At DRK, our work is guided by a singular belief: that finding, funding and supporting exceptional social entrepreneurs and the organizations they start is the foundation for creating profound and lasting impact for those most vulnerable in our world and its most vulnerable populations. Since 2002, we have invested in more than 130 organizations, many of them legendaryincluding Kiva.org, Room to Read, One Acre Fund, Living Goods, Last Mile Health, Crisis Text Line, and EducationSuperHighway; and newly named 2018 Skoll Award winners, myAgro and Global Health Corps, to name just a few. [...]

In February, the New Venture Competition’s Social Enterprise Track received a record 69 entries. Sixteen semifinalists presented at the end of March to expert judges from the field, who selected our four finalists. Learn more about each finalist team… [...]

I spent most of my career harnessing the power of business to effect positive social change. Before and after attending HBS, I helped grow Working Assets (now Credo, founded by Laura Scher, MBA 1985) into a successful social enterprise that has generated more than $80 million for nonprofits. Whereas Working Assets is a for-profit enterprise whose business model includes 1% of revenue being donated to nonprofits, Accion Chicago is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to build communities through entrepreneurship. [...]

In 2018, the HBS New Venture Competition—an annual student competition sponsored by Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise Initiative—received a record 69 entries to the Social Enterprise Track. After an extensive review and deliberation process with social enterprise leaders from across Harvard, the Social Enterprise Initiative just announced the 16 semifinalists in the Social Enterprise Track. [...]

In 2008, I quit my job and moved from New Jersey to Nigeria to work for the Clinton Health Access Initiative. My new job had me traveling all over the country to see if HIV drugs were correctly moving to hospitals and clinics from the central medical warehouses, and if HIV patients were correctly moving through the health facilities to get proper care and treatment. On one of many road trips in northern Nigeria, I looked up and noticed that almost everything outside the car was covered in tomatoes – there was red as far as the eye could see. I asked a Nigerian colleague why all these tomatoes were hanging out by the side of the road, and he told me that this happened every year: a seasonal glut caused prices to crash and forced farmers to try to salvage their losses by sun-drying the tomatoes and saving them for the rainy season when the fruits were scarce. [...]