The Acumen Fund : how it uses best practices to deliver social entreprenuership

                 The Acumen fund was founded by Jacqueline Novogratz whose former life as an international banker provided the tools required for developing the fund. Jacqueline’s drive for social entrepreneurship and “aspiring to change the planet”, prompted her leaving international banking and joining “a nonprofit women’s finance group that dispatched her to Africa.”www.acumenfund.org  While working in Africa she was invited by the Rwanda’s ministry of family and social Affairs to “investigate the possibility of starting a credit program for women.”www.acumenfund.org While visiting Rwanda a fortuitous "wow" moment happened to her. Jaqueline noticed a blue sweater that looked familiar, so similar, to the one she had donated to goodwill as a child (1970) The blue sweater the boy was wearing in 1987, across the globe, still had her name on it. “For Jaqueline Novogratz, this encounter symbolized the idea that humanity’s collective future rests upon our embracing a vision of a single world in which were all connected. Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches.www.acumenfund.org