Hello! Thank you so much for contacting us.
The Youth Entrepreneurship project sounds like a great effort. I’d start by doing a quick search, if you haven’t already, to find out what other communities might be doing in this area. You can often find best practices in many areas through this kind of search. I’d also suggest contacting people involved in any program that seems like a good model for your community.
More specific to your question, check out the following chapters and resources on the Community Tool Box (/en/table-of-contents) for some guidance on fundraising, recruitment and evaluation.
Chapters 6 and 7 (Promoting Interest and Participation); Toolkit 8 (Increasing Participation and Membership)
Chapter 22 (on Youth Mentoring – not exactly what you’re doing…but similar)
Chapters 36 – 39 (Evaluating Programs and Initiatives); Toolkit 12 (Evaluating the Initiative)
Chapters 42-44 (re: Financial Resources); Toolkit 14 (Writing a Grant Application)
All of these activities are critical to developing a successful program and it’s great that you’re thinking in these terms right off the bat.
Finally, I’d also encourage you to look into information on youth involvement in developing/leading this kind of program. There are a lot of programs that successfully involve youth in leadership/decision-making in these types of efforts and are that much stronger for it!
I wish you the best in your efforts!
