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Test Bright Ideas Scale What Works
Amidst shifts in the funding landscape, the spending power of low- and middle-income country governments and consumers is the dominant force in development. If we are going to meet tomorrow’s needs with today’s resources, the world needs new tools, better delivery models, and radically less expensive ways of driving impact.
Delivering cost-effective innovations in global development can deliver massive returns, yet R&D in the sector receives just a small fraction of overall investment.
Too many promising ideas go untested, while too many ineffective approaches persist.
We work with urgency to foster, test, and scale innovative ideas that improve the health and welfare of people living in poverty around the world.
What We Do
We fund innovation for global development. We offer three tiers of grants, calibrating funding to evidence and results – support for early pilots, rigorous testing of ideas that have demonstrated success at a pilot level, and large-scale expansion of the solutions that can deliver the greatest impact at scale.
We also offer Technical Assistance to governments, bilateral aid agencies, multilaterals, and philanthropic organizations to help design and implement evidence-driven innovation tools.
By combining rigorous evaluation, strategic risk-taking, and a relentless focus on value for money, the DIV Fund serves as a discovery engine for global development – building a pipeline of evidence-driven innovation so government, philanthropy, and the private sector can bring impact to scale.
We're Looking For The Best Ideas To Measurably Improve Lives
If your organization has an innovation that can significantly improve wellbeing for disadvantaged or vulnerable populations, or that can deliver impact at a fraction of the usual cost, we want to hear from you.
We accept proposals from all organization types operating in any sector or geography within low- and middle-income countries, across a wide range of solution types and paths to scale, including both commercial and public-sector adoption.
Our Investment Thesis Is Simple
We fund bright ideas, rigorously test them, and scale only what proves to cost-effectively improve people's lives.
Evidence of impact
We assess the strength of the evidence that shows a solution delivers impact, and support rigorous evaluations to understand what works - and what doesn’t - to improve people’s lives.
Sustainability and scale
We support innovations with potential to improve the lives of at least one million people, and with a viable path to financial sustainability.
Cost-Effectiveness
We consider the benefits delivered per dollar spent, looking for solutions that can deliver more impact per dollar than comparable alternatives.
Across all stages, we fund according to
three core principles:
Cost-effectiveness
We consider the benefits delivered per dollar spent, looking for solutions that can deliver more impact per dollar than comparable alternatives.
Sustainability and scale
We support innovations with potential to improve the lives of at least one million people, and with a viable path to financial sustainability.
We fund innovation at every stage
We take a portfolio approach to impact. At earlier stages of funding, we look for potential. At higher funding levels, we look for demonstrated results.
We offer grant-based funding across three stages of a solution’s path to scale:
“In the long-run, innovation is the key driver of economic growth and much of human wellbeing. But some types of innovation, for example in delivery of public services, do not generate profits in line with their social benefits. This makes investments in social innovation one of the most cost-effective ways to improve lives.”
Team
The DIV Fund is founded and run by the leadership team behind the Development Innovation Ventures program of the former U.S. Agency for International Development. The Fund’s team includes international development economists and experts in public policy and evidence-driven innovation.
Sasha has spent her career at the intersection of bold ideas and rigorous evidence. Sasha served as the Managing Director of USAID’s Innovation Division and of Development Innovation Ventures.
In previous roles, Sasha supported the work of many data-driven implementers and funders in global development, including helping to launch France's national tiered-evidence innovation fund, FID. Sasha is a former public school educator. She holds a BA from Goucher College and an MPP from Georgetown University.
Michael Kremer is a University Professor and Director of the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago. He is the co-recipient of the 2019 Nobel prize in economic sciences for his work to rigorously evaluate the impact of interventions aimed at reducing poverty and improving health and welfare amongst disadvantaged and vulnerable populations.
His work spans education, health, water, finance, and agriculture in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus on rigorously evaluating what works and bringing proven solutions to scale. He has helped launch and guide initiatives that have reached hundreds of millions of people worldwide, including advance market commitments for vaccines, school-based deworming programs, digital agriculture services, and systems for dispensing safe drinking water. A development economist and social innovator, Kremer co-founded Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) at USAID and served as its Scientific Director.
Jeff Brown is a former Managing Director of Development Innovation Ventures and has served as the CEO of Evidence Action, and as the CEO of the Global Innovation Fund.
Jeff’s earlier career included positions at the Inter-American Development Bank, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the World Bank, and the U.S. Federal Reserve. He holds an MA in Economics from Brown University and an MPA in International Development from Harvard University.
Funders &
Collaborators
We collaborate with funders of all kinds: multilateral, bilateral, national and subnational governments, and private foundations.
Disclaimer: The DIV Fund is an independent 501(c)(3) public charity and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or funded by the United States Government or any of its agencies. Any references to prior activities of Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are provided solely for historical context. The DIV Fund operates as a separate, independent non profit with no legal or financial relationship to any government body.