Welcome to the DAK Foundation

www.dakinternational.org

Dave and Kerry Rickards married in 1971, dropped out of university and started a small market stall business in 1972 in Sydney, Australia. They moved into opals and opal jewelry in 1973 and sold the opal business in 1978. During this period they also had 4 children.

In 1979, along with another couple, they established Clints Crazy Bargains – a discount variety store network that grew to over 100 stores by the time it was sold in June 2000.

Dave and Kerry spend the next 10 years travelling the world and trying to understand the most effective way of using their wealth to assist underprivileged communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). They met visited and met with hundreds of  non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in scores of different countries they noted a lot of duplication. They observed much wastage, and a lot of resources dedicated to fundraising and marketing. They also saw a heavy weighting on capacity development in preference to capacity utilization. Most of all they came to understand that the cost of doing business in poor countries was 5 to 20 times cheaper than in their own.

 In 2010 they set up the DAK Foundation as a private ancillary fund (PAF) with a clear intention to identify opportunities to work at scale, given their business background and the funding base they had from the sale of their business. 

In 2015 they worked with 2 other family Foundations to set up Partners for Equity, a DGR1 charity whose purpose is to provide aid to communities that are disadvantaged or living in poverty. At the same time the health sector had become the DAK Foundation’s primary focus because of their access to medical experts and equipment – and the tangibility of outcomes. 

By 2024 it was clear that the scale of the work was moving beyond their own financial capacity, and succession planning was becoming more pressing. On July 1st 2024 the DAK Foundation’s programmes were transferred to a new entity, the DAK International Network (DIN) with their daughter Marnie Rickards and DAK Project Director, Anubha Rawat, as Managing Directors.

Dave and Kerry continue to manage the investments of the DAK Foundation and act as advisors, volunteers and Board members of DIN.

Most of DIN’s funding for the near to medium term will come from DAK, but DIN has the capacity to take in 3rd party donations. 100% of donations will be passed on to DIN partners as the DAK Foundation underwrites the administration cots of DIN. 

Please visit www.dakinterntionalnetwork.org for more details on our programme activities.