Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation accepts applications for funding year round. Completing an application is the first step of our process and allows us to get to know you and your social enterprise so we can begin assessing your organization’s alignment with our funding thesis.
To help make this process manageable and accessible, we have designed the application to be relatively simple and minimally burdensome. The online application should take about 30-60 minutes to complete. If you would like to save your progress and resume later, please be sure to check the box at the top of the online form to save your information.
Please upload with your application a written executive summary, pitch deck, or business plan document addressing the following topics. Please feel free to reuse or repurpose existing materials if you feel that they would provide relevant information.
If you don’t have existing materials, you can create a simple two-to-three-page document responding to each of the prompts below; please note that responding in bulletpoints is acceptable. Again, note that DRK encourages you to use existing materials if they already sufficiently address these prompts, rather than creating new materials.
You can find a template below.
Please do not email the template to our team.
You must submit an application via the link below for our team to review and proceed.
Any additional materials (e.g., financials, impact reports, etc.) are welcome, but completely optional.
Note that organizations may re-apply up to twice, no sooner than one year after a decline notification from DRK regarding any previous applications. You will be asked to indicate that this is a re-application in the organization name field of the form. If you have any questions about re-applying, please email info@drkfoundation.org.
Problem and Solution
- Please succinctly describe the mission and objectives of the organization.
- Please describe the social problem your organization addresses.
- Please describe the solution your organization provides.
Impact
- Please explain how your organization solves (or contributes to solving) the social problem in a way that improves on existing efforts.
- Please explain how your solution supports an underserved population, including the benefits that population has seen from your pilot(s).
- Please explain how your approach is unique, including in comparison to other initiatives or organizations addressing the same problem if possible/relevant.
- Please describe the organization’s tangible results to date, detailing how you plan to measure organizational outcomes and success in the future.
Scale
- Please explain how you plan to scale the organization over time.
- Please explain the main sources of earned income that your organization will use to sustain your work over time.
Leader
Please attach a standard resume/CV for the entrepreneur(s) and/or key leadership team members (e.g., CEO, COO, ED, etc.). Applications with text bios for entrepreneurs or members of the leadership team will not be considered.
