Overview

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. Borrowing from our venture capital legacy, we find exceptional entrepreneurs and provide them with:

The core of DRK’s model is deep and extensive operational and technical support for each portfolio organization, both through a dedicated hands-on Board service role and specialist capacity-building resources across leadership and board development, organizational and fundraising capacity building, financial sustainability, and scaling strategy thinking.

This involves one of DRK’s senior team members taking a board service role for a three year period and serving as a resource to help the grantee or investee navigate their pathway to scale, often involving weekly conversations on key issues. There is also engagement with the broader DRK portfolio support team on specific and targeted issues, such as building out fundraising capacity, establishing a talent strategy, or refining financial models. In total, the capacity support can add up to $500,000 USD worth of in-kind support.

DRK provides up to $300,000 USD in either unrestricted grant funding or investment capital over a three-year period, usually in multiple tranches. The exact instrument and tranches are decided in conversation with the grantee or investee during the closing process.

DRK convenes our portfolio and alumni annually, facilitating both in-person and digital connections to and within our community. This ranges from small 1:1 meetings to large 200+ person gatherings, including our three-day annual portfolio retreat.

We invite you to learn more about what we fund and our selection process, and to share your solution with us through our online application.

DRK seeks to be transparent and equitable in its funding application process. The goal of our diligence process is to allow both the applicant and DRK to get to know one another and openly and honestly explore the prospect of collaboration. DRK has specific criteria that it uses to evaluate prospective portfolio organizations – which have been outlined on this page – and not every applicant will complete the diligence process. In those situations, we will provide feedback to help articulate the rationale for our decision, regardless of where we are in the diligence process.

Submit Application: The formal process begins when you submit an application through our website. This enters you into our system and provides us with the initial information we need to assess alignment and fit with our criteria. This stage will take on average 8-10 weeks.

Early Interviews: You will have a few exploratory conversations with a small group of DRK team members so that we can better understand your work and it fits with our impact criteria and aligns with our funding parameters. It is also a chance for you to learn about DRK’s support model, so that you can decide whether we are the right fit for you! These conversations will likely take place via a combination of video, in-person, and email. Roughly 20% of applicants will make it to this stage.

Formal Diligence: The core of our process, which typically takes 2-4 months, is a series of conversations with you and with those who understand your work well, complemented by research of our own. We will request additional materials, including legal and financial documents, and will also co-create a plan for the years ahead. Our hope is that, regardless of the outcome, this process adds value as you plan for organizational growth. Fewer than 10% of candidates from the Early Interviews stage will make it to diligence.

Meet the Team: You will meet another subset of DRK team members, including members of our investment committee, so that we can benefit from our colleagues’ diverse perspectives on this opportunity.

Closing Process: If you progress to this stage, we will complete a final closing documents review to formally finalize the deal. Your incoming DRK board member – who will most likely be the person with whom you interacted most extensively during the interview and diligence process – will start working with you to sketch out a plan for the next three years.