Our Model

DRK’s core competency, validated over and over again, is our ability to find exceptional organizations and support them intensely through a rigorous 3-year period, enabling them to absorb catalytic and transformative capital downstream.

The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (DRK) is a global venture philanthropy firm supporting early stage, high-impact social enterprises. The world urgently needs transformational entrepreneurs and their organizations to take on society’s most complex challenges with innovative pathways to improve the lives of the most vulnerable. We know that these early-stage unrestricted investments, dedicated to exceptional entrepreneurs who are committed to making a difference in the lives of others, are the building block for profound, lasting positive change.

Our model is borrowed from our venture capital legacy. We find, fund, and support exceptional entrepreneurs and partner with them to help their organizations scale and reach their fullest potential. We fund mission-driven, nonprofit and for-profit organizations with three-year unrestricted funding, as we believe that unrestricted capital fuels essential capacity building and innovation in growing organizations, and multi-year funding is critical to enabling early-stage organizations to achieve scale.

Our model is unique.

With a team of experienced operators, sector specialists, and strategic leaders, we provide our entrepreneurs with rigorous support; taking a board seat for three years, often serving as the first truly “outside” board member. We mentor and coach the entrepreneurs and help them to build the capacity of their board and their teams. For almost 25 years, we have helped our portfolio organizations scale promising social ventures. As board members and operating partners, we are capacity builders, strategic partners, and scaling enablers. We are a support team working to strengthen fundraising, build strong and generative governance boards, develop strong leaders, reinforce strategies, cultivate strong and diverse teams, improve organizational effectiveness, and more. We have worked side-by-side as investors and board members to nearly 280 organizations working around the globe and across a wide range of social and environmental issues.

Through their relentless pursuit of transformational change for the most vulnerable, our portfolio organizations have earned prestigious awards and fellowships, highlighting their lasting impact on neighbors, communities, and the world. DRK organizations represent 19% of all Audacious Project awardees and 10% of all Skoll Award honorees.

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Find

Through exhaustive due diligence on hundreds of potential portfolio opportunities, a select group of exceptional leaders and organizations become part of our portfolio.

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Fund

We believe unrestricted capital is the most precious capital that social entrepreneurs need to build their organizations and multi-year funding, as opposed to a one-time grant, is a critical success factor in helping organizations achieve scale.

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Support

We partner with leaders of our portfolio organizations and provide rigorous, ongoing support, including taking a board seat for three years. We work side by side with leaders to help them reach potential and build their organizations to scale.