News from CASE at Duke, October 22, 2026

The Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business opened applications on October 22 for the 2027 F. M. Kirby Prize for Scaling Impact. The annual global prize awards $150,000 in unrestricted funding to one impact enterprise that has shown results and is positioned to accelerate its impact at scale. Nonprofit, for-profit and hybrid organizations may apply, working anywhere and in any impact area.

CASE measures scale in impact. Applicants need a strategy to substantially increase the breadth or depth of their impact over the next three to five years, and a pathway they have already begun to test. Plans that mainly sustain current programs, or grow them a little at a time, are among the common reasons CASE gives for applications that stop in the first round.

The evidence bar is specific. Eligible enterprises run on an annual operating budget of at least $250,000 and can show at least three consecutive years of KPI data on both impact and reach, with evidence of outcomes. In CASE’s example, a workforce training program that counts the people it trained, without job placement, retention or income gains, would be unlikely to advance. Organizations with budgets above $10 million are typically past the stage the prize is meant for, and past winners had operated for 7–14 years, 11 on average, before they won.

International applicants must have an established presence in the United States, as US taxpayers holding a federal taxpayer identification number. Recognition as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, a US-based fiscal sponsorship agreement or another arrangement can satisfy the requirement; an NGO Equivalency Determination cannot.

Phase 1 closes at 11:59 p.m. US Eastern time on December 2, or sooner if 250 applications arrive first. A subset of applicants moves to a second phase in January, and finalists interview with the selection committee between March 29 and April 8. CASE announces the winner in June 2027. Each finalist receives $1,000 for the time invested, and organizations that reach the second phase get individualized feedback.

The prize is named for the early entrepreneur Fred Morgan Kirby and made possible through a partnership with the F. M. Kirby Foundation. Its 2026 winner, Chancen International, is a nonprofit headquartered in Rwanda that finances tertiary education for underserved young people in Africa through income share agreements. Earlier winners are Solar Freeze (Kenya, 2025), Semilla Nueva (Guatemala, 2024), Essmart (India, 2023), Math Corps (Minnesota, 2022) and Healthy Learners (Zambia, 2021).

The prize page carries the eligibility guidance, the Phase 1 questions, the common reasons applications do not advance, and the slides and recording of an October 15 information session.

Sources: CASE at Duke’s Kirby Prize page, its 2026 winner announcement and its October 22 newsletter. Image courtesy of CASE at Duke.