Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Grants

The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation provides grants to early-stage social entrepreneurs working on scalable solutions to pressing social and environmental issues. By supporting organizations with innovative approaches and proven impact, they aim to uplift underserved communities globally. The foundation offers operational support, funding of up to $300,000 over three years, and fosters a collaborative community among its portfolio organizations. They focus on candidates demonstrating measurable impact and sustainable growth potential.

Background
Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation seeks to dramatically improve the lives of underserved communities across the globe by supporting scalable, innovative, and impact-first solutions that leverage existing systems and stakeholders. Our goal is to find social entrepreneurs with dynamic products or services that have a proven ability to positively impact the lives of underserved people, and nurture those organizations at the early stages by providing capacity, capital, and community.
Our application process is designed to be open and accessible, and we accept applications year round from across our priority geographies and sectors.

• Capacity

The core of DRK’s model is deep and extensive operational and technical support for each portfolio organization, both through dedicated hands-on Board service and specialist capacity-building resources for fundraising, board and organizational development, leadership, financial support, and scaling strategy,
Capital
DRK provides up to $300,000 USD in either unrestricted grant funding or investment capital over a three-year period, and
What We Fund
DRK Foundation funds early-stage social impact organizations solving the world’s biggest social and environmental problems using bold, scalable approaches.
What stage of growth does DRK Foundation typically fund?
Early stage: Organizations who are early stage, which we define as post-pilot and pre-scale. This typically means:
Your program, product or service is already being used in the market or in the field, You have early indication that your model is having its intended impact on the beneficiary populations,Your organization is relatively young (ideally between two and five years old, although we will consider both younger and older organizations).
Venture funding: In the case of for profits, we typically support Seed to Series A organizations, and never lead rounds; we also generally but not exclusively refrain from participating in financings exceeding a $15M USD post-money valuation.

Eligibility

What are the attributes of a strong DRK candidate organization?Problem-firstOrganizations addressing an urgent or critical social or environmental problem in an innovative fashion and in a way that directly benefits underserved populations.Systems-thinkingOrganizations whose solutions work within existing systems, leveraging existing stakeholders, infrastructure, and incentives to grow their impact.ScalableOrganizations whose solutions can scale significantly, in that they can grow exponentially over time to directly impact a minimum of 10,000 lives within the next five years, and ambitions to grow well beyond that.Geographically-alignedOrganizations operating in our priority geographies of Africa, Europe, India, and the United States, although we will also consider opportunities in Latin America and Israel in select situations.Independent entitiesOrganizations who are structured as independent nonprofit or impact first, mission-driven for-profit entities, including US 501(c)3 and its non-US equivalents, C corporations, B corporations, hybrid organizations, and fiscally sponsored organizations where there is a plan to spin out.Financially sustainableOrganizations who have at least a growable stream of earned income revenues, or who have plans to develop an earned income revenue stream in the immediate future.Measurable evidence of impactOrganizations who are developing solutions based on data and clear evidence of what works, and who through their pilot(s) have a demonstrated ability to clearly and effectively measure their impact on underserved populations.

Ineligibility

What is not eligible for DRK funding?Idea stage or pre-pilot / pre-product stage organizations, or post-Series A stage organizations.Organizations older than 10 years. No exceptions.Solutions who do not have a primary or predominant focus on supporting a vulnerable, marginalized, or otherwise underserved communityInnovations that do not integrate with or otherwise seek to align with established stakeholders or distribution channels in the targeted sector.Place-based models, or organizations that otherwise do not plan to expand or scale their impact in an exponential fashion to achieve their mission.Projects or programs housed within another organization (e.g., fiscal sponsor), unless there is an explicit plan to spin out said project or program as a standalone entity in the immediate or near-term future.Organizations whose primary focus is awareness, advocacy, policy change, or field building campaigns.Organizations whose sole focus is the development of research without accompanying direct intervention (e.g. think tanks).Programs without an explicit focus on efficacy and/or impact measurement.Programs promoting religious doctrine.US 501(c)4 organizations, S-Corps, Partnerships (LPs or LLPs), LLCs, or investment funds.