First: who is who
Three kinds of people join CanvasCode, and the labels can blur. In plain words:
What is a partner organization?
An organization that already cares for children every day — a children’s home, shelter home, school, or NGO. Example: a children’s home in Hyderabad with forty children in its care. Partners host the Canvas Year on their premises; we bring everything else at no cost.
What is a company or foundation partner?
An organization that contributes resources — funding, devices, software, curriculum, or employee mentor time. Example: a software company donating laptops for a device lab, or sponsoring a cohort. They never work with children directly; their resources reach children through partner organizations.
What is a mentor — and how is that different from a trainer?
A mentor is a vetted volunteer who coaches a small group of young people remotely — reviewing work, writing feedback, a few hours a month. A trainer is paid CanvasCode staff who runs the monthly sessions in person and owns the cohort. Mentors advise; trainers run the room.
Can one organization be both?
Yes. A company can fund a device lab and its employees can volunteer as mentors. A school can host a cohort and its alumni can mentor. The paths are separate so each one is clear — not because you must pick only one.
Who can’t apply?
Individuals seeking direct, unsupervised contact with children outside the mentor path. Every adult near a child goes through background verification and safeguarding training, and all contact happens through supervised channels — there is no other route, for anyone.
Everything else
Is CanvasCode a registered nonprofit?
Not yet — honestly. Registrations are in progress in India (Section 8 company, then 12A/80G) and the United States (501(c)(3)). Until they complete we take no donations and run no programs with children. The registrations page on /transparency fills in as they land.
Where does the money go?
Nowhere yet — we are not taking donations until we can receipt them properly. From the pilot onward we publish program cost per child and annual audited financials, so donors fund a number they can interrogate.
Why children under 18? Why child care institutions?
Because the system has a documented cliff: an estimated 50,000 young people age out of India’s child care institutions every year at eighteen, most unprepared to earn. Everyone else catches them after the fall. We build the earner before the cliff — starting years earlier, inside the institution.
Do you run children’s homes yourselves?
No — and we never will. The organizations caring for children daily are better at it than we would ever be. We partner with them and bring what no single home can build alone: skills, mentors, income pathways, and a global network.
Can I volunteer remotely?
Yes — mentoring is remote-first by design. You coach a small studio of young people through monthly missions: reviewing work, writing structured feedback, a few hours a month. Everything runs through supervised channels after verification and training.
When does giving open?
When registrations complete and we can issue proper receipts in both countries. Pledge on /give and we’ll tell you the moment it happens.
How do you protect children?
Background-checked adults only, a two-adult rule for every interaction, mandatory reporting under POCSO, documented guardian consent, no identifiable child imagery, and children’s data minimized and never used for profiling or AI training. The full policy is public at /child-safeguarding.
What happens after I submit an interest form?
A person — not a pipeline — reads it and replies within a week to set up a conversation. If it goes well on both sides, we’ll invite you to a fuller application. Nobody creates an account just to raise a hand.
Something we didn’t answer? Ask us directly.