Acumen Fund Celebrates Year 7

Today, April 1, marks Acumen Fund’s seventh birthday. Seven years; the so-called age of reason, a time for making the move from fledgling organization to an institution - with a robust heart and mind, legs growing stronger all the time and still abounding with energy. Reflecting today, I’m amazed at how quickly time has passed, how much has changed, how much has been accomplished, how we’re just getting started.

Seven years ago, we set out to build an institution that would help change philanthropy, build more focus and accountability into solving big problems, and use the market as a guide to listening to poor people as customers and not as passive recipients of charity. We were a team of four with no road map. I remember our first COO, Dan Toole (now an Advisory Board member), saying it felt like we were on the 20th story, building a terrace beneath our feet, brick by brick with no safety net below.

We were experimenting with new language (”investors, never donors!”) and new ways of doing things. We found twenty extraordinary individuals willing to support our new idea that most people didn’t fully understand and some thought was outright crazy or just plain wrong. And Acumen Fund was off, letting the work teach us, making mistakes and learning from them, gaining momentum with each step.

Now we are a team of more than forty in four offices around the world. We have more than 200 partners who have shown real belief in our work. We are investing equity and loans in both for-profits and nonprofits, which is becoming common practice throughout the sector - as is the language of investment. Our board has grown and is strong; and our Advisory Council gives countless hours of time to share wisdom and insights.

Acumen Fund has approved more than $30 million worth of funding for enterprises that deliver basic goods and services to the poor - and these enterprises are serving tens of millions of individuals. The numbers roll off the tongue too easily sometimes - 20,000 jobs, ten million bednets a year, a quarter million customers of clean water in rural India, a half million family members with greater income due to drip irrigation; the largest ambulance company in Mumbai; seven million with access to telekiosk services in rural India; 300,000 clients served with microfinance in Pakistan. It is important to remember that each of those statistics represents real people, each with their own story. Even more, we need to remember that these numbers must increase ten-fold to bring real scale to the solutions we support.

We had a small, low-key celebration in our New York today, with cake and a roundtable for storytelling. Nadege Joseph – the longest-tenured Acumen employee other than me – shared a story about her interview, which was held on 9/11. As she remembers it, I asked her how she’d function in a start-up environment. Her reply: “I am most comfortable when everything around me is chaotic.” With that, I knew I’d found my match.

Seth Godin – noted marketing guru and a member of Acumen’s Advisory Council – spoke next. Comparing Acumen to other investors and companies, he noted that, “lots of companies build buildings and make products. Acumen doesn’t – it makes connections. And while those connections are invisible, their impact is exponential – and after seven years, those connections have matured into perhaps Acumen’s most valuable asset.”

There were a number of other stories, laughs and even a toast. So, from all of us here at Acumen to those of you in our community worldwide: cheers! Thanks for your support and encouragement over the past seven years; let’s hope the next seven will be just as challenging.