Our World

Let me congratulate Acumen investee David Kuria, founder of Ecotact, for being named the African Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2009 by the World Economic Forum! This is fantastic recognition for David and his team’s work on bringing affordable, high quality sanitation services to thousands of people every day. Currently, Ecotact serves more than 9,000 customers daily through 10 toilets operated throughout the city of Nairobi, Kenya and other nearby locations. The toilets cost 5 shillings per use, though individuals also can pay a bit more to take a shower in a clean environment – a real luxury for thousands who travel into the city from the slums and far-flung rural areas to work in offices after long, dusty bus ride. Ecotact is showing that public-private partnerships can work on behalf of all people and we are proud to be a part of this effort.

Guest blogger Aden Van Noppen is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she earned a degree in International Development. She is also an intern for Acumen Fund, where she works to develop programs that teach college students about private sector solutions to poverty. Aden was formerly an intern for Dalberg Global Development Advisors, where she worked on the development of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs.

By Aden Van Noppen

“I will develop a social enterprise major on my campus.” “Thousands of incoming freshmen will read the Blue Sweater as their first taste of college.” “We will create a viral video that reaches millions.” “Students will learn about and engage with social enterprise through the online hub we will build.” “We will change the way our generation tackles poverty.”

The seventeen student leaders who took Acumen Fund’s New York office by storm last week committed to accomplishing all these goals and more. Acumen’s inaugural Student Leaders Workshop was meant to ignite the fire under a cohort of young leaders who will return to their campuses in the fall as champions of social enterprise. The workshop and the students exceeded all expectations, and time will tell what they will accomplish together.

History tells us that college students are frequently on the cutting edge of social change. We (as a recent graduate, I still count myself among them) are often unsatisfied with the status quo and have the energy and passion to demand new ways of solving old problems. However, young people today are not protesting or rioting—instead, we are proclaiming ourselves social entrepreneurs and actively searching for the best models to address poverty. The movement for social enterprise is brewing on campuses across the country and the world, and seventeen young global leaders left Acumen Fund’s workshop last weekend inspired and driven to bring it to a new level.

We spent much of the workshop asking ourselves hard questions. What is development? How do we measure poverty alleviation? When can market-based solutions sidestep the barriers of traditional approaches? What is leadership? How do we know when to step forward and when to step back? How do we change the way our generation tackles poverty? There are still more questions than answers, but the participants now look to Acumen as an inspiring model and to each other as a dynamic group of leaders who can continue searching for the answers together.

If the last few days are any indication, their excitement, curiosity, and commitment will continue to grow. Social media tools are buzzing as they stay in touch, collaborate, and strategize. What they accomplish together is still to be seen, but I have no doubt that they will inspire many on their campuses and beyond to question the status quo and embrace a new model of fighting poverty.

In the coming months, the students will demonstrate the power of young people and of building a tribe of individuals who, as Seth Godin told us when he kicked off the workshop, “Decide to say yes.” Two days after leaving, one participant wrote, “The workshop left me with hope and inspiration. I now have a better idea of the field and how it works but most importantly, the workshop gave me the confidence to aspire and dare to dream.” These seventeen leaders will return to their campuses in the fall as extensions of the Acumen Fund team, ready and equipped to support Acumen’s mission to change how the world tackles poverty.

The team at Acumen Fund would like to take a moment to congratulate Christine Eibs Singer on her promotion to CEO of E+Co, one of our friends and allies in the social investment space. At the same time, we want to applaud retiring CEO and E+Co founder Phillip LaRocco. They have both shown incredible vision in starting E+Co and proving to the world that small enterprises can deliver innovative solutions to the world’s neediest if they are supported in the right way. They have also been terrific collaborators with us in renewable energy which has been a new focus area for us at Acumen. Congratulations again to the entire E+Co team and especially Phillip and Christine.

Imagine yourself in rural India, driving down a pothole-filled road as the sun’s 90 degree heat pounds down on you in the car - without air conditioning, of course. Sweat is dripping from every pore of your body; all you want is a cold drink and a long nap.

But no. Instead, you are putting together a spreadsheet tracking each of the local dealers who are going to distribute your low-cost, low-margin product to the base of the pyramid. You have just met 5 dealers in the past six hours plus you plan to meet another 50 in the coming week and your boss (a venture backed entrepreneur) has to report the numbers to his investors by 5pm that day. And by the way, he asked you for the information this morning when he called you on your cell - which barely gets any signal.

This is not the typical role of an ex-Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Stanford MBA graduate normally finds himself playing. So why in the world did this particular individual want to do this kind of work - and what type of leader does it really take to succeed in this field? As the manger of Acumen Fund’s Fellows Program it is my job to know.

So what do I think are the skills needed to succeed in this field? Here are the the “Three R’s” of Social Sector Leadership, which I believe are all necessary ingredients for success and some characteristics that I believe truly differentiate the social sector from others.

1. Resilience: For those of you who are clamoring to get into this sector, I first want to dispel the romantic vision of social entrepreneurship; taking a business to scale in this sector is incredibly hard and takes extraordinary humility, patience, and sheer resilience. Be prepared to bang your head again about 10 doors before you manage to open one. And that data you have to report in a beautiful, McKinsey-style deck is often hidden in tens and hundreds of hand-written ledgers (that’s right - many social enterprises are not IT enabled! There is even one company we know of that has 7 million clients and not a single e-mail account - can you believe it!).

Resilience is not about the physical challenges you will face on a day to day basis (though they are important, too); it is about the emotional battle you will encounter with yourself every day. Most days you will think you are crazy to do this stuff, and your mind will try to convince your heart to quit. A real leader in this sector is one who wakes up every morning ready to battle this fear and goes to bed every night exhausted and fulfilled. So your job as a leader, mentor, friend, fellow, or peer is to encourage each other to keep fighting, because those are the leaders we need. There is a great TED talk up about by Elizabeth Gilbert discussing this issue and the constant battle between your inner demon and genius… check it out.

2. Resourcefulness: I recently heard a presentation by the leadership guru Tony Robbins in which he said too many people spend their time making excuses and that the defining factor for a leader is not resources - it is resourcefulness. This could not be more true for leaders in the social sector. If social sector leaders simply said “sorry, I don’t have the resources to make this happen” we would not see some of today’s leading organizations like LifeSpring, Aravind, Ashoka, Echoing Green, Kashf Foundation - just to name a few.

So I encourage leaders in this sector to create change by reevaluating, reassessing, and re-organizing their resources. Spend your time mapping your assets to understand what you do have and then just go for it.

3. Reflection and Empathy: I cannot emphasize this capability enough. Innovation is a practice of trial and error, and yes there will be errors… many. The leaders that I value most are the ones who take the time learn from their failures not the ones who don’t make any (which of course there are none).

So I encourage young leaders out there to take the time to write in a journal, discuss a thoughtful article, and enjoy the company of your own thoughts. Reflection takes practice and discipline but it will pay off in spades when you find yourself battling the daily challenges of the social sector and it will teach you how to learn from your mistakes and find more innovative and lasting solutions.

And so there you have it - reflections from the Acumen Fund Fellows Manager. Do you have these capabilities? If so, I hope to see your application this fall for the Class of 2011 Fellows Program!!

Update: You can now download and listen to the call in its entirety:

Acumen Fund Summer Associate call - April 1, 2009

For the 10 summer internship positions Acumen Fund has open globally, we received 700 applications from an amazing group of candidates. We’re going to do our best to find the 10 people who are the best fit for our needs this summer, but the bigger, harder question is, “What about the other 690?”

Sasha posed this question a few weeks ago on his blog and on the Acumen Fund blog. There were some comments; there was also a discussion here at Acumen about how best to engage this “amazing group of candidates.” After a couple of e-mails and meetings, we decided to run an experiment: offer our 690 non-accepted candidates a private conference call briefing from senior Acumen staff. This was a way to say thanks, to welcome folks into our community, and to offer ways to stay engaged - not just with Acumen Fund, but with the social enterprise space as a whole.

The call was yesterday morning; about 10% of the invited candidates joined (67 total). I helped moderate; Brian Trelstad and Yasmina Zaidman talked about the latest Acumen happenings (describing some of the newer investments, our plans for 2009 and 2010, etc.) We actually recorded the whole call, and will release a .mp3 version of it as soon as we get a copy and have a chance to convert it. (For some reason, Global Crossing records conference calls in .wav format - not helpful.)

Acumen Fund Summer Associate call - April 1, 2009

After a short presentation, Brian and Yasmina took questions - and the floodgates opened up. I promised at the end of the call to post questions to our blog, so here they are. We - Brian, Yasmina, me and the rest of the team - will do our best to answer them over the next few weeks. In the meantime, take a look - and comment below if one question in particular is of interest!

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1. How do social metrics figure into an ROI calculation? What are the typical returns on investment and investment timeframes you look for in assessing viability of projects?

2. One of the biggest challenges is identifying entrepreneurs in low-income communities. What is the methodology that Acumen follows to identify these entrepreneurs? Furthermore, how does Acumen Fund provide the technical assistance to ensure that these enterprises are indeed successful?

3. Has Acumen Fund encountered challenges in the more political unstable regions it operates in? If so, how has or is it working through them?

4. What is the evaluation process for the ventures you look at for investing? Do you use some kind of a Social Return On Investment metric? Or what metrics do you use?

5. What percent of your annual investments (in 2007?) were considered failures? Were they considered failures because of inability to repay or lack of social impact? How has this number changed since Acumen was founded?

6. Could you talk a little bit about the work of a Summer Associate an Acumen? In other words, what would a typical day at work look like?

7. What are the next steps if we are interested in working with Acumen Fund, and we are not considered for this year’s summer internship program?

8. Many of my peers are excited about careers in the social venture sector but struggle to see what the long term career path might be given the maturity of the sector. Could you help chart out the possibilities for a post-MBA graduate?

9. What is Acumen doing to increase awareness of their services to people in the developing countries?

10. How did Acumen Fund start, and does the opportunity exist (in your opinion) for an individual to start an analogous Fund working in other geographical locations? If so, what skills would you suggest an entrepreneur develop to follow this path?

11. How important is it for clients to have the potential to receive additional loans from Acumen in the future? Have any clients already received repeat loans? Do you think the potential has a strong influence on an entrepreneur’s motivation to repay?

12. Could you comment on non-profit/philanthropic and profit-driven/sustainable funding models?

13. I’m curious with regards to the diversification of investment strategies adopted. For example: if investment is being done in the housing sector of Pakistan do you invest in multiple arenas or are your investments confined to a specific focus area?

14. How does Acumen Fund take investment decisions or evaluate ROI in an environment where there is no financial data?

15. Could you elaborate on your thoughts with regard to involvement in social investing earlier in one’s career versus later in one’s career? Would getting involved later in one’s career have a greater impact and perhaps be more worthwhile?

16. Could you talk about your own professional paths and how you made the shift from more traditional careers to management roles in the BoP/ social entrepreneurship space?

17. Is something specific that Acumen looks for in a candidate profile?

18. Could you talk a little about entry level positions at Acumen Fund for recent MBA and policy graduates?

19. Could you comment more on how to get involved with Acumen Fund’s work outside the fellows and interns program — perhaps more detail on the “young professional” network?

20. What do you suggest an individual who has little experience in international work can do to participate with Acumen?

21. Where does Acumen Fund see itself in the future in its investments in ecomarkets? Is Acumen Fund aware of any viable engagements in payment for environmental services in the water sector, not only in water delivery but resource conservation (e.g., in watersheds/parks/reserve systems)?

22. Given the culture of intellectual property protection in the market and the simultaneous high purchasing value of knowledge (such as journal subscriptions), which can be an access barrier for “the base of the pyramid,” how does Acumen Fund address such issues head on to promote and extend its knowledge sharing impact? Particularly, how does Acumen Fund convince its partners (if they are entrepreneurs in a highly competitive marketplace) to be more open in sharing their knowledge?

23. What is the Acumen Fund’s position on the role of public-private partnerships both in the areas of environmental markets and knowledge sharing?

This May, Acumen Fund will host its first Summer Student Leaders Workshop. Be sure to get your application in before the April 10 deadline!

More information can be found on Aden Van Noppen’s blog post or on the Acumen Fund web site.

Thanks for your interest, good luck with the mini projects and we look forward to reviewing your applications!

The Skoll World Forum always culminates in the granting of the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship on Thursday evening. I came late, so I headed to the upper level, where broad wooden steps were vastly more accommodating than the benches downstairs.

Among this year’s award winners was Jordan Kassalow of VisionSpring, a social venture that Acumen Fund has supported since 2005. Jordan is truly a visionary, pioneering social franchising in India, wholesale partnerships with established organizations in Latin America, South Asia and Africa, and a lean supply chain to India. He is a new global capitalist, combining his business skills with his training as an eye doctor to reach the 400 million people in the world who suffer from being near sighted. The story that he told of when he restored vision to an older woman in Mexico, who had come to him clutching her bible wanting to some day read it again, brought tears to my and many other people’s eyes.

There were too many other memorable moments, including a stunning Jordanian women Soraya Salti, who is bringing business education to young people throughout the Middle East and a pair of human rights activists, Juan Mendez and Paul van Zyl, who have put their lives on the lines for the rights of the oppressed in their home countries, Argentina and South Africa, respectively, and 30 other countries transitioning from conflict to reconciliation.

But to prove Acumen Fund Sustaining Partner Donald Rubin’s point that you need both bread and roses (although it is hard to think of the Skoll Awardees as mere bread), the art stole the evening. KT Tunstall’s stunning voice and innovative rhythmic style lifted everyone’s spirits to join the angels on the ceiling of the theater.

Credit: Daniel Goodrich

Acumen Fund is eight years old today! It is hard to believe we were approved as a public charity on April 1, 2001 with the ability to raise nonprofit funds and invest loans and equity in both for-profit and nonprofit enterprises. The world was so different then – just after the dot.com bubble burst, just before 9-11, long before the financial crisis. The idea of investing philanthropic funds was a new one, and each day was one of discovery.

Eight years later, our learning curve continues to be steep, but we’ve accomplished a lot and learned enormously through the years. We now hold five investments serving more than a quarter million low-income customers sustainably. Water Health International serves more than 350,000 customers, bringing safe drinking water to 287 villages – and the company intends to grow to a million customers in the next few years.

LifeSpring Hospitals, a healthcare franchise in India - now with six hospitals - is opening a new hospital every 35 days, and the results in terms of women served with safe, reliable healthcare are remarkable. 1298 Ambulances runs a fleet of nearly 100 ambulances, providing services for people of all classes in Indian cities where for too long, people have expected little or no provision of emergency services. A to Z Textile Mills produces 20 million long-lasting bednets yearly, providing protection to nearly 40 million people and employing 7,000. Global Easy Water Products has sold drip irrigation systems to more than 300,000 of the world’s poorest farmers, enabling them to double their yields, on average.

Drishtee is bringing information services to nearly 5,000 Indian villages; and BEEPZ (formerly Advanced Bio-Extracts) is working with 3,500 farmers, producing artemisinin for 60 million doses of malaria treatment yearly. In Pakistan, more than 15,000 people now hold health insurance policies and more than 300,000 women are borrowing – and repaying – their tiny loans. And these are just a few of the 40 investments made by Acumen Fund in South Asia and East Africa. We established Acumen Fund to help create a world where all people had access to affordable, quality basic services like water, healthcare and energy – and we now see a number of important models to do that.

In the past years, we’ve also built a metrics platform - PULSE, formerly PDMS - that is being beta-tested by 50 partner companies, intermediaries and foundations – and we hope this brings greater accountability to measuring social impact as well as financial returns.

We’ve seen 24 Acumen Fund Fellows from around the world participate in our program; and most have gone onto help run important social enterprises or are running social investments funds: I believe we are planting the seeds for the sector’s next generation of leaders.

We’ve built our own team to 60 people in offices not just in New York, but in Pakistan, India and Kenya. These teams are supported by incredible advisors who give more of themselves than we could have hoped – along with our global board and advisory council who make our work possible. And we couldn’t be prouder to be supported by more than 200 Acumen Partners who have contributed significant financial resources, enabling us to have a $40 million portfolio that we hope to grow to $100 million in the next few years. Thanks to everyone who is such a vital part of our community.

Thanks, mostly, to our team members around the world who give so much of themselves every single day. To say it is an honor to work together is an understatement.

It has been an amazing eight year journey; and yet, in some ways, we’re just getting started. There is a lot of work to do, and we’re ready to take on the challenges. We are looking for new and creative ways to raise funds in this difficult economic environment. We are considering questions of talent: more than 600 individuals from top business schools applied for our 10 summer internship spots, and how the world uses this resource is a question we take seriously. We are working on strengthening our performance management as well as bringing for our insights from the work in order to influence others more directly.

These challenges - while big - aren’t daunting, for now we have a platform on which we can stand, one that is strong and clear and focused. I personally have never felt as energized by this work, especially in this historic moment, for we have a real chance to help imagine and reinvent our financial systems so that they can be extended, ultimately, to all people on earth.

Happy Birthday, Acumen!

Last Tuesday morning, I arrived at Heathrow. Straight away, I head to Shell’s offices in Waterloo. Barely missing a beat on the train and tube to Waterloo, I arrive just in time for the global launch of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). It had been a long journey for me that prior 24 hours (6 trains and 1 airplane in the space of 24 hours…thank god for roller bags). And it has been an even longer journey for ANDE and its founding steering committee over the previous three years.

In the summer of 2005, Henrik Skovby, a founding partner of Dalberg Global Development Advisors, had noticed in a series of lunch meetings with some of our peers in the field that we were all talking about some of the same problems: how do we tap into the capital markets like microfinance has?; how do we prove the case that small and growing businesses can be a major force in fighting poverty?; and how can we work together to build more effective investment teams?

With the blessing of the Aspen Institute’s Peter Reiling, we were able to convene for a summer discussion in 2006 to imagine a movement that would find a way to reach the small farmer, the healthcare entrepreneur, or the community looking to finance and purchase a water filtration plant with the right capital at the right time. Patient capital for people too impatient to wait for the development industry to “solve their problems”.

Competitors showed up at the first two meetings wondering whether there was any real value there, and if so, what are the aims of the movement at this moment? In the crisp mountain air of Aspen, competitors became colleagues, and colleagues became friends.

Willy Foote at Root Capital, Christine Eibs-Singer at E+Co, Simon Winter of Technoserve, and Andrew Stern at Dalberg were the stalwart members of the voluntary executive committee, and we were joined by thought leader Stace Lindsay and Peter at Aspen to help push the boulder up the mountain for three long and sometimes lonely years.

It was thrilling, then, in the over-crowded and over-heated room to see old colleagues and over 100 new faces join together to talk about how we can work together to find ways to help today’s emerging markets entrepreneurs strive to build their businesses more quickly and more ethically, employ more people in high quality jobs, and serve more customers with products that fill urgent needs.

Randall Kempner, the new executive director, guided the day with energy, humility and humor, just the right recipe to fuel the momentum of the movement; ANDE was off to a great start. In a time when the world is questioning the very role that global capitalism should play in development, Tuesday morning’s launch of ANDE was a bright spot that may be viewed in 50 years as a turning point in a new approach to development and to capitalism.

Arriving bleary-eyed after an overnight flight from New York, I showered quickly and hustled to the Thursday morning session of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. My colleagues Brian Trelstad (Chief Investment Officer) and Varun Sahni (India Director) had arrived earlier, but there were so many attendees milling around the lobby engaged in animated conversations that I didn’t see Brian or Varun until later in the day.

I spent some time at a panel on Community Development (moderated by 2007 Acumen Fund Fellow Keely Stevenson). As always, Martin Burt (Fundacion Paraguaya), Vera Cordeiro (Reneascer) and Craig Kielburger (Free the Children) inspire and impress.

I’ve met Craig on several occasions and he is an extraordinary young man. His organization is about engaging children as responsible global citizens and the curriculum he has developed for children is mandatory in Canadian public middle schools. He is now getting some traction in US schools (tough nuts to crack!) and has also created a summer leadership program for kids. Acumen has several initiatives underway to reach out to engage more directly with teenagers and college students, and Craig has promised me a brainpick on “kid engagement” during his next trip to NY.

Good panel in the afternoon called “(Financial) Power to the People”, featuring three entrepreneurs who have created big online marketplaces: Premal Shah (Kiva.org, online micro-lending), Mari Kuriashi (Global Giving, online donations) and Mads Kjaer (MYC4, online investing). They are all trying to build movements and to give people the sense that they are part of something bigger and dynamic, the goal is “ to broaden the base of social activism”.

By definition, they all deal with huge stakeholder communities, including their respective lenders/donors/investors and have explored various means of keeping them engaged without expending too much bandwidth. One (Premal) talked about having conference calls with thousands of listeners, each with the ability to type in questions. Premal is also thinking about how to close the gap between lender and borrower. Is there a way through a web cam or Skype that the lender could see how the borrower’s business is doing with the loan? And why would the information all need to be going from south to north to make the lender (north) feel good? Why not advice or other non-financial resources going from north to south (or vice versa!) to help the borrower?

These entrepreneurs are not daunted by the enormous numbers in their respective spheres, they only want to increase them . They spoke of crowdsourcing, a new term for me. Mads talked of his dream to create an investment fund with BILLIONS of investors, at one euro a share. He thinks a whole new vocabulary will be crafted in the online social enterprise space and the words haven’t yet been invented (he reminded us that “iron horse” preceded the word “train” and “horseless carriage” preceded the word “car”). They share the dream of making transactions in the social enterprise space as easy as ordering a book from Amazon online and so exciting that the individual tells her friend and the friend tells a friend etc. Mari’s Global Giving not only lets a person make a donation online but also sells gift certificates so that the ultimate recipient can choose to which charity he’d like to donate.

The panel talked about organizational issues as well. Mads talked about the complexity of running a non-profit organization in affiliation with a for-profit one. Premal described about how Kiva was on the brink of bankruptcy in the fall of 2006. Then Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Prize and micro-lending burst onto the global scene. Overnight, Kiva’s volume of business grew exponentially and their website was down four days because it could not handle the volume. Business has continued to grow (Kiva says it raises $1 million in $25 increments every 10 days) and their annual operating budget is $5million—Premal does not want it to increase any further but wants to use more and better technology to increase efficiency and support scaling. Interestingly, Kiva has 12 volunteers for every fulltime employee, but the volunteers need to make a minimum 4 month full-time commitment. His advice to new social entrepreneurs: “keep your burn rate down until serendipity hits”.

Later, I spent some time dropping into other panels. “Expansion Finance for Social Impact” was among the best. The late afternoon session was the awards ceremony for the 9 Skoll Awards. I was particularly excited about Soraya Salti who is dazzling in every way. She is doing great things with Injaz which provides youth business training in 12 Arab countries.

A casual dinner with friends from Rockefeller, Visionspring, Lex Mundi Foundation, McKinsey, Mercy Corps, IDEO, Bamboo Finance, Rockefeller, Ashoka and others made for a very full but enjoyable day.

As a venture philanthropist, Acumen Fund’s Jacqueline Novogratz leads entrepreneurial projects across the globe—many of which put women at the helm of emerging local businesses. In this video interview, she discusses her experience developing other women leaders, the way they have shaped her own approach to leadership, and the different leadership cultures she sees at play in the public and private sectors.

This interview was conducted by Bill Javetski, an editor with the McKinsey Quarterly, in February 2009. It was recorded in the New York office of Acumen Fund.

Click below to watch the video:

Editor’s note: Guest blogger Aden Van Noppen is a senior at Brown University where she studies International Development. She is also an intern for Acumen Fund, where she works to develop programs that teach college students about private sector solutions to poverty. Aden was formerly an intern for Dalberg Global Development Advisors, where she worked on the development of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs.

By Aden Van Noppen

Young people today are not protesting or rioting—instead, we are proclaiming ourselves social entrepreneurs and actively searching for the best models to address poverty. This movement is brewing on campuses across the country and the world, including my own, and Acumen Fund wants to help us develop the skills and knowledge we need to pioneer new approaches to poverty alleviation.

In response to growing interest among college students in social enterprise, and the potential we have demonstrated to lead social change, Acumen Fund wants to find ways to work with us. To start, Acumen is hosting a Student Leaders Workshop in New York City from May 28-30th to share their knowledge and collaborate with those of us who feel passionate about finding and communicating entrepreneurial ways of addressing poverty.

This workshop is an opportunity for students to gain skills and knowledge about enterprise development and social venture capital, and just as importantly, to communicate with Acumen about how to build meaningful partnerships with young people. The students who participate will return to their campuses in the fall with the opportunity to spread this movement amongst their peers.

If you are a leader for social enterprise on your campus, we want you to apply! If you believe that business and investment are powerful tools for poverty alleviation, we want you to apply! If you want to learn from Acumen Fund and members of Acumen’s community in an intimate setting, and then share what you learn with others, we want you to apply!

If you think Acumen Fund will hold your hand and help you find a dream job in the social sector after graduation, or want to add a cool brand name to your resume, this is not for you. Changing how the world approaches poverty is a big job and the people I have been working with at Acumen Fund are looking for real leaders who want to roll up their sleeves to challenge the status quo. If that sounds like you, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

Click here to find out more about the workshop and how to apply. Hope to see you in New York City this May!