We Love: Jacqueline Novogratz

There is no other time in recent memory where the global nonprofit sector will see such an enormous demand in the services it provides, and will be weighted down by oppressive shortages in funds and resources. Faced with these dual daunting challenges, we salute Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the nonprofit venture capital firm she founded, the Acumen Fund. Acumen Fund applies business metrics to philanthropy, backing companies in Third World nations that aim for what the Fund terms a “double bottom line”—significant financial return along with meaningful social impact. Raising charitable contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations, the Fund has invested more than $34 million in two dozen businesses in Africa, India, and Pakistan in order to build financially viable organizations that deliver affordable, critical goods and services to under-served groups in these regions. The Fund’s return on investment is only rivaled the progress these organizations have made in combating poverty, disease, and homelessness: The Fund’s many success stories include a drip irrigation program in India, a company that makes long-lasting anti-malaria bednets in Africa, and a group that provides housing for the poor in Pakistan.

A commitment to helping the world’s poor brought Novogratz to her creation of this pioneering organization; before starting Acumen Fund she founded and directed The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership program at the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as Duterimbere, a microfinance institution in Rwanda. With her success at the Acumen Fund (she’s working on raising more than $100 million in donations this year—and is very close to topping this goal) Jacqueline Novogratz is not only teaching the world how to effectively tackle poverty, but she challenges us to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink our engagement with the world. For this, we at Voice—and the rest of the world—say thank you.