Social Entrepreneurship

Acumen Fund's Jacqueline Novogratz publishes "The Blue Sweater"

by Nathaniel Whittemore

category: Nonprofits And Giving

Published March 04, 2009 @ 11:01AM PT

The Acumen Fund is one of the most exciting nonprofits in the world. Recognizing that there are immense opportunities to build businesses that address health, poverty, and enegery challenges if the financial capital markets could be brought to bear at the base of the pyramid, the Acumen Fund makes investments in developing world entrepreneurs.

The Acumen Fund's founder Jacqueline Novogratz has just published "The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World." I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but its getting incredibly positive reviews. It's hovering around #50 on Amazon with a 4.5 start average review, and BusinessWeek gave it four out of five stars as well, saying:

The lessons are compelling, but much of the power of The Blue Sweater comes from Novogratz herself. She's often entertaining, recounting the tale of an impromptu dance-off with women after her car broke down in a rainstorm. At the same time, she can be a brutal self-critic, particularly as she describes stepping away from her American upbringing to learn the culture and way of life in Africa.

At times, her tales are upsetting. She tells of visiting post-genocide Rwanda in 1997, looking to track down the initial supporters of one of her first ventures, a microfinancing organization called Duterimbere. Her account about trekking to a remote jail to talk with one of the women, imprisoned for helping to instigate the genocide, is matter-of-fact and yet astonishingly personal. Her confusion at meeting Agnes, a woman who had worked so hard to elevate the lives of so many women and yet had also committed inhuman acts of atrocity, is palpable and unresolved. It's a reminder that people are complex and contradictory, and also that real people are at the heart of economic statistics. For Novogratz, that's the most important story of all.

This is definitely a must-read for social entrepreneurs, and I'll be looking forward to sharing my thoughts a little later. For now, check out an interview with Novogratz published on the McKinsey Quarterly: