Based on USAID Model, DIV Fund Launches to Support Global Development
The DIV Fund launches as a new, evidence-driven open innovation fund for global development, designed to test and scale solutions with the potential to cost-effectively improve millions of lives worldwide.
In a moment of historic declines in official development assistance, the DIV Fund fills a critical gap in development funding by serving as a research and development engine for potentially breakthrough ideas and building a pipeline for the most effective solutions to be taken to scale. Along with direct grantmaking, the DIV Fund offers technical assistance to other global funders, including governments, bilateral aid agencies, multilaterals, and private philanthropic organizations to develop or refine their own evidence-driven innovation tools.
The DIV Fund builds on a proven model, first developed within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as the Development Innovation Ventures program, to identify which development solutions deliver the greatest impact per dollar spent. Former leadership of the program are launching the DIV Fund, and have raised $48million to date to carry this approach forward as an independent nonprofit organization.
“The DIV Fund exists to cultivate a pipeline of solutions – backed by rigorous evidence – that can improve millions of lives at a fraction of the usual cost,” said Sasha Gallant, DIV Fund co-founder and CEO.
New Fund Selects for Cost-Effectiveness and Potential to Scale
The DIV Fund welcomes innovative proposals from any organization working across any sector to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in poverty. The Fund selects for cost-effectiveness and scalability, applying a tiered funding model in which larger investments are tied to stronger evidence of impact.
This approach draws on rigorous evaluation methods pioneered by Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Kremer, co-founder and Scientific Director of the DIV Fund.
“In the long-run, innovation is the key driver of economic growth and much of human wellbeing,” said Kremer. “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.”
The fund’s investment model has yielded clear results. Analyses show that the DIV Fund’s approach has delivered an estimated $39 in social value for every dollar invested, far exceeding typical estimates for traditional aid.
Examples of innovations supported through this model include:
- Mobile software for frontline health workers, originally supported as a pilot, and now used in more than 130 countries and helping deliver critical services to over 400 million people.
- Evidence-based education programs that are delivering the equivalent of an additional 3 years of high quality schooling at $5-50 per student per year, and have scaled to 80 million children across Africa and South Asia.
- High-efficiency, clean cookstoves that have saved customers an estimated $2.3B across 6.3M stoves sold, by reducing fuel use.
The DIV Fund’s leadership raised an initial emergency round of $20M to support innovations from the Development Innovation Ventures portfolio that lost grant funding when USAID was dissolved. Philanthropic donors have since committed an additional $28M to date to deploy over the next four years.
“The DIV Fund is a discovery engine for cost-effective, high-impact interventions. They don’t just invest in what already exists: they build what comes next,” said Otis Reid, Executive Director for Global Health and Wellbeing at Coefficient Giving, a philanthropic supporter of the DIV Fund. “Coefficient Giving is proud to support the relaunch of the fund at this critical moment of need and we look forward to the DIV Fund building on its successes and catalyzing the next generation of interventions that can move the needle on health, education and economic opportunity."
The DIV Fund plans to open for new applications by mid-2026, inviting innovators around the world to submit ideas with the potential to deliver outsized impact.
Quotes from Grantees and Supporters
Jonathan Jackson (CEO of Dimagi, a DIV Fund grantee): “DIV’s staged, evidence-driven funding model gave Dimagi exactly the kind of early, flexible funding we needed to productize CommCare. Their support allowed us to rapidly engage with dozens of partners, learn what worked (and what didn’t), and build the foundation of the platform that now supports hundreds of thousands of frontline workers globally.”
Pranav Kothari (CEO of Educational Initiatives, a DIV Fund grantee): “The DIV Fund’s support played a critical role in shaping how we at Educational Initiatives approach innovation, evidence, and scale in public education systems. Beyond funding, the advisory engagement pushed us to test bold ideas, rigorously examine what works, and continuously strengthen our operating model within government contexts. [...] This engagement has significantly accelerated our journey toward creating a world where children everywhere are learning with understanding, while demonstrating how innovative, cost effective learning solutions can be embedded sustainably within public systems.”
U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX): "I have long supported the DIV approach to maximize the effectiveness of development assistance programs through testing new ideas and prioritizing funding to scale up the kinds of development assistance programs that have been proven to be cost-effective and impactful. This approach was highly effective at USAID, and I have long championed bipartisan legislation to expand and build upon this model. I congratulate the DIV Fund inworking with the private sector with philanthropic support to build on this successful approach and provide additional opportunities to identify highly effective interventions and scale them up. The DIV Fund has the opportunity to broaden adoption of the proven DIV approach and serve as a complement to U.S. and international development assistance programs."
Joaquin Castro has served as a U.S. Representative from Texas since 2013 and is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Former U.S. Representative Mark A. Green (R-WI): “We used to say that the DIV model was “ahead of its time.” It’s pretty clear that its time has arrived. The DIV Fund is a critical element in our new framework for international development.”
Mark Green served as USAID Administrator from 2017-2020 and formerly served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and as U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania
Former U.S. Representative Ted S. Yoho (R-FL): "The U.S. foreign assistance apparatus is undergoing the most fundamental reorganization and reform since its inception more than sixty years ago, and the future of U.S. assistance must be more focused on how to make every dollar go further in achieving development impact and in advancing U.S. global interests. Investing in new development innovations should be a centerpiece of this approach, and the new DIV Fund provides a model for government and private sector donors on how to harness ingenuity to solve complex development challenges and to put partner countries on a path to prosperity and self-reliance."
Ted Yoho served for 8 years in the U.S. House, where he was Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Asia-Pacific Subcommittee, Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Effective Foreign Assistance, and the lead author of the BUILD Act, which established the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
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