Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Funding for Early-Stage Social Enterprises

Benefits & funding

• Up to $300,000 USD in either unrestricted grant funding or investment capital, over a three-year period, usually paid in multiple tranches.
• Up to $500,000 USD worth of in-kind support. A senior DRK team member takes a board service role for three years.
• Specialist capacity-building resources across leadership and board development, organizational and fundraising capacity, financial sustainability, and scaling strategy.
• Access to the DRK portfolio and alumni community, from 1:1 meetings to gatherings of 200+ people, including a three-day annual portfolio retreat.
• For-profit applicants are funded at seed to Series A stage. DRK never leads a round.

Eligibility

• The applicant is an organization, not an individual. One or more founders must be full-time or intend to go full-time in the immediate future.
• The organization must already be operating and creating outcomes, meaning post-pilot and pre-scale. Idea-stage and pre-pilot organizations are excluded.
• Age: ideally between two and five years old. Younger and older organizations are considered, but DRK typically does not fund organizations over 10 years old.
• Legal structure: an independent nonprofit (US 501(c)(3) or its non-US equivalent), an impact-first mission-driven for-profit (C corporation, B corporation, or hybrid), or a fiscally sponsored organization with a plan to spin out.
• Scale: a credible plan to reach at least 10,000 lives directly within the next five years.
• Operating geography: Africa (Sub-Saharan), Europe, India, and the United States, plus Latin America in select situations. No nationality, residency, age, or degree requirement applies to the founders themselves.
• Not funded: a project inside an established mature organization (unless a spin-out is planned); an organization whose sole focus is research; programs promoting religious doctrine; US 501(c)(4) organizations; awareness or field-building campaigns; advocacy or policy-focused organizations; for-profits whose investors are primarily focused on investment returns; post-Series A organizations; place-based models with no plan to scale; and programs without an explicit focus on efficacy or impact measurement.

Application process

1. 1
   Answer the short pre-application screening questions on the online form to confirm the organization meets the basic criteria.
2. 2
   Complete the online application, which takes about 30-60 minutes.
3. 3
   Upload a written executive summary, pitch deck, or business plan covering four topics: Problem and Solution, Impact, Scale, and Leader. Financials, impact reports, and other extra materials are welcome but optional.
4. 4
   Attach a standard resume or CV for the entrepreneur or entrepreneurs and key leadership team members.
5. 5
   Submit through the online form. DRK does not accept applications by email.
6. 6
   Wait through the review stage, which takes 8-10 weeks on average. Roughly 20% of applicants reach early interviews, held by video, in person, or email.
7. 7
   Fewer than 10% of candidates from the early interviews stage proceed to formal diligence, a 2-4 month series of conversations with the applicant and with people who understand the work well, plus DRK’s own research.
8. 8
   Finalists meet the wider team and go to the investment committee, then move into closing, where the funding instrument is settled and a board member is assigned.

Program timeline

1. Year-round

   Applications accepted, no deadline

2. 8-10 weeks after submission

   Application review

3. After review

   Early interviews, reached by roughly 20% of applicants

4. 2-4 months

   Formal diligence, reached by fewer than 10% of candidates from the early interviews stage

5. After diligence

   Meet the team and investment committee review

6. Closing

   Funding instrument settled, board member assigned

7. Three years

   Funding tranches, board service, and capacity support