This funding opportunity is particularly distinctive and warrants a thorough assessment to determine its relevance. The DIV Fund is not a conventional grant with a fixed funding amount and a straightforward application process. Instead, it operates as a multi-layered investment model that emphasizes rigor, evidence, and scalability. Its approach is more comparable to the evaluation methods used by venture capital firms or research funding organizations when assessing potential investments. Because the funding model is detailed, the following sections examine it sector by sector to provide a clearer understanding.
1. What the DIV Fund Actually Is
The DIV Fund is a specialized fund that seeks new ideas capable of improving the lives of people living in poverty around the world. It supports solutions that are evidence-based and capable of being implemented at large scale rather than remaining limited to small geographic areas. The fund describes itself as a "discovery engine for global development", reflecting its objective of identifying new and innovative approaches capable of generating substantial improvements in people's lives. It functions as a pipeline for identifying and supporting promising ideas that could eventually reach millions of people. Its overall objective is to generate meaningful and cost-effective social impact through evidence-based interventions.
The fund is structured to maximize the social benefits generated by its investments. It does this through three levels of funding, each with its own requirements based on three central principles: evidence of effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and potential for large-scale and sustained impact. As the level of funding increases, the requirements become more demanding. At the initial stage, the fund focuses on promising ideas and credible plans for generating development impact. At higher funding stages, applicants are expected to provide increasingly strong and rigorous evidence of results. This creates a progression in which promising ideas are initially identified and tested, effective innovations are subsequently evaluated more rigorously, and successful approaches are eventually supported in scaling and expansion.
2. What Counts as an "Innovation" Here
The DIV Fund adopts a broad definition of innovation that extends beyond gadgets and new technologies. Any approach capable of generating greater impact at lower cost or with greater efficiency may qualify. Eligible innovations may include new products, services, policies, programmes, or improved methods of delivering existing interventions. An innovation may be entirely new, represent a modified version of an existing approach, or involve a relatively small process improvement that generates substantial benefits.
The fund also supports efforts to determine whether widely used development approaches are effective by generating rigorous evidence. Consequently, organizations that are already implementing programmes but lack sufficiently strong evidence of their effectiveness may also be eligible for support to strengthen their evidence base.
3. Where the Fund Operates
The DIV Fund focuses on innovations addressing major challenges in low- and middle-income countries as categorized by the World Bank. This includes most African countries. In evaluating proposals, the fund considers the extent to which an innovation is likely to improve people's lives, with particular attention to lower-income populations.
The fund's assessment framework gives greater weight to projects that benefit people with lower incomes rather than primarily benefiting wealthier populations. This approach is intended to ensure that funding generates the greatest possible social benefit among populations with the greatest need. By prioritizing disadvantaged populations, the DIV Fund seeks to support interventions capable of producing significant and lasting development outcomes.
4. Who Can Apply
The fund is open to a broad range of applicants, including non-profit organizations, social enterprises, universities, and research institutions. It also accepts applications from technical assistance providers supporting government innovation, as well as businesses and partnerships involving different types of organizations.
The fund is particularly interested in ideas with the potential to generate meaningful impact at scale. Organizations with promising innovations and credible potential for development impact may therefore be considered. The opportunity is structured as an open call rather than a narrowly targeted funding programme, allowing different types of eligible organizations to submit proposals demonstrating strong potential for impact.
There is, however, a clear restriction regarding individual applicants. The DIV Fund cannot provide funding directly to individuals. Eligible applicants must therefore be public organizations or recognized legal entities, such as companies or non-profit organizations. Organizations that are uncertain about their eligibility are expected to contact the fund directly for clarification rather than relying on assumptions about their status.
5. The Three Core Evaluation Principles (Applied at Every Stage)
Every application, regardless of the funding stage being sought, is assessed according to three core principles. However, the standards associated with each principle become progressively more demanding as the requested level of funding increases.
Evidence of impact: All applicants must present a credible theory of change grounded in existing evidence. This represents a clear and logical explanation of how proposed activities are expected to generate meaningful change. The strength of the evidence supporting the theory of change directly affects the strength of an application.
The fund values outcomes with intrinsic importance, including improved health, higher earnings, and academic achievement. It may also accept evidence of intermediate outcomes where a rigorous causal relationship with important end outcomes has already been established elsewhere. For example, increased vaccination rates may be considered an intermediate outcome where an established evidence base demonstrates their relationship with improved health. "Rigorous evidence" specifically refers to causal measurement demonstrating that an innovation caused an improvement rather than merely being associated with that improvement.
Cost-effectiveness: The fund seeks innovations capable of generating greater impact for each dollar spent compared with existing alternatives. Cost-effectiveness does not necessarily mean being the cheapest option; rather, it involves achieving the greatest level of impact relative to cost. This can be achieved through lower implementation costs, greater impact, or a combination of both.
Applicants are therefore expected to clearly explain the assumptions underlying their cost projections and the evidence supporting their impact estimates. This includes providing information on current costs and projected costs if the innovation is implemented at scale. Such information enables the fund to determine whether an innovation is not only promising but also capable of generating meaningful impact in a financially efficient manner.
Scale: The DIV Fund supports innovations with genuine potential to generate impact at scale. The fund typically defines "at scale" as improving the lives of at least one million people over ten years, although particularly compelling cases involving unusually large benefits may qualify even when reaching a somewhat smaller population.
The fund evaluates proposals according to their intended pathway to scale, and this distinction remains important throughout the application process.
Public pathway: The innovation is designed to scale through government, donor, or philanthropic funding.
Commercial pathway: The innovation is designed to scale through market mechanisms, customer payments, advertising revenue, or similar commercial revenue streams.
Hybrid pathway: The innovation combines commercial revenue with public or philanthropic funding. Applicants following this pathway must demonstrate how the relevant criteria are satisfied for each component of the funding model.
6. How "Expected Social Return" Actually Gets Calculated
Understanding the factors that drive the DIV Fund's funding decisions is important for assessing its approach. The fund essentially seeks to determine how much social benefit a particular project could generate relative to the amount of funding required. Key considerations include the level of impact generated per person, the cost per unit of impact, the potential scale of the intervention, and, most importantly, the extent to which DIV funding increases the likelihood that the innovation will reach scale. The latter is referred to as the "catalytic" effect and represents an important consideration in the fund's decision-making process.
For example, an innovation that generates $5 in annual value per person while costing $3 per person to implement may initially appear only moderately attractive when tested among a small population. However, if DIV funding substantially increases the probability that the innovation will be adopted nationwide and eventually reach 100 million people each year, the potential social value becomes considerably greater. At that level, the same intervention could generate approximately $200 million in annual social value. This illustrates why the fund places significant emphasis on scalability rather than evaluating whether an innovation works only within a small pilot population.
The fund also considers changes in income relative to existing income levels rather than focusing solely on absolute monetary gains. For example, a $10 increase for an individual earning $100 per month is considered equivalent, in proportional terms, to a $20 increase for an individual earning $200 per month. This approach places significant emphasis on improvements among lower-income populations.
For health outcomes, the fund treats saving a life as equally valuable regardless of the individual's income level. However, the practical application of this principle tends to favor areas where high levels of illness or mortality mean that interventions can potentially save larger numbers of lives. This approach allows funding decisions to prioritize areas where the potential for aggregate social impact is greatest.
7. The Three Funding Stages in Full Detail
Stage 1: Piloting — Up to $200,000
The primary objective of Stage 1 is to support the testing of new ideas in real-world settings. To qualify for this stage, an innovation should have progressed beyond the prototype phase and be ready for testing with a relatively large group of people, potentially numbering in the hundreds or thousands. Innovations that remain purely conceptual or are still confined to laboratory development would generally not be sufficiently advanced.
Stage 1 pilots can involve assessing whether users want a particular product or service and determining how much they are willing to pay for it. The stage can also be used to test different methods of delivering products or services, gather user feedback, and determine how an innovation performs under real-world conditions. Applicants are also expected to track the effects of the innovation on people's lives and assess implementation costs. This information can help organizations refine their innovations and establish a stronger basis for subsequent funding and scale.
Regarding evidence expectations, causal evidence of impact is not necessarily required at the beginning of Stage 1. However, applicants are expected to present a strong and well-developed theory of change, together with a clear explanation of why the innovation is likely to generate greater development impact than the existing situation.
Applicants following a public pathway are expected to include plans for testing the innovation on a smaller scale so that more rigorous evaluation can be conducted by the end of the project. Commercial-pathway applicants, by contrast, should have plans to assess customer willingness to pay and demand for the product or service. These assessments help determine whether an innovation is commercially viable and capable of generating meaningful impact.
Applicants are also expected to explain their current costs and how those costs are likely to change as the innovation expands. They should identify the assumptions underlying these projections. At this early stage, perfect cost data are not necessarily required, but applicants should demonstrate that their understanding of cost-effectiveness is informed by available evidence and data.
Scale expectations: Applicants must demonstrate that their innovation has genuine potential to reach millions of people. They should explain how the innovation could realistically be financed at scale and identify potential sources of financing, adoption, and long-term sustainability. Existing partnerships are not necessarily required at this stage.
Stage 2: Testing and Positioning for Scale — Up to $500,000
Stage 2 involves testing an innovation and positioning it for eventual scale. Funding can reach $500,000 and, in exceptional cases, may increase to $750,000.
Purpose: Stage 2 determines whether an innovation measurably improves people's lives and whether it has a genuinely viable pathway to scale. Applicants should generally have completed successful pilot testing, either with or without previous DIV support, and should be prepared for rigorous impact or market-viability testing.
Evidence expectations vary according to the pathway being pursued. Public-pathway applicants that do not already possess strong evidence supporting their claims are expected to generate such evidence during the award period. Applications should include basic information about the proposed study design, including the groups being compared, the method for assigning units, and the approach for calculating statistical power. If an application progresses, a complete study design may be required.
The evaluation should have sufficient statistical power and a credible counterfactual. This will often involve a randomized controlled trial or a well-designed quasi-experimental method, such as regression discontinuity design. Such approaches increase confidence that observed outcomes can reasonably be attributed to the innovation and strengthen the credibility of the resulting findings.
Commercial-pathway applicants do not necessarily need causal evidence of impact, although such evidence can strengthen an application. Greater emphasis is placed on a strong, evidence-based theory of change, a plan for collecting data on the use of the innovation, and a credible case for market success.
Commercial applicants should demonstrate that the innovation can either generate sufficient revenue to cover its costs when scaled or has a strong likelihood of attracting commercial investment on standard market terms by the end of Stage 2. Applicants are not necessarily disadvantaged for choosing subsidized financing where both subsidized and commercial financing are available. The key consideration is whether the innovation demonstrates an ability to attract commercial capital rather than whether commercial financing is ultimately used.
Hybrid-pathway applicants must demonstrate that any subsidy requested is justified by the social benefits generated. In particular, the subsidy covering costs that commercial revenue cannot meet should be supported by evidence demonstrating that the resulting social benefits justify the public or philanthropic contribution. The fund's example involving cookstoves illustrates how applicants can demonstrate both commercial demand and measurable social benefits.
Cost-effectiveness expectations: Applicants should either have already conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis or present a credible plan for doing so during the award period. This should include current and projected costs, major cost drivers at scale, and a detailed comparison of cost per unit of impact against relevant alternatives.
Regarding scale, applicants should have a clear understanding of the financial resources required and how those resources will be secured. Strong proposals are likely to demonstrate established relationships with relevant partners, distributors, customers, or other actors required for implementation at scale. Government letters of intent can also strengthen a proposal by demonstrating potential institutional support and a credible pathway to adoption.
Stage 2 is also open to ideas focused on generating evidence for widely used development approaches that have not yet been sufficiently evaluated. Applicants pursuing this type of research must demonstrate that the findings could influence policy decisions. The proposal should therefore establish why the study is necessary and how its findings could contribute to meaningful policy change.
Stage 3: Transitioning to Scale — Up to $1.5 Million
Stage 3 focuses on taking innovations that have already been tested and expanding them to wider populations. Applicants reaching this stage should already have demonstrated that their innovations work and are cost-effective, commercially viable, or both.
Stage 3 funding can support activities such as adapting an innovation to new contexts, accelerating the scaling process, providing technical assistance for public-sector implementation, and determining whether an innovation continues to perform effectively across different settings. The overall objective is to support the transition from tested innovation to large-scale impact.
Evidence expectations: Public-pathway applicants must already possess rigorous causal evidence of impact, demonstrated before application through a credible counterfactual method, together with a compelling cost-effectiveness case at scale. Commercial-pathway applicants must already have demonstrated market viability consistent with Stage 2 standards. Stage 3 funding for commercial innovations is intended to support adaptation or expansion into new markets rather than core existing operations. The fund also seeks to avoid replacing private investment that would otherwise occur without DIV support.
Regarding cost-effectiveness, applicants must demonstrate that their innovations can reach large numbers of people or achieve specific outcomes without becoming prohibitively expensive. They should provide realistic estimates of the cost of helping one person or achieving a particular outcome. Applicants must also demonstrate that their cost structure can remain sustainable as operations expand.
This may involve demonstrating that current costs are already relatively low or presenting a credible plan for reducing costs through scale efficiencies. Examples include bulk purchasing or distributing manufacturing costs across larger production volumes.
Regarding scale, applicants must present a strong plan demonstrating how DIV support will contribute to long-term sustainability and growth. The plan should explain how costs will be covered over time and how partnerships will contribute to continued implementation. Applicants should also have appropriate partnerships and delivery systems capable of supporting large-scale implementation. Existing commitments from governments or philanthropic organizations can strengthen an application by demonstrating a credible pathway to scale.
8. Practical Details Across All Stages
Awards may have a duration of up to five years, with project timelines expected to correspond to the objectives and activities proposed by applicants. Maximum funding amounts are $200,000 for Stage 1, $500,000 or, in exceptional cases, $750,000 for Stage 2, and $1.5 million for Stage 3. These amounts represent maximum awards rather than guaranteed funding levels. Actual awards depend on the specific needs and requirements of individual projects.
The fund encourages applicants to request only the amount of funding genuinely required to achieve the proposed objectives rather than seeking the maximum available amount.
The DIV Fund places considerable importance on co-funding, although co-funding is not mandatory. The fund also considers the opportunity cost associated with not deploying its resources elsewhere and how this affects overall cost-effectiveness.
A central objective of the DIV Fund is to act as a catalyst for change. This means that its funding should enable progress that would otherwise be unlikely to occur. Applicants should therefore clearly explain why DIV funding is necessary at the particular stage of development and how the grant would specifically accelerate or enable progress.
This consideration is an important part of the evaluation process because the fund seeks to ensure that its resources generate additional impact rather than simply replacing funding that would otherwise be available.
Who This Is Actually Useful For
The opportunity is not a conventional scholarship or general-purpose grant available to any applicant. It is relatively specialized and is most relevant to organizations and institutions developing, testing, evaluating, or scaling evidence-based development innovations.
Potentially relevant applicants include:
African non-profit organizations and social enterprises already implementing a piloted or tested intervention with real, even if preliminary, evidence of impact.
University researchers and research institutions working on development interventions that require funding to generate or strengthen causal evidence.
Technical assistance providers supporting government innovation that may apply on behalf of or alongside a public-sector partner.
Businesses with social-impact models, particularly those following commercial or hybrid pathways to sustainability.
Organizations already implementing established programmes without rigorous evidence, particularly because DIV explicitly supports evidence generation for widely used development approaches.
Given the technical and evidence-intensive nature of the application process, organizations considering the opportunity should carefully assess which stage corresponds to the current maturity of their innovation. Applicants should avoid selecting a funding stage solely because it offers a larger award. Instead, the appropriate stage should be determined by the existing evidence, level of testing, cost-effectiveness analysis, scalability, and readiness of the innovation.
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