The Acumen Fund

... you'll automatically be making a donation to The Acumen Fund, working to solve global poverty. As a matter of fact, all of our lenses donate 100% of the earnings to Save The Children or The Acumen Fund.

Doesn't that feel good?

Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund targeting the four billion people living on less than $4 a day. Its aim is to help build financially sustainable and scalable organizations that deliver affordable critical goods and services that improve the lives of the poor. Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund.

Acumen Fund seeks to set the global standard for how to affect wide-reaching social change in poverty alleviation and private sector development by:

1. Identifying extraordinary social enterprises with innovative approaches to serving the world's poor in the areas of health, water, and housing;


2. Supporting these enterprises to become financially sustainable and scalable with equity and debt financing and intensive management support;


3. Creating the standard for measuring the social and financial returns of these investments and establishing a position of thought leadership based on these successes;


4. Building a global community of professionals (staff and Fellows), donors, institutional partners and social entrepreneurs capable of deploying financial, human and intellectual capital to solve some of the most intractable problems of poverty.

Since its start five years ago, Acumen Fund has begun to prove that it can raise large amounts of philanthropic capital ($30m + since inception) and cost-effectively invest this money in enterprises that will both achieve high impact social change and return capital for future investments. As of March 31, 2006, Accumen Fund had $11m in investments under management in the following countries: India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt and South Africa. It has additional commitments approved by its investment committee of $8m in new investments pending final documentation. By year end, Acumen Fund seeks to have $20m in investments under management.

One of these investments is in IDG India. Here, for example, Novogratz has shown that a small investment by a farmer ($20, $40) in drip irrigation translates to a 2-4 (fold or percent?) increase in yield, sometimes within a single harvest.

The Acumen Fund has an Acumen Fund Fellows Program which selects young professionals each year and provides them with the chance to effect real social change through Acumen portfolio organizations in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, India and Pakistan. The Fellows spend one year, starting in September, working with the Acumen team and local entrepreneurs. 2007 Acumen Fellows include Keely Stevenson - Tanzania (who blogs on her experience), Jocelyn Wyatt - Kenya, Eric Berkowitz - China, Nadaa Taiyab - India, Ayeleen Ajanee - Pakistan, David Lehr - India, and Ayeleen Ajanee - Pakistan. The organization is supported by Google.org For more, see Wikipedia, Acumen Fund.

Social Edge is the global online community where social entrepreneurs and other practitioners of the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources, one of whome is Keely Stevenson, a 2007 Acumen Fund Fellow.

Here are their blogs...

Drishtee ~ Building Economic Opportunity in Saurath Bihar

Advanced Bio-Extracts (ABE) ~ Two Pronged Social Impact

Medicine Shoppe ~ High Quality Health Care to Low Income Customers

Bringing Community Health Clinics To Kenya

BroadReach ~ Providing Hope and Tough Conversation

Scojo Foundation ~ Vision For Villages

Kennewick Real Estate | Washington Real Estate News
Tri City Washington Country Homes | Colleen Lane Blogging
Columbia Riverfront Homes For Sale

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