A division of the shuttered by Trump administration budget cuts last year was reborn Thursday as an independent nonprofit, enabling its international work to proceed in a new guise.
This revival of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures into the nonprofit DIV Fund is due to $48 million raised by two private donors. It is a rare case of continuity following the Trump administration’s last year and Elon Musk’s being unleashed to dismantle the agency that had operated for 60 years.
Amid that devastation, which entailed and resulted in , numerous private initiatives were undertaken to safeguard decades of data and knowledge stored at USAID, assist recipients , and what could be effective.
However, few of those endeavors have succeeded in attracting the sort of philanthropic funding that the DIV Fund has. Funders, former grantees, and DIV Fund staff assembled in the glass-enclosed penthouse of a Washington think tank as the sun set on Thursday to commemorate the new phase. The atmosphere was determined and hopeful, having discovered a means to carry on where numerous international development efforts had faltered.
“The loss of US government support is a substantial setback,” stated Michael Kremer, the DIV Fund’s scientific director and a Nobel laureate economist. “It’s great that private funders have stepped in to help attempt to fill some of that gap, but it’s only addressing part of it.”
Some of the leaders of the new nonprofit also played a role in channeling over the past year to projects that lost funding from USAID. Presently, the DIV Fund intends to disburse $25 million annually, which accounts for a bit more than half of DIV’s budget at USAID.
Relationships with donors and niche focus help boost fundraising
The nonprofit DIV Fund’s fundraising success has several components.
First, the nonprofit DIV Fund functions as a research and development hub to identify highly cost-effective and efficient interventions and then to back their expansion to scale. Consequently, their budget is considerably smaller than programs that tackle HIV treatment/prevention or famine response, for instance.
Second, when they were a division within USAID, DIV had already secured external philanthropic funding, including a $45 million grant from , a San Francisco-based funder that is now one of the nonprofit’s key donors. The other funder remains anonymous.
Lastly, Kremer noted that the programs they identify typically obtain funding from local governments or generate revenue, rather than relying on long-term funding from donor countries such as the U.S. This path to sustainability is even more critical in light of significant cuts to foreign aid from multiple longstanding donor nations.
New possibilities outside of USAID
Of the total amount the DIV Fund has raised thus far, $20 million has been earmarked for former recipients, leaving $28 million for future grants. The fund will issue an open call for applications this year, a process they are committed to as it fosters numerous novel ideas.
Within USAID, DIV would occasionally influence other departments and secure extra support for projects they had backed. Presently, externally, the DIV Fund intends to collaborate with major donors such as the World Bank and other countries to adopt their recommendations and establish their own analogous research funds.
Otis Reid, the executive director of Global Health & Wellbeing at Coefficient Giving, stated that as the total amount of official foreign aid decreases, it is even more crucial that the remaining funds are utilized optimally.
“Whether that money is directed toward highly effective, moderately effective, or ineffective initiatives is of utmost importance,” he stated. “And I believe DIV can play a very pivotal role in shifting things from the ineffective to the very effective end of the spectrum.”
Numerous programs supported by DIV are verified via randomized control trials, a specific research design. Kathryn Oliver, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who focuses on how evidence shapes policy, noted that while these trials are valuable for answering specific types of questions, they cannot provide policymakers with all the information they require.
“Without a doubt, it is the most robust research design for addressing questions about the effectiveness of interventions relative to standard treatment,” she said regarding the trials. “But it is not the most robust design for addressing any other types of questions,” such as whether populations find it acceptable or how it compares to other approaches.
Future relationship with U.S. government uncertain
As a new nonprofit, the DIV Fund is open to collaborating with the U.S. government, co-founder Sasha Gallant stated.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described USAID as corrupt, expensive, and ineffective, and claimed that foreign aid made governments and large nonprofits permanently reliant on the U.S. Although substantial foreign aid funding was cut or reclaimed in 2025, Congress recently allotted $50 billion for various foreign assistance programs, which is considerably more than the administration had proposed.
DIV had previously gained bipartisan support in part due to the high return on investment its programs provide, which can also be a highly gratifying measure for philanthropic funders.
The DIV Fund will not substitute funding for large programs already supported by substantial evidence or those that may be costly but valuable, such as humanitarian responses. However, Gallant stated that the DIV Fund fervently hopes donor countries continue to finance these other types of programs.
“We definitely should be comprehensively delivering the things that enhance people’s livelihoods, save their lives, and keep children in school,” she stated.
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