D-Prize

D-Prize (www.d-prize.org) is a San Francisco based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with a mission to increase access to the world’s most effective poverty interventions. We believe that many effective interventions already exist, and the major bottleneck is mass-scale distribution.

For example, vaccines are a proven, cost-effective intervention that have existed for generations. A standard suite of childhood vaccines cost $20, and is recommended by the WHO as a “best buy” in terms of impact. Yet 1.5 million children die every year because they did not have access. Better distribution will directly save lives.

Our mission is to create the next wave of companies and NGOs that can mass-distribute proven interventions such as vaccines to millions of people. Our core program is a social venture competition: we challenge aspiring entrepreneurs to design better ways of distributing a proven poverty intervention, and then award the most promising entrepreneurs seed capital to launch a pilot venture. In our first four years, we have helped launch 75 new ventures, which have gone on to help hundreds of thousands of people gain access to life changing interventions. You can view the entrepreneurs we have supported at www.d-prize.org/#entrepreneurs.