What we have been doing.

Invest2Empower featured in the ENGin volunteer newsletter

ENGin — the nonprofit pairing Ukrainian learners with English-speaking volunteers — featured co-founder Aditya Herekar and Invest2Empower in its volunteer newsletter, covering our free financial literacy training videos in Ukrainian and English, which together have reached more than 8,000 people.

The piece also covers what started the work: as the sons of immigrant parents, we watched our families struggle with an unfamiliar financial system and fall victim to scams. Aditya has volunteered with ENGin for more than three years and has pledged support back to the programme.

Read the newsletter

July 2026 · Release

2026 edition of the training videos released

We re-recorded both courses for 2026 — the Ukrainian course and the English U.S. course — updating the figures, examples and screenshots so nothing on screen is out of date. Watching the previous edition? Everything transfers; the 2026 version is simply current.

Both remain roughly 30 minutes, free on YouTube, and free to share with a classroom.

3 November 2025

New training material and tools added

Everyone can now access our 30-minute training video straight from the home page. The learning hub lets you go at your own pace and test yourself with quizzes, and our tools — a budget planner and an interest rate calculator — help you plan for real. Track your progress and watch your horizons expand.

Open the learning hub

July 2025 · Release

2025 edition of the training videos released

The 2025 refresh of both training videos went live: clearer explanations in the sections learners told us were hardest, updated rates and prices, and tighter editing throughout after a year of feedback from students in Ukraine and the U.S.

As always, free, self-paced, and no account required to watch.

19 January 2025

Ms. Tracy Tanner joins as mentor and advisor

Tracy Tanner, Founder & CEO of Wealthy Habits, joined Invest2Empower as a mentor and advisor. With 12+ years in strategic planning and programme development, her expertise in nonprofit leadership, partnership cultivation and curriculum development is helping us expand our reach and sharpen what we teach.

Meet our mentors

5 October 2024

Ava Borkar named Director of the New Jersey Chapter

Ava Borkar, a high school junior from New Jersey, joined as Director of our New Jersey chapter. She is passionate about educational opportunity, youth empowerment and community development, and is pursuing her Girl Scout Gold Award teaching children about civic responsibility.

3 September 2024 · Advocacy

Aditya Herekar presents on financial literacy at Congressman Pallone's 2024 Youth Advisory Council

Co-founder Aditya Herekar presented on financial literacy at Congressman Frank Pallone's 2024 Youth Advisory Council. Working with peers on the economy committee, he helped craft a legislative agenda placing financial literacy at its centre, and was one of two members nominated to present it to the Congressman and the full Council.

Congressman Pallone draws on each committee's agenda to shape the initiatives he brings to Congress.

22 June 2024

New leaders in Texas: Maheen Rafique and Raya Ahmed

Maheen Rafique and Raya Ahmed stepped into leadership as Co-Directors of the Texas chapter, with Maheen also serving as Chief Marketing Officer. Together they lead our Texas outreach — bringing financial knowledge to communities where economic empowerment has been hardest to reach.

12 June 2024

Rayan Batada opens the Georgia Chapter

Rayan Batada, a high school senior from Georgia, became Director of our newest chapter. His commitment to advocacy and community service — local cleanups, shelters, organising — aligns with our focus on minority and underrepresented communities.

31 May 2024

Dr. Jairo Borja joins as mentor and advisor

Dr. Jairo Borja, President of Borja Consulting Group, joined as a mentor and advisor. His work uplifting small business owners and entrepreneurs, and his role at the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, bring us guidance on outreach, partnerships and growth.

5 May 2024

Danylo Bondarenko named Director of the Ukraine Chapter

Danylo Bondarenko, a high school junior from Kyiv, Ukraine, joined as Director of our Ukraine chapter. Passionate about financial education, youth empowerment, and expanding access to practical skills, Danylo brings a strong interest in economics and entrepreneurship and hopes to help more students build the knowledge and confidence to make informed financial decisions.

22 April 2024 · Award

1st place at the 2024 Kean Business Plan Competition

Invest2Empower took first place in the high school division of the 2024 Kean Business Plan Competition, judged by a panel of founders and industry leaders. The award came with $1,000 in funding, which went directly into expanding our reach and building the training material now available free on this site.

December 2023 · Milestone

Invest2Empower recognised as a 501(c)(3) public charity

The IRS granted Invest2Empower tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) public charity, making donations to the organization tax-deductible in the United States and opening the door to grants and institutional partnerships. It also set the standard we hold ourselves to: everything we teach stays free to the people who need it.

October 2023 · Release

The first training videos go live

Three months after founding the organization, we published the original versions of both courses — one in Ukrainian, built around Ukrainian banking, and one in English for underrepresented communities and immigrants in the United States. Written, recorded and edited by two high school students, and free from the first day.

Everything since — the learning hub, the calculators, the 2025 and 2026 editions — grew out of the questions people sent back after watching these.

August 2023 · Milestone

Incorporated as a nonprofit in New Jersey

What began as an after-school idea became a legal organization: Invest2Empower was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in the State of New Jersey, with a board, bylaws, and a written mission to advance financial literacy in underserved communities.

July 2023 · The beginning

Karan Verma and Aditya Herekar cofound Invest2Empower

Two high school freshmen — one in New Jersey, one in Texas — started Invest2Empower on a simple premise: nobody’s ability to manage their own money should be decided by their background or their family’s balance sheet. As the sons of immigrant parents, they had watched their own families navigate an unfamiliar financial system without a guide, and set out to build the guide they wished had existed.

Ukraine was part of the work from the start, and not chosen from a list. Co-founder Aditya Herekar had been volunteering with ENGin, meeting weekly with Ukrainian teenagers, and those conversations kept circling back to money: prices that moved every month, savings that lost value, and families making decisions with no one to ask. A generation was finishing school through air raids, and financial education was the first subject to fall off the timetable.

What material existed was in English, or built around American banks — of little use to a student budgeting in hryvnia. So the plan was two tracks from the beginning: a course in Ukrainian built around Ukrainian banking, and one in English for underrepresented communities and immigrants in the United States.