What we look for in our investments

We look for innovative solutions to global development challenges with the

potential for substantially greater impact than existing approaches, especially

for poor and vulnerable groups. We identify cost-effective innovations that can

achieve better results than competing alternatives and that have clear metrics for

judging success. See our FAQ for applicants.

Our application questions focus on your innovation and impact, potential to

scale, and team. Below we describe what we look for along each of these

dimensions.

We ask all applicatants to make sure they have read all the

following sections carefully before writing and submitting an

application.

We evaluate our investments within the following

criteria:

Innovation and Impact

Potential to Scale

Team

Innovation and Impact

GIF supports innovations that benefit people living on less than the equivalent

of $5 per day (PPP) in developing countries, and we are especially interested in

innovations that impact people living on less than $2 per day (PPP). We are also

seeking innovations that benefit vulnerable groups such as women and girls, the

disabled, minority or indigenous groups, refugees or displaced communities, or

other vulnerable populations.

We seek innovations with potential to achieve significantly better results for

lower cost than existing solutions. We look for an implementation approach that

is well designed, and that reflects a clear understanding of existing efforts to

address similar problems and the barriers to success. For innovations that are

not expected to require sustained long-term public or philanthropic support, we

look for sound business plans that have potential to generate sustainable profits.

Early stage innovations should have a clear rationale for why the innovation has

the potential to have a greater impact on development challenge(s) and to be

more cost-effective or sustainable than existing solutions. For later stage

innovations, we look for greater evidence of expected impacts and

effectiveness.

We also look for teams that are committed to evaluating their own success, with

plans to collect data or feedback as needed to help inform decisions. We realize

that it is often difficult to predict how an innovation will develop and grow over

time, and we aim to encourage our innovators to continually refine their

strategies as needed during the process of scaling up. This may include testing

the innovations social impact, ability to reach the poor, and commercial viability if relevant. We support innovators who incorporate and generate useful

knowledge - including rigorous evidence of social impacts and learnings about

successful implementation approaches - during their paths to scale.

Potential to Scale

We seek innovations that have potential to eventually scale up and meaningfully

improve the lives of millions of people living in developing countries. We ask

all of our applicants to share their vision and plans for growing their innovations

to a large scale, as we hope that many of the innovations we invest in will

eventually reach this goal. Innovations should have strong potential to be

politically, logistically, and financially viable at scale, whether they plan to

commercialize or attract ongoing public support.

At earlier stages of development, applicants should share their basic vision

about how their innovation could scale up in the future -- we do not expect that

detailed scale-up plans will exist yet. At later stages of development, teams

should be starting to build the management and operational capacity,

partnerships, and/or funding needed to scale and sustain the innovation beyond

the period of GIF-funded activities.

Team

We look for innovators with the relevant expertise and capabilities to achieve

success, with clear roles, responsibilities, and time commitments needed to be

successful. Teams should be able to demonstrate strong knowledge of the

problems they are addressing and what approaches are likely to work in the

local environment surrounding their innovation (e.g. operational, geographical,

political, or social context). It is especially important that teams demonstrate the

ability to identify and respond to risks and changes that are likely to arise as

growth is achieved. We also look for the teams ability to engage effectively with partners in government, private sector, and/or community leaders as

needed.

At earlier stages of development, teams must demonstrate a strong commitment

to drive the innovation forward, with openness and ability to pivot or adjust

their strategies as needed. At later stages of development, teams should

demonstrate that they have the management, operational, and evaluation

capabilities needed to test and scale up the innovation.

What We Look for at Each Stage of Financing

At the Pilot stage, we look for promising ideas and capable teams. We value

any relevant evidence or research findings that demonstrate why your

innovation is needed, such as evidence of customer demand or interest in your

innovation, however, we do not expect that strong evidence already exists to

prove the value of your innovation. At the Pilot stage, detailed operational plans

are not necessary but teams should develop clear metrics to judge success.

At the Test & Transition stage, innovations should have already demonstrated

some initial evidence of success through early pilot-testing. Teams should have

a strong understanding about specific partners, team member capabilities, or

other requirements that will be needed to bring the innovation to a larger scale,

with plans for attracting other sources of financing or support from partners as

needed. During this stage, innovation teams should propose an appropriate

strategy to track and rigorously assess social impacts, cost-effectiveness,

operational feasibility, and/or commercial viability if relevant. This may include

experimenting with different methods of reaching customers or delivering

services. Teams proposing to conduct rigorous impact evaluations should aim to

measure causal impacts of their innovations relative to a control or comparison

group where possible.

At the Scaling Up stage, innovations should have already demonstrated clear

evidence of their effectiveness and potential. The innovation team should be

taking clear steps to build management and operational capacity, partnerships,

and financial support as needed to drive the innovation toward sustainability

and scale. There should also be a commitment to continued monitoring of social

outcomes and implementation costs to ensure ongoing learning and

improvement.

For innovations with scaling up pathways that require sustained long-term

public or philanthropic support, rigorous evidence of social impact and cost-

effectiveness relative to alternative approaches is required at this stage.

Innovations scaling up through commercialisation should be able to

demonstrate that their innovation has passed a market test, meaning that

revenues exceed costs and/or the innovation has attracted further growth capital

from the market.

More details can be found in our FAQ for Applicants.

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