With $48M in philanthropic backing, a division of USAID relaunches as a nonprofit

WASHINGTON (AP) — A division of the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated by Trump administration cuts last year was reborn Thursday as an independent nonprofit, allowing its international work to continue in a new form.

This reincarnation of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures as the nonprofit DIV Fund is thanks to $48 million raised from two private donors. It is a rare instance of continuation after the Trump administration froze all foreign funding last year and unleashed Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to tear down the agency that delivered U.S. foreign aid for 60 years.

Out of that destruction, which cost tens of thousands of jobs and caused people around the world to die, many private efforts were made to preserve decades of data and knowledge housed at USAID, help recipients keep vital programs running and reimagine how international development might work.

But few of those efforts have managed to attract the kind of philanthropic funding that the DIV Fund has. Funders, previous grantees and DIV Fund staff gathered in the glass-walled penthouse of a Washington think tank as the sun set Thursday to mark the new chapter. The mood was resolved and optimistic, having found a way to continue where many efforts in international development have been derailed.

“The loss of US government support is a huge blow,” said Michael Kremer, the DIV Fund’s scientific director and a Nobel prize winning economist. "It’s wonderful that private funders have stepped up to help try to fill part of that gap but it’s only filling part of the gap.”

Some of the leaders of the new nonprofit were also involved in directing $110 million from private philanthropy in the past year to projects that lost funding from USAID. Now, the DIV Fund aims to grant out $25 million annually, which represents a little more than half of DIV's budget at USAID.

Their fundraising success has a couple of ingredients.

First, the nonprofit DIV Fund acts like a research and development hub to identify very affordable and efficient interventions and then to support their expansion to scale. As such, their budget is very small compared to programs that treat or prevent HIV or respond to famine, for example.

Then, while they were a division at USAID, DIV had already won outside philanthropic funding, including a $45 million grant from Coefficient Giving, a San Francisco-based funder that is now one of the nonprofit's anchor donors. The other funder is anonymous.

Finally, Kremer said the programs they identify generally get funding from local governments or earn revenue, rather than depending on long term funding from donor countries like the U.S. That path to sustainability is even more important in the face of major cuts to foreign assistance from multiple historic donor countries.

Of the total DIV Fund has raised so far, $20 million has been allocated to former recipients, leaving $28 million for future grants. The fund will have an open call for applications this year, a process they are devoted to because it generates many new ideas.

Within USAID, DIV would sometimes influence other departments and win additional support for projects they'd endorsed. Now, on the outside, the DIV Fund plans to work with major donors like the World Bank and other countries to take up their recommendations and develop their own similar research funds.

Otis Reid, the executive director of Global Health & Wellbeing at Coefficient Giving, said that as the overall amount of official foreign assistance shrinks, it's even more important that what remains is used in the best way.

“It just matters a ton if that money is going towards things that are highly effective or moderately effective or not effective,” he said. “And I think DIV can play a really crucial role in moving things from the not effective to very effective part of the spectrum.”

Many programs that DIV has supported are validated through randomized control trials, a specific kind of research design. Kathryn Oliver, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who studies how evidence informs policy, said while these trials are valuable for answering specific kinds of questions, they cannot give policymakers all the information they need.

“It is the most robust research design for answering questions about the effectiveness of interventions compared to usual treatment, absolutely,” she said of the trials. “But it is not the most robust design for answering any other kind of questions,” like whether populations find it acceptable or how it compares to other approaches.

As a new nonprofit, the DIV Fund is open to working with the U.S. government, cofounder Sasha Gallant said.

The Secretary of State Marco Rubio has characterized USAID as corrupt, costly and ineffective and said foreign aid made governments and large nonprofits permanently dependent on the U.S. While significant amounts of foreign aid funding was cut or clawed back in 2025, Congress recently allocated $50 billion for various foreign assistance programs, significantly more than the administration had requested.

DIV had previously won bipartisan support in part because of the high return on investment that its programs offer, which can also be a very satisfying metric for philanthropic funders.

The DIV Fund won't replace funding for large programs that are already backed by extensive evidence or that may be expensive but valuable, like humanitarian responses. But Gallant said the DIV Fund strongly hopes donor countries continue to fund these other types of programs.

“We absolutely should be delivering en masse the things that increase people’s livelihoods and save their lives and keep kids in school,” she said.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Juliette Seban, the executive director at the Fund for Innovation in Development, speaks at an event Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Moriah Ratner)

Otis Reid, executive director of Global Health & Wellbeing at Coefficient Giving, poses for a portrait Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Moriah Ratner)

Jessica Vernon, founder and CEO of Maisha Meds, speaks at an event Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Moriah Ratner)

Sasha Gallant, cofounder of the DIV Fund, left, Michael Kremer, the DIV Fund's scientific director and a Nobel prize winning economist, center, and Otis Reid, executive director of Global Health & Wellbeing at Coefficient Giving, pose for a portrait Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Moriah Ratner)

Sasha Gallant, cofounder of the DIV Fund, speaks at an event Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Moriah Ratner)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo says he’s healthy and wants to play even as the Milwaukee Bucks continue to say the two-time MVP is too injured to take the floor.

Antetokounmpo missed a 10th straight game on Friday night against the Boston Celtics due to what the team has described as a left knee hyperextension and bone bruise. Antetokounmpo hasn’t played since landing awkwardly during a March 15 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

“I’m healthy,” Antetokounmpo told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Athletic before Friday’s game. “I hate it when people force me to do things against my nature. I’m a player. I get paid to play.”

For the last couple of weeks, Antetokounmpo has participated in pregame warmups without showing any apparent signs of injury.

Antetokounmpo also noted that the Bucks should have known this about him since the 31-year-old has spent his entire 13-year career in Milwaukee.

Throughout that time, Antetokounmpo has had a reputation for rapid returns from injury, most notably when he hyperextended his knee during Milwaukee’s 2021 playoff run but missed two games before returning to lead the Bucks to their first title in half a century.

“You know who you’re dealing with,” Antetokounmpo told reporters. “So, for somebody to come and tell me to not play or to not compete, it’s like a slap in my face.”

Bucks coach Doc Rivers addressed Antetokounmpo's comments after the 133-101 loss to Boston.

“The tough part about all this is that I’m in the middle and I have nothing to do with it,” Rivers said. “Coaches don’t decide any of this. The problem with our league is the coaches are the ones sitting out front. And we have to sit here and answer this stuff. I think there are two sides to this, I will tell you that, but I don’t want to get too involved in it.”

The Bucks still had a remote chance of earning a 10th straight playoff berth at the time of that Indiana game, but they were officially eliminated from contention last week. There’s also the possibility of Antetokounmpo getting hurt again if he returns to action — he has missed a career-high 41 games this season and had two extended absences due to calf strains.

“I understand the circumstances — yes, we’re not going to be in the playoffs,” Antetokounmpo said. “For some people’s eyes, it’s not worth it for me to be out there. But for me, it’s something that goes against my nature.”

Rivers said he has a “great relationship” with Antetokounmpo and that he often talks to the superstar about what to work on and what to add to his game. Rivers added that he didn't like the “he-said, she-said” nature of this dispute and added that “this is a grown man's game, and it should be handled that way by everybody.”

“I just don’t like that this is so public," Rivers said. "This is where grown men get in a room and they talk it out. Whether they agree or disagree, that doesn’t matter. But this should not be public, and I don’t like that.”

Antetokounmpo also wanted the opportunity to play alongside his younger brother, Alex, who made his NBA debut Sunday. There was a possibility of three Antetokounmpo brothers playing alongside each other in the same game, since Giannis’ older brother, Thanasis, also is on the Bucks.

“When my dad passed away, I pretty much raised (Alex),” Antetokounmpo said. “He’s able to be on the team and suit up and chase an opportunity to be great. You really think I don’t want to suit up and play with my brother? Anybody who thinks that is an idiot.”

Thanasis and Alex both played in the closing minutes Friday night, the first time the two brothers had played together in an NBA game.

Antetokounmpo’s desire to play — and the Bucks’ wishes to rest him — drew the attention of the National Basketball Players Association last month.

“The Player Participation Policy was designed by the league to hold teams accountable and ensure that when an All-Star like Giannis Antetokounmpo is healthy and ready to play, he is on the court,” the union said in a statement. “Unfortunately, anti-tanking policies are only as effective as their enforcement; fans, broadcast partners, and the integrity of the game itself will continue to suffer as long as ownership goes unchecked. We look forward to collaborating with the NBA on meaningful new proposals that will directly address and discourage tanking.”

This dispute between Antetokounmpo and the Bucks comes at a time when his future in Milwaukee is uncertain. Antetokounmpo’s name dominated league-wide discussions leading up to the trade deadline, though the Bucks ultimately kept him.

Antetokounmpo becomes eligible to sign a four-year contract extension worth up to $275 million in October. If he doesn’t sign the extension, Antetokounmpo could become a free agent after the 2026-27 season, or the Bucks could decide to trade him beforehand.

Now they find themselves at odds over how to handle the rest of this season.

“I don't think there's a bad person in this group - none of the guys that I'm talking about,” Rivers said. "They're all good people. But we've got to figure out how to put good people on the same page, and it stays inside. I've never been a fan of negotiating in the media. I don't think it's good for anybody.

Antetokounmpo had his own take on how this could be resolved.

“I don’t know where the relationship goes from there,” Antetokounmpo said. “We’ve got to go to couples therapy.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Injured Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo, center right, talks with an official, center left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Boston Celtics, Friday, April 3, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)