Villagers try to catch trees floating in the flooded Nelum river in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir on Friday, July 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Aftab Ahmed)

It was July 25^th, and I was on my way back home to Lower Dir in the Swat valley. Lush green rice fields and shiny clean newly constructed restaurants and huts along the right bank of River Swat were an enriching and peaceful sight. After a challenging five years period of terrorism, militancy, and consequent displacement of a massive number of villagers, I was pleasantly surprised to see reconstruction almost completed.

It’s hard to imagine now that was only three weeks ago.

It rained for the next three days continuously and heavily. The beautiful dense forests and high mountains and countless streams of my hometown could not stand it – the streams and rivers overflowed, flooded, and by day three we started seeing dead bodies, vehicles, shelters, broken trees, home appliances and so many other things floating downstream. The Swat River had washed out the major bridge connecting Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Chitral with rest of the country and – as I later found out – twenty four other such bridges in its path till the River Kabul at Nowshera. Flood water had caused the river to double in size, burst its banks and wash away everything in its path. With very little food, fuel and amenities in stock, and I was one of three million people of three districts remained stranded for next five days.

I cannot forget a crowd of what must have been tens of thousands of people on both side of the river all standing in long queues, children crying, veiled women struggling with their ‘parda’ in the middle of so many men and the elderly being pushed hard, waiting for hours in the scorching heat. I can’t forget a baby unconscious in the hands of its mother running madly for help in the crowd. It was chaos all the way- and those people are still isolated from the rest of the country.

A boy walks through flood destroyed homes on August 4, 2010 in Pabbi, near Nowshera, Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Fortunately enough, day six I received help from my brother who had arranged a special escort by the Pakistan Army. What initially felt like a relief and a privilege very soon became guilt – which only started increasing as I moved across the river, and climaxed at the moment I made it to the other side. Instead of relief, I felt awful for the unfortunate people left on the other side. However, my journey had not yet ended – I was stuck for the next two days, and eventually managed to reach Nowshera. Nowshera used to be a small city which stood cheerily on both side of River Kabul, and was now completely and totally flooded. The M-1 the motorway that runs between Islamabad and Peshawar had hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had made it to this relatively high ground. Nothing was left on both side of the river and water had even entered into the city filling streets, houses and markets with water and mud all over. Conditions of the survivors were very poor, lying under open sky, empty handed with almost nothing to eat and drink.

Flooding is still occurring across the country, starting from in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where my home lies, and spreading down to Punjab, Sindh and now Baluchistan – all have been badly hit. Every day brings new reports of more villages inundated. Millions of people are affected, displaced and countless stranded. A third wave of flooding has started in the north and is expected to reach downstream in next few days. The scale of devastation is too enormous for my mind to imagine.

No doubt the situation is a test of our strength, our individual and collective faith, morality and humanity. However, in the words of someone else, what doesn’t kill us can only make us stronger. Though it is hard to hold optimism in this hour of dismay however, I feel some aspect of the catastrophe could be viewed positively as well. The aftermath of the flood is teaching us lesson to devise systems and strategies which could prevent and mitigate such catastrophes in future. Public opinion has now changed dramatically on construction of dams which were previously denied as being too controversial. And most of all, despite of all the differences that seem to divide us, we as a nation are united for a single cause now, working hand in hand to rebuild the lives of the millions who have lost everything in the face of the flood.

Muhammad Zahoor is a Class of 2010 Acumen Fund Fellow, currently working with FMIA in Pakistan.

Photo Credit: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

The world has been slow to react to the enormity of the floods in Pakistan. Acumen Fund has worked in Pakistan for the past 8 years and although we do not work in disaster relief, we are rallying our community to show its solidarity for Pakistan during this grave humanitarian crisis.

Stand with Pakistan and help send a message to the world: www.ontheground.pk

OnTheGround.pk is a site we’ve built for the global community to offer perspective on the ground in Pakistan. Show your support and help inform and inspire others by adding your name, uploading photos and news, and sharing stories of hope. We also encourage you to share opportunities from other organizations working on relief efforts. A list of  organizations you can trust can also be found here.

Thank you and please visit OnTheGround.pk today to help send a message to the world to stand together with Pakistan in this time of need.

Rabia Ahmed at NY for Acumen's DIGNITY Benefit, July 2009 | Photo Credit: Steven Lau

A few hours ago, I found my father sitting at the dinner table, counting. When I asked, what he was counting, he mutedly replied “Bete, during this week, 63 years ago, my family crossed the border to Pakistan.” I had heard this story hundreds of times before, from my grandmother, my uncle, but usually from my dad. It was a journey etched into his mind, into his bones. It was the story of eating neem plants and walking – lots of walking- along a path to the new world, leaving everything behind for hopes of a peaceful tomorrow.

Years later, my siblings and I enjoyed the humid, sunny, summers in Pakistan. We’d run through the mango groves on a family farm and sip sugar cane juice in the market. We’d play hide and seek in my grandfather’s roof garden and host pretend doll weddings with my cousins. It was a fairy-tale land, a land which welcomed us with open arms whenever we visited. It was truly blissful.

Nevertheless, each year things changed in Pakistan. The cars looked a little different, the music became more rock and roll and the air became more polluted. The only constant which remained was the home of my grandfather on the outskirts of Lahore. With its white washed walls, and lattice door frames, it remained mostly how we left it the year before. The home was five stories high, grand in a modest town, and built around a central open veranda with multiple bedrooms on each floor. My grandfather had a modern above-ground latrine and air conditioner installed so that his grandchildren were not deprived of their essentials. And every summer, without fail, we’d anticipate the monsoons. They’d come in, hastily from no one direction and with quick winds, gusts of water rushed down on us with a certain sense of urgency, and we – well, we’d dance. You’d hear us shrieking and giggling in the same breath because there was no warning, no sign of the hammering waters; just the sudden opening of the skies. It was an idyllic time and we were constantly told to appreciate the rain because it was such a blessing.

But this year, the blessing has turned into a curse, a real test of spirit.

As I sit here some 7,000 miles away from my old summer home, I can’t help but weep for a nation under water. Just the thought of one in five Pakistanis without a home, without a livelihood and without any imminent hope, is simply unbearable.

We’ve read the stories: the tale of a father who tied his son to a tree; of the mother who gave birth to twins in the middle of the storm; of the family who sat by and watched their cow- their livelihood- weaken and eventually pass on. And we’ve seen the staggering statistics – 20 million Pakistanis affected, that’s more than New York State. That’s more than Haiti and Katrina combined. More than Haiti and Katrina combined. Even as I write these words, I’m speechless.

After all, Pakistan is a country divided. It attempts to be modern but is shot at by those clinging to the past. It’s a place where history repeats itself without enough time passing to learn from it. A place where culture and religion constantly fight each other. It’s a place which terrorists now call home and is also a nuclear state. It’s a country that’s lost itself, to itself, by itself.

But it is a country that is loved by so many that summered there; whose parents and grandparents fought to set up homes there, by those who decided to dedicate their lives to helping it reach its potential. Through this catastrophe, Pakistani-Americans are crying for their fellow Pakistanis back home. They’re taking action by running fundraising drives, and putting together media packs and collecting necessary items. They’re keeping one another abreast of activities from the field and are urging all, each and every person they know, to take action, NOW. It’s not just the feeding and immunizing which needs to be done now, but the rebuilding and revitalizing which needs to happen for years to come. It’s in a state of despair, of helplessness, for a people so resilient, so open-hearted, kind and gentle who have never asked for anything, but dignity,

There are people to thank, like Fiza Shah, CEO of Developments in Literacy, who builds schools in remote and hard to reach areas of Pakistan and Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund who still sees the potential, the hope in Pakistan’s people, a single person who leads an organization that invests in the future of a nation. These two women continue to believe in Pakistan, through the heartfelt moments and harrowing sorrows.

So today, I beg, and urge you all to do the same, or at least to take a step. It’s impossible to imagine the devastation from this far away. Soon enough some other news sensation will take over and most of us will forget the little teary-eyed girl or a mother without milk for her twins. We’ll forget that although they didn’t have much to begin with, whatever they once could call their own has been washed away. Their lives are once again a blank slate. What reality once was is now but a dream wrapped in a nightmare. So please, pick up your check book, or log into your paypal account. Buy some medicines or donate some food.

In this time of pain, hurt and suffering, I remember a quote I once read by Mother Teresa: “The paradox of life is if you love until it hurts, then there is no more hurt, only love.” And Pakistan, we love you and we’re hurting for you and that is what I wish for my fellow Pakistanis, only love.

Rabia Ahmed is the Co-Chair of New York for Acumen and the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the NYU Stern School of Business. To find out how you can help, please read this recent post which names a few organizations working in Pakistan that we trust and who need your support. Please also show your support and stand with Pakistan by adding your name in solidarity to http://www.ontheground.pk.

Seen & Heard is a collection of recent headlines in the news about our world, our work, and the spaces and places in between. With each post we ‘ll also share a list of job openings at Acumen Fund and in our sector. Seen & Heard will appear approximately twice a month and will replace the weekly News Roundups. We apologize to the legions of you who were die-hard News Roundup fans. We hope that this is an improvement. For those of you who like keeping a pulse on the latest news as it’s happening, please consider following us on Twitter! Finally, if you have ideas for how we can improve Seen & Heard, please don’t be shy and leave a comment below to let us know. Thanks for reading!

Headlines

• The tragic flooding in Pakistan continues to take an unprecedented toll on an unimaginable scale. Over 1,500 lives have been lost and approximately 20 million Pakistanis have been directly affected. On Friday we posted a blog naming a few of the organizations we trust who need your support in their relief efforts. Read the post here to learn how you can help.

Articles of the Week

AF and AF Family in the News

• The first episode of the new CNBC series “What the Future” features Acumen Fund founder and CEO Jacqueline Novogratz and the inspiring work of two of our investees in Kenya. Be sure to view all 3 parts!
• A good WSJ article on Acumen Fund Advisor and Partner Amy Robbins and the work of her foundation: “I’m never going to be the biggest player in the market, but if I can go to the riskiest places which often get overlooked by larger organizations, we can add the most value.”

Kenya in the News

• Kenyans recently passed an important constitutional referendum. Check out what’s at stake in this Salon article.
• A provocative NY Times op-ed on slum tourism in Kibera – do tourists who visit slums actually leave more likely to help or do they strip slum residents of their dignity?

India in the News

• India looks for new mechanisms to get food to the poor and asks should food be a right?

Water in the News

• The Washington Post reports on inefficient irrigation methods adding to the water shortages in Pakistan
• A new UN resolution declares water a right, but what does this mean for actually delivering the water?

General Development News

• A New Definition of Poor – Beyond Profit: a new Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index considers household access to basic needs in addition to income measures

Jobs

At Acumen Fund (links to all job openings at AF can be found here)

• Chief Financial Officer
• India Director
• Pakistan Portfolio Associate
• Pakistan Portfolio Consultant
• East Africa Portfolio Manager
• India Portfolio Associate
• Volunteer Communications Associate
• India Portfolio & Operations Manager

In the Sector

• Gray Matters Capital Foundation: Relationship Manager/Associate—Hyderabad, IN
• Innovations for Poverty Action: Director of Financial Innovation—New Haven, CT, US
• Intellecap: Chief Executive Officer—Hyderabad, IN
• Grameen Technology Center: Research and Development Manager—Jakarta, ID
• Embrace: Product Engineer—Bangalore, IN
• William Davidson Institute: Managing Editor, NextBillion—Ann Arbor, Michigan, US

Many thanks to Kit Burton for kicking off our first issue of Seen & Heard! This summer Kit volunteered in Acumen Fund’s New York office managing community engagement. Next week Kit will be returning to Brigham Young University where he will be graduating this December with a degree in International Relations.

Photo Credit: Jacqueline Novogratz

This picture was taken in a village near Kala Shah Kaku outside Lahore, when I made my first visit to the site for Saiban’s Khuda ki Basti 4 with the Acumen Fund team and Jawad Aslam almost exactly four years ago. It remains one of my favourite photographs – not just because of the lush green background and the idyllic landscape, but because every time I see it, I can almost hear the laughter in these boys voices. They walked with us from the village to the basti, chatting, giggling and playing all the way, happy in the moment – as every child deserves to be.

The fields and pathways were flooded from recent monsoon rains and at one point we actually had to roll up our pants and tiptoe through calf-deep waters, flip-flops in hand. But apart from mud-caked flip-flops, wet, dirty clothes, and a few slips, in a few minutes we were able to make it through the flooded fields to the housing site where the first model house had just been built for what was to become a thriving community a few years later.

Seeing the devastation caused by the floods in Pakistan right now with more than 1,600 killed and over 14 million people impacted, by the incessant rains and overflowing rivers, families homeless and displaced, I cant help but think about these kids and so many others like them. Where are they, 4 years from when we met? What does their village look like today? How have their lives been impacted by the floods and rains? Are they going to school? Are they still laughing and playing?

These are overwhelming questions and its hard to stay positive at times like these, when so many have lost so much and the general feeling of hopelessness is so pervasive. But we must move ahead, do more, act more, help more and reach out to those that need assistance. In Pakistan and around the world, individuals and organizations are coming together to provide disaster relief. We need to address the immediate needs now. And in the long run, focus on sustainable solutions to lift people out of poverty and to provide them with opportunities that celebrate dignity, not build dependence.

Misbah Naqvi is a Business Development Manager in our NY office and previously worked with our Pakistan team in Karachi.

The dispiriting picture Lewis paints is one of huge firms who make the rules by which they make money, and nearly impotent oversight bodies (the ratings agencies) who abdicated responsibility.  So, for example, in the run-up to the subprime mortgage crisis, the ratings agencies knew much less than Wall Street (whose main players, in turn, knew much less than they should have) when rating subprime paper; Wall Street firms primed the pump with stories of “low-risk” and “uncorrelated” assets (CDOs) that, as we all now know, were incredibly risky and incredibly correlated; and for many years, Wall Street firms seemed to have enough power over information and prices to create fictitious profits that led to real bonuses the likes of which we’ve never seen.

And of course I’m reading this all a week after the initial public offering by SKS, the first IPO for a microfinance organization in India, about which debate raged online last week .

What has struck me as I follow the SKS debate and then end my days reading about synthetic subprime mortgage bond-backed CDOs, is this: if we are going to forge a new kind of capitalism, one that helps create a world beyond poverty and one that leverages markets but is not beholden to them, the we are going to have to become exceptionally adept at understanding two highly sophisticated, often opaque markets:

1. The economy of the poor (rural and urban both), who manage money and risk and make sophisticated tradeoffs every day about the simple act of survival (for which Portfolios of the Poor is in my mind the right starting point, but then we need to spend real time in these markets to really understand much of anything);
2. The economy of the rich, not just to understand how capital moves (though that’s important), but also to understand what “real markets”, the most sophisticated markets in the world, really look like.

More often than not, I think we fall into the trap of grossly oversimplifying both of these markets – we paint the same pictures that were drawn for us in Microeconomic textbooks and imagine stylized, efficient markets with the greater good, magically and invisibly, created for all.  Yet the more I understand how the most sophisticated markets function, the less convinced I am by stories that end with “and then market actors will come in and scale and efficiency will follow.”

I don’t know what the SKS IPO means.  No doubt it is an important and potentially very positive step.  We want people to be competing for the business of poor borrowers (and, hopefully, eventually savers).  We want competition to bring prices down and we want the best organizations to have the capital on hand to scale.  But it also could be that microfinance is the next subprime mortgage crisis, an edifice built on the backs of a different set of poor people (this time in the developing world).  If that is the case then one possible outcome is that some people will get very rich and others – the most vulnerable – will end up holding the bag.  Most likely the answer is somewhere in between, and I believe to steer us towards the most positive outcomes we need to sharpen our pencils and bring more sophistication to how we characterize markets for the very rich and the very poor, since increasingly these two will intersect in the coming years and become increasingly interconnected.

My ultimate dream is that, armed with a clear-eyed, sophisticated understanding of how both of these markets really work, we will find a way to bring in capital with a purpose from a class of investors that sees economic return as part of a larger set of returns that they create with their capital.  (This may and probably will involve lower economic return that incorporates higher social return).  It’s going to need to be both/and (social/economic), not either/or.

This post originally appeared earlier this week on Sasha Dichter’s blog, where he blogs on generosity, philanthropy and social change.

Sasha Dichter is the Director of Business Development at Acumen Fund.

Photo Credit: Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times

As an Acumen Portfolio Manager in Pakistan, I was really interested in this article that ran recently in the New York Times. Considering some of Acumen’s investments in Pakistan, particularly those in the agricultural sector like Jassar and Micro Drip, I think one key point mentioned in this article is that 40% of water is lost even before it reaches the roots of a plant. This fact points to the importance of efficient irrigation solutions. The role of the private sector becomes elevated when you have the opportunity to introduce innovative solutions to minimize water wastage, such as the example of drip irrigation. While these solutions can delay the inevitable need for more water, the political and legal battles will need to be fought at international forums to settle the dispute.

In my view, if only Indians and Pakistanis are allowed to invest across the border, it would create a powerful vested interest in each of the two nations that would be sensitive to the prosperity of the ‘other’, and that would allow us to view success and wealth-creation as a shared goal rather than a mutually-exclusive one.

Noor Ullah is a Portfolio Manager in Acumen’s Pakistan office.

It is now July 2010, and I am well into my summer internship at Acumen Fund. Earlier this month, when I read the devastating news about the suicide attack on the shrine of Hazrat Data Gunj Baksh in Lahore, in which nearly 40 people were murdered by suspected Taliban extremism, I was reminded in an extremely graphic way of why I am at Acumen and what I hope to accomplish here. The last two years have been brutal for all Pakistanis and while some of us choose to remain aloof and removed – safe in our houses on the right side of the bridge and behind our guarded enclaves, blaming the unseen hand of an unseen enemy – it was in fact only a matter of time before the inequalities and inequities that we have allowed to fester in our society caught up with us.

The Taliban, extremism, radicalism and terrorism is our wakeup call to a world that is changing, and a call to realize that neither the government alone nor traditional aid will bring about a just and equitable change in Pakistan. It is people like Jawad Aslam, Roshaneh Zafar and Dr. Sono Khangarani who will provide people with decent and dignified alternatives to handouts and begging. Unless people see a decent future for their children and themselves, one in which every citizen can maintain a basic standard of living, educate their children and live in a decent manner, the Taliban will continue to recruit from amongst the disenfranchised masses and provide them with a violent alternative to bring about their vision of equity.

Acumen Fund is the means to such a future – they are working to provide energy, clean water, healthcare, affordable quality housing, and improved farming methods to Pakistan, India and East Africa. They have approved $11.1 million to invest in Pakistan over the past decade in numerous projects that are expected to be self-sustaining and profitable business operations.

Before this summer I was no stranger to Acumen – they recruit regularly at my college campus (LUMS) and I was fascinated by the organization and its approach to ‘solving’ poverty-related issues. However, like many of my peers I put aside my idealism and decided to go the corporate route and to leave social entrepreneurship to the activists and dreamers. After my MBA, I worked at a major multinational in Pakistan and one day in 2007 I received an email from our CSR office which asked for volunteers from marketing, sales and supply chain to work with an Acumen investee – Micro Drip. I jumped at the opportunity and found myself immersed in the problems of selling drip irrigation systems to poor farmers in rural Sindh. To my surprise, I actually found there were many similarities between selling FMCG products to consumers in urban and peri-uran areas and marketing to rural farmers. Consumers, it seemed, wanted the same thing, albeit in different settings. Sales teams, more often than not, also encountered the same hurdles in selling to the BoP that they did to ‘regular consumers’. This was an eye opener and cemented my belief in the power of markets, even in the unlikeliest of settings.

It is this belief and a deep admiration of Acumen Fund’s mission and approach to some of the world’s most intractable problems that brought me here again in 2010. I was studying for an MPA at NYU and I decided to apply to Acumen Fund, my top choice for a summer position. My experience this summer has been nothing short of a revelation – every day at Acumen brings new surprises, challenges and a renewed commitment to their vision. Whether I am performing diligence for a potential investment, digging through data on older deals or consulting with entrepreneurs and colleagues in the country offices, sitting in Monday Morning Meetings or on portfolio calls, I am constantly reminded of why I am here.

Sitting in far away Manhattan, an entire wall covered with pictures of our investments (both active and exited) show our customers: a hopeful old woman, a hard-working man in his yellow turban, and wide-eyed children. These serve as a constant reminder that we must do our best to ensure that our customers get the goods and services they need, and can live with dignity and grace.

Faiza Mawjee is a Summer Associate on the Portfolio team at the New York office. She is an MPA candidate at NYU Wagner School of Public Service, specializing in international development. The Summer Spotlight series features posts by Acumen Fund Summer Associates from around the world.

When a $9 monthly pension check is the difference between starving or not, I think it’s quite incredible for a dalit woman to feel empowered enough to challenge the government and demand to know why she has not been getting her check, and the dignity she must feel when the pension starts to arrive soon after.

Right-to-Know Law Gives India’s Poor a Lever

Sangeeta Chowdhry is the Ripple Effect Project Manager at Acumen Fund.

As Jacqueline and team head to Africa, they will be sending back stories of their amazing work to Africa.com’s readers.  This first blog highlights the inspiring efforts of partners in Nairobi , Kenya.

Our white van snaked through the now familiar streets of Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, to Mama Hamza’s community center for The Blue Sweater Challenge event.  The day’s overcast sky had broken with a pounding, tropical rain and everything around us felt softer, a rosy kiss goodnight from the evening sky.  We walked through the turquoise metal door to the courtyard and the first thing I saw was a table of books written by good friends — Seth Godin, Bill Easterly, Saj-Nicole Joni — behind which stood Chris, Gerry, Dickson, Herbert and Alex – five of the seven original organizers of The Blue Sweater bookclub, all of them from the slums of Nairobi.  Kevin, the controller (and the first one to read the book and start a book club) was busy with Suraj Sudakhar, the remarkable Acumen Fellow who was responsible for making all of this happen.

Habari gani! What’s news!

We all hugged and laughed and caught up quickly.  Alex is still working with Acumen and working with Suraj to plan a path to work in media.  Herbert is working on his university degree and will graduate in October.  “I have a-ha moments every day now,” he told me. “Last night, my family was discussing the new constitution and my mother said she was going to vote for the first time in too many years.  She used to feel her vote didn’t count, but now we’re all feeling more hopeful. My a-ha is that when you start hearing things like this, there becomes room for real change.”  I couldn’t have smiled more broadly.

Herbert reads Seth Godin’s blog daily and shares it with the other guys.  “We all love Seth,” Dickson said (he’s working on getting into a university).  “I read ‘The Dip’ as well as ‘Tribes’”, said Alex.  “I love Seth!” Right now, the Blue Sweater group is reading Easterly’s “White Man’s Burden” and are finding they agree with most of what he says.  Suddenly, my world was all around me, right here in Mama Hamza’s little patch of land in the Kibera slum.

And Chris…well, Biju, our country manager, helped him get an internship with Duncan Onyango, a friend of Acumen’s who runs a business consulting company.  Prior to this opportunity, Chris was selling eggs on the street, but you can see the determination in his eyes, and he worked like a maniac.  A week ago, Duncan offered him a permanent position with a good salary, and Chris told me nothing can stop him now. As for Kevin, he is now working with Suraj who is consulting to TED to bring TEDx to the slums around Nairobi. They plan to do five in the next few months.

What a difference three months can make! What a difference Suraj has made – and not just to the lives of these extraordinary young men, but to the fabric of a community that is getting more interwoven by the day.

Three months ago, in February, I was standing in this same community center, talking to about 100 people who had read “The Blue Sweater” thanks to the hard work and organizing skills of Suraj and the seven young men.  The evening’s stories were incredibly moving – of overcoming challenges, of desires to effect real change, and of the frustration of living in a world where corruption hits the poor hardest of all.  Halfway through my speech, I shared my own a-ha moment: I was being given an honorary degree by Wofford College a few weeks hence, and the degree came with a financial award as well, though I’d not yet been to Wofford.  And there I was standing in one of the slums where, in so many ways, I had received my real education.  Yet many of its residents couldn’t go to high school, not because they weren’t smart enough, but because they couldn’t afford the bribes.  I could not have been prouder of my new affiliation with Wofford, and yet the irony could not have been starker.

On the spot, I announced The Blue Sweater Challenge.  We would use the award money from Wofford to create a challenge to individuals and groups who made the most change in their community.  We would start by choosing three groups and award them $1,000 each, and I would present the awards personally when I returned in three months. Moreover, I said, the young men would work with Suraj to figure out the details.

In the past three months, that group did a lot more than figure out details.  They decided to have a business plan competition, and then drafted members of the Acumen team and others to provide training and business plan assistance on each of three week-ends.  Nearly 80 individuals submitted plans which they then whittled to 16.  Judges from top community organizations were then brought in to analyze the finalists; and last Sunday, the judges selected five winners and gave on “Innovation Award” for the most creative idea.  Instead of grants, they insisted on making one year loans and charging nominal interest (“according to Acumen’s value system”, Gerry explained to me)….

I’m guessing the energies of at least 50 people were released in the best possible way with a catalyst of $3,000. You may ask why the judges chose six winners rather than three.  Two reasons: first, the majority of businesses needed only $500 to get started; and second, they were so inspired by the professionalism, enthusiasm and intelligence of the plans, that some of the judges pitched in their own money as well.

At 6 p.m., exactly at sundown, we were all seated again in Mama Hamza’s center. I was in front with Josiah who runs Imande Trust, a local NGO that generously agreed to make and service the loans, as well as give the team office space when they need it.  Josiah is another community organizer, a leader born and raised in Kibera.  He has a strong face, a direct gaze, and a big moustache.  Wearing a kente cloth shirt and vest, he talked about growing up on the streets where we were meeting and feeling such a sense of pride tonight because we were seeing the best of Kibera.  “Too many people think Kibera is nothing about nothing.  But tonight, we are seeing Something about Something.  And even more than that, this group did in less than four months what it takes most NGOs four years to do.” So I would say they are showing EVERYTHING about Something here in Kibera.

Kevin, of course, ran the show wearing a dark blue button down shirt and jeans.  His pride at what this group had accomplished was palpable.  He introduced Josiah and then Irfan, a soft-spoken leader who runs Honey Care and is a first-rate social entrepreneur.  I also spoke, though the honor was truly for all of the organizers and those who made this evening possible. We announced the 16 finalists to much applause. And then finally, we announced the six winners.

The biggest awardee, Edwin, just 21 years old and wearing a red Kenya t-shirt, is creating a center to show live sports and films to young people that is alcohol free and will uphold a clean environment. “Young people learn how to play football by watching their heroes on TV,” he told me. “But we can’t have them at bars with too many bad things going on.  They need a place that is theirs.”

Three women and a man were awarded loans of $500 each for trading businesses — jewelry, cothing, cosmetics, cereal and a hair salon.  And Zena, wearing a grey pantsuit, won the Innovation Loan — $500 to provide packets of food staples that she buys wholesale and then gives on a credit basis to people in the slums.  It holds the highest risk business, but the judges feel the community will learn a great deal from it.

I hugged each recipient as they came up for their certificate, and each time, was impressed with the confidence of the individual and the sense of excitement in the room.  I kept looking at the audience filled with our team, community residents, leaders of social enterprises.  To say I felt blessed is sheer understatement. If all this weren’t enough, a little girl from the community named Shaneez presented me with a large cardboard art piece she’d created, a trace and mosaic painting with my name done in tiny tiles surrounded by block prints of the continent of Africa, leaves, a child’s hand and foot.

This is what development should look like – people coming together across lines of ethnicity and class to work together on a common endeavor in which every person in the room gives what they can give, in which every person in the room shows up with their whole selves, in which every person in the room is left wanting to be a better person because of the experience.

And this is just the beginning …

I will be forever grateful to Suraj and the seven men for making a dream real, and for keeping development real.

Sitting on panels to interview candidates for Acumen Fund’s fellows program is always a highlight for me. Yesterday was no different as we met with five of 56 finalists from 600 candidates who applied from 65 countries for our one-year program. Each person at our New York City panel was engaged, alive and curious about the world. For some reason, the majority were from immigrant families — from Peru, China, India, Germany. Each told stories of struggle and all had grown up in families where hard work, discipline and a focus on giving back were core values. While all could be doing anything they wanted, coming from careers at Goldman Sachs, IBM and consulting, among others, they were hungry to serve. Throughout the day I thought about this next generation so willing to take risks, so eager to change the world; and I thought about the power of the immigrant experience in the U.S. Mostly, I felt blessed.

The day, however, was a long one, and by the time I left the group dinner in Brooklyn, I was feeling under the weather and thinking about my 4 a.m. wake-up for my early flight the next morning. I waited a long time for a taxi, and when a dilapidated yellow cab pulled up, I poured myself exhaustedly into the seat. The tall, wiry, dark-skinned African with enormous hands drove for a few hundred feet and then asked me if I minded if we drove a little out of our way so that he could pick up food he’d just ordered. I sighed and asked how far out of the way it was, and he said it would be just five minutes each way. That prospect didn’t thrill me and I asked if he was sure the food would be ready, and he told me not to worry because he’d drive back over the bridge to get his food after he’d dropped me off.

It was well past 10 and I liked the easy familiarity of the guy and so said, no, let’s go and get your food. He thanked me profusely and we sped across Brooklyn. Five or six minutes later, he pulled the car to the side of the street, and sprinted to a Halal Chinese food joint. Within a flash, he was back in the car and we were heading toward Manhattan.

The driver chatted happily as we drove through Brooklyn, telling me that he loved living in New York City, that in Congo he could never have worked his way up to buying a taxi, and that he was making money and sending it home and was now seen as a hero by his family. Everyone accepts him in New York, he said, even more than in his country where there is too much violence and mistrust. “I love the American dream”, he said, “and I am living it!” He added that he thought New York was different than other cities because everyone was accepted here, and he didn’t want to live anywhere else.

We arrived at my apartment, only 10 or so minutes later than we would have otherwise, and my fare was about $12. I handed him $20 and was about to tell him to keep it all because his spirit was so effusive, but he wouldn’t accept the bill. “Please,” he said, ” the fare is on me because I took you out of your way,” and I said, no, no, no. And he said, “OK, you can give me $5 but only $5 — that’s all I want.” And I laughed because something had made each of us want to be generous. So often, though, it is those with so much less who make the first move to offer something of themselves. This time I insisted and gave him the $20. The driver finally accepted and then insisted on getting out of the car to shake my hand.

At dinner, one of our partners had spoken about looking for light these days, and finding random acts of kindness every day in unexpected places. I thought of the hard life my taxi driver had left and his open, optimistic attitude toward the world and others. I was thankful that this man had managed to remind me that my time is not all that precious. So often when I am in Africa, people go way out of their way to help me, even if they’ve never met me before. We could use bringing some of that spirit to our fair city. It starts with taking just a moment to see one another, and it goes from there.

In a recent

Das’s article cites the foundational critique of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from Milton Friedman, but it also overlooks the potential for CSR to be strategic as a value driver for companies. It is true that many CSR efforts are not strategic, that they in fact represent a thin veneer of “green wash” or philanthropy, and are staffed by people with few resources and little authority to actually get things done.

These efforts waste the time and resources of the companies and the nonprofits who indulge them in thinking that they are going to get value from a “strategic partnership” (I have been involved in more than a few of those discussions in my tenure at Acumen Fund, but won’t name names). But even these largely shallow CSR efforts, ones that build brand and communicate a message to loyal customers or inspire employees to work harder, longer or smarter can have a real return for the company. (And Das somehow conflates corporate philanthropy with CSR, by citing the Ambani’s building hospital. We can debate whether philanthropy is an effective tactic for a CSR strategy). But many CSR initiatives nowadays, including those that are looking at “BOP markets” are about exploring new markets, new products and new strategies for business growth and will have a significant impact on a company’s value over time.

The challenge is figuring out the difference. Not too different than the old marketing saying: “The good news is that I know that half of our marketing spending is really effective. the bad news is that I don’t know which half.” The same could be said for R&D. So if everything a company has to do has a narrow linear link to near term shareholder value creation, you would see CSR and marketing and R&D budgets shrink. and even CEO compensation would be cut to the barest of bones (yes, there is no link between what a company pays its CEO and shareholder value, so I would love Gucharan Das’ perspective on that point as well).

So it is true, many CSR efforts might not actually be strategic, or they might be very poorly executed. But I think that the notion that companies shouldn’t indulge in anything noncore to the business is a fallacy. CSR is here to stay whether Das likes it or not.

1. The earthquake in Haiti is a double disaster…it is a massive hit on the Haitian people whose history is already too full of hardship. The country was crippled by four hurricanes last year. Access to clean water, sanitation, hospitals, and other infrastructure — roads and communication — was barely functioning to begin with — now, much has been wiped out.

2. Children are the humanitarian priority. Nearly half the population of Haiti is under 18 years of age, 38% are under the age of 14 — making children the first call, for assistance.

3. Life saving supplies, emergency experts, and equipment are arriving — Getting the supplies to those who need them is the key, and the absolute, number one, priority.

4. Aid is getting through – Three UNICEF planeloads have landed in Port au Prince and in Santa Domingo. More are on their way. The road between Santa Domingo and Port au Prince is now useable and today 35 metric tons of UNICEF supplies will travel that road.

5. Clean water is saving lives and preventing disease outbreaks or a second wave of disaster – UNICEF is leading on water distribution. Yesterday, we delivered 250,000 liters of water to 60,000 people. Water tanks are been erected in each zone of the city. Today, 50,000 liters went to 38 distribution points providing drinking water for 80,000 people. Today, we supplied the general hospital in Port au prince with 120,000 liters of bottled water. Repairing the water and sanitation systems is a priority.

6. Providing for children who are lost or have become separated from their families must be a priority – In the middle of the kind of upheaval they are living — it is crucial they be reunited with their families, or with someone they already know. They need to be found, fed and kept safe. We need to find the right combination of providing care and being careful – to make children are properly protected.

7. Schools are closed – And we will re-open them. While that work is going on, UNICEF is bringing in supplies for temporary schooling once “safe spaces” for children are identified. We know only too well that in the chaos of any emergency, one calming factor for children is to re-establish routines…key among them, is the comfort of going back to school — even if it is a makeshift school.

8. This is a complex emergency, and in some ways a unique one – A combination of factors is challenging us: The capital is destroyed and along with it critical emergency services and infrastructure that are needed for relief distribution. The UN and other humanitarian agencies have also been directly and severely affected; loss of staff, loss of family, loss of relatives…and still, to their credit and through their grief, continue to do the work that needs to be done for the children of Haiti.

Each year 536,000 women die of complications during pregnancy or childbirth – that’s around 1 death per minute. What’s astonishing is that 99% of these deaths are in developing countries. Most of the complications, such as post-partum hemorrhage, infections, eclampsia and prolonged or obstructed labor, that lead to death or severe injury can be prevented or treated with quality reproductive health services.While improving maternal health is one of the Millennium Development Goals, not enough progress has been made. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that maternal mortality has decreased at an average of less than 1% annually. The world needs more solutions.

At Acumen Fund, we’ve seen the difference that innovative business models can make in making quality reproductive care accessible to those who do not receive adequate care from the public sector and cannot afford to go to a private hospital. We’ve invested in LifeSpring Hospitals, a network of low-cost, high-quality maternal and child healthcare hospitals in India. LifeSpring’s services include prenatal and postnatal care, normal and caesarean deliveries and family planning services, at prices that are 30-50% below market rates. Since our investment, LifeSpring has grown from 1 hospital to 9 hospitals, and has provided quality, dignified care to approximately 80,000 patients.

If you have an innovative idea that has the potential to change the field of maternal health, now is the time to share it. The deadline for ideas is March 3, 2010, and winners will be announced on June 16^th.

A few weeks ago I started a generosity experiment.  The idea, sparked by a homeless man to whom I did not give, was to spend a period of time saying ‘yes’ to all requests to give – whether a person on the street, a donation request from a nonprofit, whatever.

Some people, like Jeff, really hated the idea at first (“AHH! NOO! STOP!” was his initial reaction); others shared my sense that the practice of being generous itself was inherently valuable.

A month later, I’m glad for the experiment.  I gave more than I normally do and I gave more often.  And it felt good and right, especially during the holidays, a time when presents of all sorts were flying in all directions.

And while I won’t continue giving to virtually everyone who asks, I will give more and more often.  The practice of being generous instead of critical (discerning?) is, I have found, important for at least two reasons:  first, we are how we act, so if I can habitually act more generous, I will be and become a more generous person.  Second, the experiment served as a deeper exploration of how much giving is an act of self-expression, rather than (or in addition to) a “purchase” of a social outcome.

The people who didn’t like my experiment all said something like, “If I pass a person on the street asking for money, I don’t give because I know it makes more sense to give to a homeless shelter.”  Put another way, one could better purchase social change for a homeless person by giving to a shelter or a food bank.   Objectively, that’s probably true (though one doesn’t know for sure).  However, it also misses something: first, because whether or not you give a dollar or two to a person on the street really doesn’t affect the larger donation you’ll hopefully make to the homeless shelter or the food bank; second, because the act of saying ‘no’ over and over again is reinforcing something in you and in me.

I’m not saying give every time, I’m asking us to be honest about why we do and don’t give, and to recognize the effect it has on us.

Let’s take an extreme example: suppose that over the course of the year I’m asked to give 200 times – maybe 100 times directly and 100 times by various nonprofits in various ways.  And let’s say I have a limited amount of money to give, which I do.  Isn’t the practice of saying ‘no’ 195 times and ‘yes’ 5 times reinforcing a mindset and habit that I’m the kind of person who says no when people ask for help?  And couldn’t there be a way to say “yes” 15 or 50 or 100 times that would reinforce something else entirely?

I don’t want to take this too far – to the conclusion that all philanthropists should spread their funding widely so that they can practice saying ‘yes.’  That’s not right either.

But I do want to push myself and others to ask whether it is healthy to think of every giving decision from the head rather than from the heart.  Can’t the argument that “this isn’t the best use of my money” be paralyzing or, worse, an excuse never to part with any money, because nothing is ever good enough?

Maybe a request for a gift isn’t always chance to analyze what is or isn’t the “best” use of my money.  Instead, maybe a request for a gift is an opportunity to practice being the person that I want to be – someone whose first response is to be open and generous.

And maybe, with practice, I will be transformed in a way that is powerful for me and for the world.

Studies have indicated that up to 25% of those hospitalized in South Asia fall below the poverty line. In large measure this is a result of hospital related expenses (the situation is similar in sub-Saharan Africa). Microinsurance has the potential to shield these families from such shocks and to help them to maintain a minimum standard of living. It can also provide them the opportunity to bounce back from illness, to take active charge of their economic and social position within society. And as research in this field has demonstrated, significant percentages of the poor do not seek healthcare because of the cost. Thus microinsurance can also promote health-seeking behaviors.

The primary focus of our investment in First Microinsurance Agency (FMIA) in Pakistan is in fact Health Insurance, though the company also offers credit life insurance and is exploring agricultural insurance. We also expect that some of our other portfolio companies might benefit from becoming customers or partners of FMIA. But there will be a steep learning curve for both established and start-up companies considering the use of microinsurance services. Many established companies have, at least at the outset, treated microinsurance as more of a CSR play than potentially advantageous service. Start-ups, while better prepared to embrace the opportunity, and more inclined, often do not have the protocols and systems in place to adequately respond. As we become shrewder in our understanding of microinsurance, this will of course change. But it will take time.

And certain strategic networks and/or partners will be important for companies that want to start extending microinsurance to the poor. From a customer acquisition point of view, partnering with organizations that can provide for a large group of people will be important (e.g. MFIs) in order to quickly reach scale and lower costs. It is also very important to partner with a wide variety of clinics and hospitals to ensure that we are providing genuine access to the poor. Finally, the government too may come to play a crucial role in providing microinsurance to the poor.

Economic and political stability will be essential for the facilitation of innovations and investments in microinsurance. If we take Pakistan as an example, where inflation is now officially running at 25%, it is hard to convince a customer that health insurance, which is a new product to begin with, should be considered a necessary addition to their already constrained budget.

Taking a long term view will be crucial to enabling the spread of microinsurance. If we use microfinance as an example, we need to be cognizant of the fact that it took 30 years for Microfinance to be as widely developed as it is, and there is still room for further growth. Those now working in microinsurance should be able to utilize some of the lessons of the microfinance revolution, so its growth should be quicker, but it will still require long term vision.

Dear Editor,

Your piece on the rise of metrics, and the risks of being too metrics focused, was terrific. As the person that declared World Metrics Day on June 16th, I share the author’s perspective that metrics can be valuable, but that they have limits. But for too long, philanthropists have failed to generate any meaningful metrics that can be used to complement our professional understanding of what is working, and what is not. Those of us in the business of providing capital to businesses that combat poverty have an even greater need to measure the social efficacy of t he businesses we support.

Professional intuition that goes too long unexposed to metrics that can help complement the story fosters a guild mentality where only the “experts” know what is best. Metrics without judgment is automation; judgment without metrics is either expertise… or guesswork. (See Pinker vs. Gladwell from the NYT Book Review for further discussion). What we need are more leaders who marry both the relevant metrics with intuition to inform our experiences and help us learn from those experiences, in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The art of measurement, is in knowing which measures to select (and not just one, as our global obsession with the almighty GDP may be leading us to a crisis of global environmental proportions), when to look at them, and what decisions to make based on the data and our experience. And by the second World Metrics Day in June 2010, we hope to see a 17% increase in the number of people marrying metrics and judgment to make better decisions!

Best,

Brian Trelstad

The current wave of terrorism that the larger cities of Pakistan face lead us to assume that the insurgent elements pushed out of the Northwestern Mountains are now quite active in the plains and cities. It is true; some of these elements — including those who were pushed out of the highlands through military action — are currently taking refuge in urban spaces, generally in cities such as Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi.

No doubt, it is terrible and quite inhumane to kill civilians without any discrimination. But this seems to be the natural outcome of systemic brutality. Plains and cities are difficult to vacate and clean out of such elements immediately. That is why terrorist elements often find it easy to plan and execute dangerous attacks from cities. These types of attacks, however, are for two reasons starting to diminish. One reason is that these elements have lost much of their local sympathy with ever fewer allies throughout the county. The second reason is that people in Pakistan have accepted these problems as a fact — resigned themselves to understanding them as unfortunate but necessary stage that the country must go through. Both these reasons make me so hopeful about the prospect of a good future.

My stand on this situation, I repeat, is that the earlier it comes, the better it is! People have not seen or really observed the true face of extremist elopements and the subsequent miseries until quite recently. It might have grown into a size that could have never been controlled by future generations. And this is why I see it as an opportunity. As a nation, we are gaining the strength to be able to prevent, discourage and disenfranchise extremist elements in our society. Pakistan is also ever more capable of absorbing the extraordinary physical and emotional shocks of terrorist action, to know how our friends and enemies will develop an infrastructure to fight such insurgency, develop tools and equipment and, last but not the least, become responsible citizens, true Pakistanis.

There are number of other reason to believe that this country is facing the “climax” of terrorist action, in advance of its approaching end. Our media has developed enormous strength – in terms of the freedom and education of its citizenry – and to an extent that even recently the nation could not have imagined. Real time information resource-sharing by the media is resulting in making our politicians and public servants more responsible, with the pubic better educated.

Take as an example the sense of freedom and of responsibility that our judiciary is currently exhibiting! The Judiciary is even discussing corruption cases against a sitting government and a controversial President! How amazing and hopeful this is!

And look at the Pakistani Army! Are they not doing well themselves? Getting any number of martyrs and atrocities on daily basis; still focused, committed to their business and remaining on the front; not de-stabilizing the democratic government nor taking any stake in judicial activism. Is this not positive and hopeful too?

My hopes for the future of this country strengthen when I see boys and girls receiving equal education in the remotest and most far flung University, the University of Malakand, which is located in Lower Dir district. For those who know this geography, it goes without saying that this is indeed the epicenter of militancy and extremism; where until very recently, even schooling for girls was banned outright.

Despite the ongoing problems, I am at heart an optimist, and I am encouraged as I see huge number of youngster in my area working for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which were so recently considered un-trustworthy agents of the west (and in particular America) with employees stigmatized. Pakistan is changing and finally realizing its potential. The path ahead is rocky, but it is ours and it is hopeful.

Cross Posted on ThinkChange India

Day One: Laying the Groundwork

In a gathering of practitioners and investors, the Khemka Forum kicked off at the India School of Business in Hyderabad.  The day’s activities ranged from plenaries to sector working group lunches to track breakouts.  Social entrepreneurs converged to discuss the state of their field, lessons learnt, ideas for collaboration, and the way forward.

As Don Mohanlal, CEO of Khemka Foundation, quoted, “the best time to begin a long journey was 10 years ago. The next best time is today.” In the long journey to create a complete social entrepreneurship ecosystem in India, the Khemka Forum aimed to kick off a constructive conversation on action-oriented, short-term ideas that Indian social entrepreneurs could take as the work toward the longer term goal.

Working Scale Issues: “Fingers Burnt, Lessons Learnt”

Healthy debate and discussion around scale indicated that even the most successful social enterprises in India are grappling with this issue. Manish Sabharwal, Co-Founder of TeamLease, mentioned that entrepreneurs can create two types of organizations – a baby or a dwarf – one that starts small and gets much bigger, or one that will remain small. He identified various factors that influence scale, including opportunity, team, organizational design, strategy, and risk.  Pawan Patil, CEO of the Global Partnership for Youth Investment, talked about creating an enabling environment and busting myths.  Dr. Patil focused largely on creating jobs, especially for the growing youth population, as a necessary step toward achieving scale.  Nachiket Mor, President of ICICI Foundation, emphasized starting from the ground, building up, and then replicating.

SCALERS

In a session on “SCALERS – Driving Social Impact,” Matthew Nash, Managing Director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University, discussed a new model for talking about scale.  SCALERS stands for Staffing, Communicating, Alliance-building, Lobbying, Earnings generation, Replicating, and Stimulating market forces.  Parag Gupta, Founder of Waste Bank, presented a case study on SELCO (TC-I previously interviewed Harish Hande here) using the SCALERS model and identified the enterprise’s accomplishments and challenges.

Similarly, Professor Madhukar Shukla of XLRI Jamshedpur presented a case study on Nidan (founded by Arbind Singh, Khemka’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008).  Since Nidan focuses on a completely different sector – organizing marginalized workers – and operates as a nonprofit, the two organizations had very different outcomes on the SCALERS model.  The model provided a good basis to talk about the various factors involved in scaling up and strategic steps for moving forward.

Sector Working Groups

I sat in on the sector working group focusing on rural innovations, led by Prema Gopalan of Swayam Sikshan Prayog.  Other working groups included health, education, renewable energy, and youth entrepreneurship.  The rural innovations group identified major barriers – from knowledge management to product design to innovative financing.  From there, the conversation shifted to collaborations and action steps, especially on ways that practitioners could connect more deeply and consistently.  We will all have to stay tuned to see what these working group discussions will eventually produce…

Alternative Talent Pools

Finally, I attended the track organized by Dasra on Building Alternative Talent Pool.  In a panel facilitated by Dasra Managing Partner Neera Nundy, Manish Sabharwal (again of TeamLease), Deep Joshi (Co-Founder of Pradan), and Prashant Bhaskar (Head of PLUG HR) discussed the ways in which they attracted, retained, and built the capacity of talent for organizations.  A lively discussion around how social enterprises should hire and train employees ensued, with Mr. Sabharwal reminding the audience that the role of the employer is not to manufacture employees, while Mr. Joshi explained his desire to treat each person in the organization as a changemaker or social entrepreneur.  A lot of the discussion linked back to public policy and the existing inequality of opportunity, as well as the need to reform current skill development and vocational training programs.  Finally, participants worked through the importance of organizational culture, citing personal examples of how to make sure a certain culture permeates from the top to the bottom of an enterprise.

Day 2: Moving into Action

While Day 1 of the Khemka Forum on Social Entrepreneurship focused on plenaries and making connections within sectors, Day 2 moved into smaller groups, deeper conversations, and creating plans for bridging gaps.

Measuring Impact

In the track on Performance Metrics, Matthew Nash of Duke University provided a thorough overview of the key trends in social impact measurement.  He discussed many trends, including the experimentation with tools and techniques, movement toward common metrics, emphasis on data quality, program evaluation through randomized design, and building robust performance management systems.  Mr. Nash also made the important point that outcomes do not equal impact, and that impact is actually the outcome minus what would happen in absence of the program.  Organizations often confuse this, thereby inflating the actual impact of their work.

Anant Kumar, CEO of LifeSpring Hospitals, which offer low-cost, high quality maternal and child care, spoke on the enterprise perspective of tracking metrics.  One of the key points he made was the value of democratizing data – basically, data needs to be present up, down, and across an organization so that it cannot be manipulated or modified.

Acumen Fund India’s Energy Portfolio Manager Katie Hill spoke on the social investor viewpoint.  She pointed out that the real challenge is that metrics must be understandable, inexpensive, and useful. You can read more directly from Katie in the Acumen Fund blog post on metrics.  Finally, IFMR’s Centre for Microfinance Executive Director Justin Oliver wrapped up the panel by elaborating on what gets measured, how it gets measured, and how to interpret the data.

Participants, while eager to learn how to incorporate good data gathering into their organization, also discussed the difficulties around funding data collection and being able to measure data accurately.  A general agreement on the value of data and metrics, however, pointed the way forward for experimental systems and reminded everyone the importance of starting small, but starting somewhere.

Consultancy Clinics

One of the more unique aspects of this forum were the consultancy clinics, which focused on law & social entrepreneurship, effective stakeholder communication, getting investment ready, and new forms of knowledge creation.  Matthew Nash led a dynamic consultancy clinic on knowledge creation, which I attended with the interest of understanding how TC-I could continue to serve as a platform for newly created knowledge.  The small group consisted of both academics and practitioners, allowing both sides to voice their perspectives and then discuss how to bridge existing gaps.  Mr. Nash started with the basic question of what action research agenda is needed to advance the field of social entrepreneurship in India.  While case study development is common, practitioners were concerned about the lack of usefulness for their organizations, as well as the large amount of time needed to share this knowledge.  The group discussed how to create collaborative research, use online networking forums, and engage students via practicums or internships.  As time spilled over into lunch, the clinic participants formulated a plan on how to move forward after the forum and ensure continued dialogue on this important issue.

Building an ecosystem

At the beginning of this event, speakers placed emphasis on building an ecosystem for social entrepreneurs in India.  The Khemka Forum was a bold attempt to convene the right players to do just that.  As a starting point, it was great to see the enthusiasm and seriousness with which participants approached this task.  Discussion and action will continue well beyond the Forum, and I’m hopeful in witnessing the creation of a more enabling environment for social entrepreneurs in India.  At the end of the day, there are investors, entrepreneurs, academics, donors, and the wider community who want to see innovative, market based solutions make a deep impact on India’s social issues.  With the efforts of all these stakeholders, and a concerted effort to bring others into the fray (from government to lawyers to media), the Khemka Forum is indeed a catalyst for accelerating the business of social change.

As we reach the end of this series, on the nature and the role of cohorts in leadership programs, we find ourselves confronting the after or extended life of our programs. In other words, what do you do once the program finishes?  Needless to say, this question demands a discussion on alumni development. Though quite challenging to administer, maintaining strong ties among alumni (both with one another and with the institution) must be considered an essential element of programs such as those we have been discussing in this series. From my perspective, indeed, this is one of the key pieces of the leadership development puzzle. In our interviews with various people involved in developing, participating in, and administering leadership programs, we have identified four essential aspects of effective and successful alumni development. In this last post of the series, we want to share our findings with you.

First , we have discovered that alumni development must be part of the program from the very beginning; new recruits should be aware from the first day of training that their commitment is a lifetime one. Or, phrased slightly differently, from the outset, participants should understand that though their training will have a limited duration, their commitment to the program and to each other will last through the course of their lives. There are various practical, strategic, formal, and informal ways that leadership programs can encourage this kind of commitment.

One organization that has been particularly effective at this is Ashoka, who have developed one of the finest alumni networks in the field of social entrepreneurship.  While the Ashoka fellows program lasts only three years, Ashoka as an institution continues to support former fellows throughout their career. They do so by providing assistance to former fellows with pro bono support, open access to Ashoka’s extended global network, and periodic extended training. While Ashoka have been innovative in creating and administrating alumni initiatives, in some measure, they have based their own model of alumni development on university alumni organizations.

As the model from which all other alumni development efforts derive, top university alumni associations have a great deal to teach us all.  Alumni networks such as those operated by Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and other top academic institutions all continue to provide support to their alumni well beyond their time at the university. Alumni remain connected to their Alma maters through targeted events such as annual reunions, web-based networks, local chapters of alumni groups, newsletters, magazines and other similar development projects.  Many of these programs are so strong, the sense of community so richly established by them, that it has become an almost unstated rule that if an alumni or student contacts another alumni, they will almost certainly respond.  Now that is really impressive!  These programs capitalize on an individual’s desire to be involved in a group of people that has shared a similar experience.  If you are looking to build your alumni network, turning to university alumni organizations would be an excellent first source.

One of things that university alumni networks are so excellent at realizing is a continued platform for interaction by former members of cohorts, or of extended cohort groups. And while there is an almost intuitive connection between alumni of a university, other organizations have also found effective ways to develop the sense of affiliation amongst their former members. Organizations can ensure that its groups remain connected in a number of ways. For instance, the Henry Crown Fellows Program has a yearly gathering for all of its alumni, an event where the fellows have the opportunity to work and network with one another over the course of several days spent on specific projects.  The key to an event such as this is that it has direction; the gathering will be much more valuable for all those involved if it is organized around a particular goal or activity, which these yearly gathering always are. Specifically, if the fellows are either working on solving a specific problem together or are being trained in some new skill set, these types of gatherings will be both individually productive and instrumental in further creating a shared sense of group. These events create a specific value for its fellows, encouraging them to fly in from distant places, to learn new skills, or apply their professional talents towards a distinct aim. These events wind up doubly productive; the new time spent on a shared activity reinforces the fellow’s commitment to the convening organization and to one another.

Third, we have found that the programs which recruit fellows with a shared mission are more likely to have strong alumni networks than those without it.  For example, at Acumen Fund we have found that even though we do not convene our alumni yearly in the way, say, the Henry Crown Fellows Program does, (though we are would be very interested do so if any potential donors would be interested) less formal “reunions” are continually under way, with fellows remaining in close proximity to one another (occasionally geographically but more often in terms of life direction). To cite another example, I mentioned in my last blog that two of the 2007 Acumen Fund Fellows at Bamboo Finance have invested in a 2008 Fellow who is building his own low-income housing development in Pakistan. This investment and renewed partnership between alumni fellows, while not generated from some form of “top down” alumni development initiative, nevertheless reflects the ways that informal alumni collaborations can wind up having the same function, if the sense of shared mission is strong enough.

Fourth, as is a common practice at universities, alumni groups can and should involve its alumni in ongoing recruiting processes.  At Acumen Fund, we do this at multiple stages of our annual fellows’ recruitment process. Acumen Fund Fellows Alumni carry out multiple rounds of resume reviews, phone interviews; attend our final round panel interviews, and recruitment dinners around the world.  We do this because we find it is a surefire way to ensure the finest new Fellows are recruited each year, to help continue to build our alumni’s networks, and to keep alumni involved and engaged in the program.

These are just a few ideas though. As I think about managing Acumen’s alumni network I would love your thoughts on ways you have worked to bring your own global alumni together. We would love to hear from you all of you and continue this conversation online.

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.

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!!

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?