Football, Entrepreneurial Skills, Climate Change Action, Design to Include Everyone, and Mass Media / Scrappy News — plus a national-television asset called The Children's Scrappy News Service and an associated digital publishing platform at scrappynews.com. Current program activity includes the Outdoor School Expansion 2024 into Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Climate Champions Program across five states, and a forthcoming Design Thinking Curriculum for government school syllabi and an inter-school Football League for Girls.

Going to School operates a donor-funded, grant-dependent business model rather than a fee-for-service one: it does not charge for its educational programs and does not publicly disclose revenue. Income is sourced from three streams: corporate partnerships and CSR grants (Oracle, BT Group, British Asian Trust, Barclays LifeSkills, JP Morgan, Equinix Foundation, Echidna Giving, Ashraya Hastha Trust), foundation grants (notably an eight-year IKEA Foundation partnership disclosed as a $2.7M tranche in 2016 that supported 300,000 young people in 1,000 Bihar government schools), and formal MOUs with state governments — the Government of Bihar covering eight districts under a renewed five-year agreement, and the Government of Karnataka covering Bengaluru, Raichur, and five additional rural districts under a three-year agreement. Direct implementation reaches 3,000+ government schools across India, and a separate 501(c)(3) entity, Going to School USA, was incorporated in New York to pursue international scaling, with The Children's Scrappy News Service format now being adapted into a "Scrappy Mexico" edition.

The organization is led by founder Lisa Heydlauff, who has served continuously since inception, alongside COO Satyam Vyas, and maintains Indian regulatory certifications including 12A, 80G, FCRA (valid through June 2027), CSR (CSR00000592), and DARPAN registration that enable both domestic CSR funding and foreign contributions.

Name

Going to School

Legal name

Going to School

Website

https://goingtoschool.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Going to School is a New Delhi–headquartered Indian nonprofit founded in 2003 that delivers design-driven, story-based education programs to adolescent girls in 3,000+ government schools across India through outdoor, football, entrepreneurial, climate, and media-literacy curricula, funded by foundation grants, corporate CSR, and state government MOUs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Non-profit Girls' Education Programs

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Student Support & Related Services (Counseling, SEL, Health, Safety) (EDAJAAAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Youth-to-Adult Transition & Life Skills (Independent Living, Soft Skills) (EDAAAFAN)

Keywords

• Girls education programs
• Experiential learning design
• Outdoor education curriculum
• Media literacy programs
• Climate action education

Headquarters

HQ city

New Delhi

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Corporate Partnerships and Grants: Going to School receives funding from corporate partners including Oracle, BT Group, British Asian Trust, Barclays, Echidna Giving, Equinix Foundation, JP Morgan, IKEA Foundation, and others. These partnerships support various programs including the Outdoor School for Girls, Climate Change Education, and LifeSkills programs.
2. Government Partnerships: The organization operates through MOUs with state governments including Government of Bihar and Government of Karnataka to implement programs in government schools. The Government of Bihar supports implementation for eight districts in Bihar for five years.
3. NGO/Foundation Support: Funding from foundations like IKEA Foundation supported an eight-year program reaching 300,000 young people in 1,000 Government Schools in Bihar with sustainable entrepreneurial skills education.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Going to School is a non-profit trust that creates design-driven stories and experiential learning programs to equip young people, particularly adolescent girls in government schools, with the dynamic skills needed to stay in school and transition to sustainable enterprise. Its core portfolio includes the Outdoor School for Girls, Football Program, Entrepreneurial Skills, Climate Change Action, Design to Include Everyone, and the Mass Media / Scrappy News program, delivered through school-based, outdoor, and online channels across 3,000+ government schools in India. The Children's Scrappy News Service TV show and Scrappy News digital platform extend its reach via mass media.

Product overview

Going to School is an NGO that makes design-driven educational stories and programs rather than a technology product. The organization offers a portfolio of interconnected programs centered on girls' education and empowerment: the flagship Outdoor School for Girls provides experiential outdoor learning, which is paired with the Football Program to build teamwork and life skills. Entrepreneurial Skills, Climate Change Action, and Design to Include Everyone programs develop practical capabilities, while the Mass Media / Scrappy News program and its associated Children's Scrappy News Service TV series enable media literacy. Current active projects include the Outdoor School Expansion 2024, Scrappy News Digital Platform, and Climate Champions Program, with upcoming launches of Football League for Girls and a Design Thinking Curriculum. The programs are designed to work together to help girls stay in school and transition to sustainable enterprise.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Outdoor School for Girls: Flagship outdoor education program that takes girls beyond the classroom, building confidence, resilience, and leadership through experiential learning in nature.
• Scrappy News / The Children's Scrappy News Service
• Play City

Products and services

• Outdoor School for Girls Flagship outdoor education program that takes adolescent girls in government schools beyond the classroom to build confidence, resilience, and leadership through experiential learning in nature, including survival skills, teamwork, and environmental connection.
• Football Program Sports-based life skills program that teaches girls teamwork, discipline, strategic thinking, communication, perseverance, and goal-setting through football, designed for government school students in India.
• Entrepreneurial Skills Program Program teaching adolescent girls to think like entrepreneurs by identifying problems, designing solutions, and building business plans, cultivating innovation, financial literacy, and the confidence to create their own opportunities.
• Climate Change Action Program Program enabling girls to become climate leaders in their communities, learning environmental science, sustainability, and design thinking to create local solutions to global challenges, leading awareness campaigns and green initiatives.
• Design to Include Everyone Program Program using human-centered design principles to teach girls to create inclusive solutions for their communities, developing empathy, prototyping, and iterative design skills to solve real-world problems.
• Mass Media / Scrappy News Program Media literacy program where girls learn to tell their own stories, create content, and critically analyze media, empowering young journalists to share community stories and develop communication skills through school, online, and TV channels.
• The Children's Scrappy News Service A makeshift news-talk-game show TV series made by children for children, where kids solve problems using scrappy skills and design-thinking, available on national television, online, and through in-school programming.

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Bengaluru FCcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 February 2026Bengaluru FC partnered with Going to School for Match Day 2026, combining football with technology and digital learning for over 2,000 students from 18 government schools.
• Barclays LifeSkillscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBarclays LifeSkills Programme runs in Government Schools in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Kishanganj, Bihar, bringing LifeSkills for present and future work to young people in Government Schools.
• Government of BiharflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Government of Bihar partnered with Going to School for Be an Entrepreneur and Get a Plan (2012-2023) and again for the next five years for eight districts in Bihar, beginning in Kishanganj. Implements programs through formal MOU.
• Government of KarnatakaflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Government of Karnataka supports Going to School to implement the Outdoor School for Girls, skills and football, in Bengaluru, Raichur and five new rural districts for the next three years.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Pratham Education Foundation: One of India's largest NGOs focused on education quality, reaching millions of children through programs like Read India and ASER. Directly comparable to Going to School as a large Indian education nonprofit operating across multiple states with government partnerships, though Pratham's scope is broader (basic literacy + numeracy at primary level) versus GTS's girls' life-skills focus.
• Teach For All: Global network of independent partner organizations (including Teach For India) that recruit leaders to teach in low-income schools. Comparable as a large-scale education NGO operating in India with government school access, though operating through a teacher-placement model rather than content/curriculum delivery.

Emerging players

• Kaivalya Education Foundation: Indian education leadership nonprofit focused on transforming government school leadership and learning outcomes. Comparable as an Indian NGO working inside the government school system on leadership and 21st-century skills, with a similarly small, focused team.
• Storyweaver (by Pratham Books): Open-source digital platform for children's storybooks spun out of Pratham Books, offering free, multilingual illustrated stories for children. Comparable in story-driven content delivery for Indian children, design-thinking-led methodology, and free distribution model — though Storyweaver is digital-first where GTS combines offline + TV.

Direct peers

• Educate Girls: India-focused nonprofit dedicated to enrolling and retaining out-of-school girls and improving learning outcomes for girls in government schools. Highly comparable target beneficiary (adolescent girls in Indian government schools), operational model, and partnership-based funding approach.
• Digital Green: Global development organization that uses video and technology to share knowledge with rural communities, including farmer-to-farmer learning. Highly comparable in using media/TV-format content to deliver behavior-change education at scale in India, and in donor-supported model with similar funders (e.g., Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).
• Room to Read: Global education nonprofit operating in India and other developing countries, focused on literacy and girls' education through content, teacher training, and school partnerships. Closely comparable in mission (girls' education), content-driven methodology, government school implementation model, and reliance on institutional funders.
• Barefoot College: India-based nonprofit training rural women and communities in skills including solar engineering, education, and livelihood. Comparable in rural India focus, women's empowerment mission, government partnership model, and non-formal experiential pedagogy.
• Magic Bus India Foundation: Indian NGO that uses sports and activity-based learning to take children and youth from childhood to livelihood. Comparable in methodology (sport + life-skills + livelihood), target beneficiary (underprivileged Indian youth), and program portfolio structure.

Regional players

• SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association): Indian trade union and women's empowerment organization supporting self-employed women in the informal economy. Comparable in mission to empower Indian women economically and the school-to-enterprise trajectory GTS pursues, though SEWA is a membership organization rather than an education provider.

Market position

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@goingschool
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/going-to-school
• Instagraminstagram.com/goingtoschooloutside
• Xx.com/going_to_school

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Going to School