Who We Are

We believe in keeping things simple, smart, and human. Every project starts with listening and ends with something we're proud to share.

Integrity, creativity, and empathy shape the way we work. These aren't just words—they’re the foundation of everything we build.

The journey of this organization began in September 2019 when I, Pooja Tilvawala, the Founder and Director of Youth Climate Collaborative (YCC), attended the United Nations Youth Climate Summit in New York City. While there, I attended a brainstorming session on financing climate work, led by Youth Climate Lab. This session featured guest speakers from the World Bank, the German government, and others, however none of these individuals had experience in funding youth-led work. This is one instance that made me realize how little people were thinking about youth empowerment. Frustrated by this reality, I asked myself what barriers youth face in trying to get involved and stay involved in the environmental space, and began to brainstorm solutions to this in February 2020, after a conversation and nudge from a professor at American University, my alma mater. Outside of work hours during my full-time job at the Meridian Institute, I poured my passion and ideas into a plan to educate, empower, and activate youth in this space. Months later, in August 2020, as I was researching environmental organizations on LinkedIn, a job position at the The Climate Initiative (TCI) appeared on my screen. At the time, little did I know that that moment would completely change my life for the better. 

TCI is a non-partisan, solutions-based organization striving to develop a cohesive youth voice that influences decision-makers to embrace climate solutions. They aim to educate, empower, and activate 10 million youth to reach this goal by 2025. 

In the summer of 2020, TCI was seeking to engage a recent college graduate, and mover and shaker in the climate space, to serve in a one-year position as their first Climate Career Winner! The application required applicants to submit their plan to educate, empower, and activate youth in the climate space. Sound familiar? It was the perfect job and the perfect moment. I edited the plan I had been working on for months and submitted it. Out of 200 applicants, TCI chose me to be their first Climate Career Winner, affirming my plan, vision, and ability to lead this kind of project. Since mid-November 2020, I have had the privilege and honor of a lifetime to work on my plan full time, with mentorship from the small, but mighty team at TCI. I have since had the means to bring my dream, which was once a two-dimensional draft on paper, to life, all because TCI believed in me and took a chance on me. My draft has now evolved into this organization, Youth Climate Collaborative, and I am beyond excited to learn and grow as YCC contributes to creating a world that enables young environmental leaders to elevate their voice and maximize their impact. With your involvement, together, and united, just imagine what we can achieve!

Onwards and Upwards,
Pooja Tilvawala