The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (DRK) is a global venture philanthropy firm supporting early stage, high-impact social enterprises. The world urgently needs transformational entrepreneurs and their organizations to take on society’s most complex challenges with innovative pathways to improve the lives of the most vulnerable. We know that these early-stage unrestricted investments, dedicated to exceptional entrepreneurs who see the possible, are the building block for profound, lasting positive change.
Our model is borrowed from our venture capital legacy. We find, fund, and support exceptional entrepreneurs and partner with them to help their organizations scale and reach their fullest potential. We fund mission-driven, non-profit and for-profit organizations with three-year unrestricted funding as we believe: 1) unrestricted capital fuels essential capacity building and innovation in growing organizations, and 2) multi-year funding, as opposed to a one-time grant, is critical to enabling early-stage organizations to achieve scale. We target organizations that are well positioned to reach 10,000 lives or more within five years of operation and with the probability of impacting 1,000,000 lives or more over ten years and clear visibility towards systems change thereafter.
For almost 20 years, we have helped our portfolio organizations scale promising social ventures. As board members and close partners, we are capacity builders, strategic partners, and scaling enablers. We are a support team working to strengthen fundraising, build strong and generative governance boards, develop strong leaders, reinforce strategies, cultivate strong and diverse teams, improve organizational effectiveness, and more. We have worked side-by-side as investors and board members for Kiva, Room To Read, One Acre Fund, Cowtribe, Last Mile Health, Living Goods, SIRUM, Braven, Detroit Justice Center and over 180 other organizations working around the globe and across a wide range of social and environmental issues.
We are a high-energy, super curious, low-ego, and inclusive team motivated by a shared commitment to improving the lives of vulnerable or marginalized populations and leveraging our individual and collective skills to advance compelling organizations and committed leaders. With a deep appreciation for one another and the diversity of perspectives and expertise that each member of the team brings to DRK, we work in close partnership to find, fund and support some of the world’s most high-impact, early-stage social ventures.
We are deeply committed to a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace where everyone is welcomed, valued and supported. We know that a diverse workforce allows us to see problems in more nuanced ways, creating the thought leadership needed to find, fund and support entrepreneurs and organizations who can change the world. We actively recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. DRK is an equal opportunity employer and encourages people from all experiences, abilities, and perspectives to apply.
The Foundation is chaired by legendary venture capitalists William H. Draper III and Robin Richards Donohoe and former HBS Professor and Vice-Chair of Goldman Sachs and current CEO of Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, Robert Kaplan, and funded by legendary investors and foundations committed to making a difference in the lives of others.
How our Analysts fit into DRK’s workOur Analysts work across the full span of DRK’s mission in collaboration with our team, from helping us develop our perspective on specific issue areas, to sourcing and evaluating potential grant/ investment opportunities, to supporting active DRK portfolio organizations’ top priorities in strategy, finance, communications, and more. The Analyst role is designed to help our entire team bring a rigorous analytical lens to our work. Analysts have a unique level of access to both our Diligence & Investment team and our Portfolio Support team, and to the inspiring entrepreneurs we all support together, and as such we aim for this role to be one of best options in the sector to launch your social impact career.
What you’ll help our team doTime allocations below are intended to give a sense of the role; they will vary over time and by individual.
Find some of the world’s most incredible social entrepreneurs with big ambitions to make the world better (~25% of your time)
- Build our knowledge and spot potential deals in specific areas by leading research on issues that are of particular interest to our team – and to you
- Stay on top of trends in social/environmental issues and keep a pulse on new organizations, social impact innovations, and peer organizations
- Work closely with our Diligence team to assess the 1000+ applications DRK receives each year for fit with our funding focus (e.g., scalability, significant potential for impact, strong leadership)
- Support our outbound sourcing efforts by representing DRK at sector events
Engage in a world-class decision process with a world-class team (~25% of your time)
- Bring rigorous, critical analysis to our venture capital-inspired “diligence” process by leading our research on active deals. This typically involves leading targeted research such as:
- How large is this market?
- What is the scope of this social/environmental issue?
- What are the root causes of this social/environmental issue?
- Is this deal differentiated from existing solutions?
- How does this industry work?
- Support our efforts to track and analyze the strength and diversity of our deal pipeline, and the efficiency of our process
Support our portfolio entrepreneurs to build strong enterprises (~50% of your time)
- Work closely with our Managing Directors, Portfolio Support team, and entrepreneurs on a project basis, leading projects that support decision making within our portfolio organizations, such as go-to-market strategy, pricing, cost analysis
- Create standout materials that showcase our organizations’ inspiring work, such as pitch decks and 2-pagers
Use the DRK platform to build your social impact career
- Take the opportunity to lean into your strengths while adding value to DRK. There will be opportunities to take on projects that build on your individual strengths and interests.
- We are committed to supporting your career path. Get exposed to an unparalleled range of organizations and issues, while also building expertise in fields where you have or want to gain perspective.
Who you are:
- Curious and smart. Your open and creative intellect will enable you to identify new analytical approaches, to learn on the job, and to spot opportunities to support our work. Your strong judgment will enable you to distill keen insights out of complexity. Our team values well-informed opinions and respects good listeners. You do as well.
- A great communicator. You can capture the heart of an issue, why it matters, and what to do next, both in written and verbal communications.
- Flexible, self-directed, and ego-free. Your flexibility, levelness and sense of humor will help you to get things done in our entrepreneurial environment, to keep multiple (very different) balls in the air at the same time, and to respond with openness to our analytical priorities. You see no task as too large and no task as too small.
- Collaborative. While you are self-directed in your own work, you value working with a team. You are energized by working with many different types of people and you bring empathy and professionalism to both internal and external interactions.
- Organized and highly mature. You have superb project management skills and exceptional attention to detail. You are comfortable collaborating with senior stakeholders. You have a good sense of what input you might need from others to further your work, and you aren’t afraid to ask for guidance.
- Relatively early in your career, but curious and passionate about social impact. You likely have around 1-3 years of professional work experience, ideally with some analytical and/or presentation building experience, and you are poised to work effectively and efficiently with a busy team. You might not have prior experience in social impact, but you are open to seeking guidance when an issue or methodology is new to you.
This position is full-time, salaried, with benefits.
LocationWe are a global organization with staff in Africa, Europe and across the U.S. This role can base out of San Francisco/Menlo Park or out of Boston where much of the DRK team is. DRK is office-optional/remote through summer 2021 and as of September 7th we intend to be back in the office a minimum of 3 days a week.
