Yasmina Zaidman, Director of Communications | Photo Credit: Jamie Billet
This past Monday night the New York for Acumen Fund Chapter held its first major fundraiser of the year, its second since its launch last year. The event featured speakers that shared a set beautiful qualities in common – they were all innovators, passionate, unafraid to expose the uniqueness of their ideas and personalities. I had the pleasure of concluding the event, and have transcribed my comments here as a summary of the night, and as a testament to how inspired I was by the speakers and the event organizers. And most of all, by the 200 people who joined us to help us raise more than $26,000 for businesses in the developing world that offer real choices and opportunities to low-income communities.
*spark! – May 3, 2010
“What is a spark? Think about it.
It’s a tiny instant of heat and light. It can be harmless glimmer that fades as quickly as it appears, or it can start a flame, ignite a fire.
Everyone who spoke at tonight’s event has a spark, a desire to change the world. And each of them has transformed this spark into a fire.
But they didn’t do it alone. Each of them relied on the tinder, the fuel of their communities.
Jawad Aslam is literally building a housing division where former squatters in Pakistan can own their first homes and build real community together. By pioneering new model for financially sustainable low-income housing, he is creating a model for the world.
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, has sparked the idea of discovering your own brand of happiness, and has built a community of readers and happiness practitioners who are helping her idea spread like wildfire.
Spoken word artist Sarah Kay lights a spark with each poem she shares, and you, her audience, will find that you catch on fire as you listen, if you let yourself. She has shared her spark with teenagers across the country, helping them find their voices, and I have no doubt that the power of her words has helped save lives.
Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and Director of Online Organizing for President Obama’s campaign, is essentially a pyromaniac. The sparks of his ideas have created communities where millions of people can share their own spark, build communities, and launch unstoppable movements.
Communities are a critical piece of each of their stories. I learned a few weeks ago the kind of community that I’m a part of through my work with Acumen Fund. Stranded in Europe by the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, I found myself supported and encouraged by people from throughout the Acumen Fund community who transformed a moment of chaos into an opportunity to connect, to share information, and to help each other return home to our families and to our work.
The volcano was a spark, but my community made it a gift.
For many of you, Acumen Fund has lit a spark. It certainly has for me. The truth of the notion that all people are equally human, equally deserving of dignity and the right to dream of a better life, is an idea that has changed my life.
And if Acumen Fund is also a spark for you, then you – all of you – are the tinder. You are the fuel that can transform this spark into a flame, into a fire. Some of you have been working with us already , helping to spread this idea, learn more, engage others. And some of you are new to this idea of investing Patient Capital to build lasting change in the lives of the poor. But all of you are here, and have chosen to make tonight possible. And I ask you to continue with us to help build this new model for addressing poverty, and to imagine together a world beyond poverty.”
Watch the videos from *spark!