Deadline: December 6, 2026
Applications are open for the D-Prize Global Competition 2026. The D-Prize awards startup grants of up to $20,000 to entrepreneurs launching new organizations. They believe the world needs more social impact organizations, and they seed for-profit ventures, NGOs, and charities. They support organizations in any low-or-middle income country where extreme poverty still exists.
They believe social impact organizations are uniquely positioned to distribute an existing product or service known to improve lives where need still exists.
Challenges
- Childhood Diarrhea Treatment: Can you get free ORS and zinc into homes before a child gets sick and prevent one of the leading killers of children under five?
- DMPA-SC: Reach Underserved Populations: Can you distribute DMPA-SC to underserved population?
- DMPA-SC: Improve Provider Training: Can you improve mandatory provider training for DMPA-SC?
- DMPA-SC: Last Mile Inventory Management: Can you improve last mile inventory management of DMPA-SC?
- DMPA-SC: Medical Waste Management: Can you increase safe disposal of DMPA-SC needles?
- Reading Glasses: Can you distribute non-prescription reading/ working glasses to those in need?
- Childcare: Can you help low-income families access quality childcare services?
- ConnectEd Phone-based Tutoring: Can you distribute a phone-based intervention to improve learning?
- Teaching at the Right Level: Can you improve foundational literacy and numeracy in resource-limited classrooms?
- Road Safety: Can you reduce road deaths by replicating a proven public transport safety campaign?
- Government Transparency: Can you monitor and report data to reduce corruption and improve public service?
- Poverty Graduation: Can you provide coaching, capital, and social support to lift people out of ultra poverty?
- Agriculture: Propose Your Own: Propose distribution of an evidence-based agriculture intervention not on the list.
- Post-Harvest Support: Can you provide post-harvest loans and storage technology proven to smallholders?
- Quality Inputs: Can you provide smallholders quality inputs and training to increase their harvests?
- Water Filters: Can you sell ceramic water filters to people in areas without access to clean water?
- Kangaroo Care: Can you provide access to Kangaroo Care (KC), a proven but underused intervention for infants born too soon or too small?
- Oxygen: Can you develop a team of technicians to service and repair existing oxygen concentrators to improve access to medical oxygen?
- Patient Identification: Can you develop a way to identify patients needing treatment for either obstetric fistula, cervical cancer, club foot, or cataracts, then connect them with existing treatment services in your area?
- Maternal Health: Can you train birth attendants to administer misoprostol to prevent maternal deaths from postpartum hemorrhaging?
- Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission: Can you counsel and motivate HIV-positive pregnant women to adhere to their ART regimen, and thus prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission?
- Child Immunization: Can you direct caregivers to bring children to health facilities for routine immunizations that would otherwise not occur?
- Sugar Daddy Awareness: Can you teach Sugar Daddy Awareness to 8th grade classes to reduce unwanted teen pregnancies and HIV infections?
- Propose your own: Pitch distribution of an intervention backed by credible evidence and not on the list.
Eligibility
New organizations only. Most awardees are first-time entrepreneurs who have not yet launched or raised outside funding.
- They especially encourage applicants from low- and middle-income countries.
- Orgs with more than 18 months of full-time operations or more than $30,000 USD raised typically not supported.
Existing organizations considered only if your core focus is distributing an existing, evidence-based poverty intervention.
Application
Select an intervention and be prepared for the following deadlines:
- The Global Competition launches on 14 September 2026
- Early Submission Deadline: 25 October 2026 at midnight PT (Pacific Time)
- Regular Submission Deadline: 15 November 2026 at midnight PT (Pacific Time)
- Extension Deadline: 6 December 2026 at midnight PT (Pacific Time)
For more information, visit D-Prize Global Competition.
