Recently, Dan and Jacqueline decided it would be fun to swap short Q&As. Three questions each. You can read the three questions posed by Dan to Jacqueline on the Heath Brothers website here. Below are the three questions posed by Jacqueline to Dan.

What are your thoughts on how Dan and Chip’s’ principles apply to Acumen’s work?

JN: You talk about finding the “bright spots” (identifying the things that seem to be working) as one of the first steps on the road to change.  I imagine that finding these bright spots and interpreting them is sometimes harder than it looks.  For the best organizations you’ve seen, how much is this an analytical versus an intuitive process?

DH: Let me give a bit of backstory on “bright spots” for those who haven’t read Switch. Psychology tells us that we’re wired to look at the negative. When we want change, we tend to obsess about all the problems we’re having and we try to come up with solutions for them. But, in times of change, there may be many things that aren’t working, so that “problem focus” is a recipe for paralysis. Instead, we need to find the bright spots—that is, the early signs that things are working. Once we’ve found the bright spots, we can clone them. For instance, say you’ve got a troubled relationship with your teenager. Rather than obsessing about the difficulties, ask yourself, when was the last time the two of you had a really healthy interaction? That’s your bright spot. What was different about that moment? (Were you talking at a different time of day? Different place? Different conversation topics?) If you can figure out what conditions made your bright spots possible, you can reproduce them.

The same is true for social enterprise. Jerry and Monique Sternin made a career out of solving seemingly intractable problems—child malnutrition in Vietnam, sex trafficking in Indonesia, gang violence in New Jersey—by focusing on the practices that were already working, and then scaling those successes. (Interested readers should check out the Sternins’ essential new book, The Power of Positive Deviance.)

Sometimes you can use data to find bright spots. The Sternins, in particular, made data-gathering a priority. But other times, it’s not possible—it would be difficult, for instance, to collect data on your relationship with your teenager. Whether your process is analytical or intuitive, the important thing is to direct your attention to the things that are already working, in spite of the problems. (For a longer treatment of this issue, here’s an excerpt from Switch about bright spots.)

JN: One of our biggest questions at Acumen Fund is how to switch the thinking in aid from one of giving handouts to creating a mindset of the dignity and capability of every person on earth – no matter what their income.  What might we do better to catalyze that new way of thinking?  What are the things we can do and say to make people resolve to effect changes in ways that matter, ways that, well, stick?

DH: Here’s the problem: I think many of us think of “The Poor” as this homogenous, pitiable group. We imagine them as if cast by Sally Struthers, lying on the side of the road, begging for their next meal, swatting flies away from their faces. What I loved about your book—and also another eye-opening new book, Portfolios of the Poor—is that we get a more 3-D portrait of the poor. We meet people making a dollar or two a day who create strict household budgets, who save money in multiple ways, who take loans from banks and loan out money to neighbors. People with rich, complicated lives. People who are happy. (Do we need people to be miserable to be deserving of our help?)

The poor don’t need our pity, they need our business and our investment and our ideas. They need to be treated as moral equals. I’m actually very optimistic that this message—your message—will stick. One “trait” of an idea that helps it succeed is unexpectedness, and I think there’s plenty that’s unexpected in your message. Many of us have had such a one-dimensional view of the poor for so long that the reality of their experience—and the reality of their needs—will surprise and motivate many people.

JN: We spent so much time – and our educational institutions drill in the notion – working on the Rider (the analytical). At Acumen Fund we talk a lot about “moral imagination” which is the power to see things from another’s perspective and literally to walk a mile in others’ shoes.  How do we all get better at tapping into our Elephants (our emotional selves)?  More specifically, how can we teach others to do this?

DH: When we change, it’s almost always because of a feeling. There’s a spark of emotion—desire or fear or hope—that motivates us to move. We rarely learn our way into change, encountering a set of facts so convincing that we leave our past behaviors behind. Feeling comes first.

John Kotter says that change tends to happen in a three-step pattern: People SEE something that makes them FEEL something that leads them to CHANGE. SEE-FEEL-CHANGE. Here’s what I would challenge Acumen and its brethren to do: Make it possible for us to walk a mile in the shoes of the poor. Not for fundraising purposes or for heartstring-plucking purposes, but for the purpose of “moral imagination,” as you say.

I don’t know what form that could take—audio interviews a la StoryCorps? Videos that show a “day in the life?” Daily journals posted online? Regardless of the format, I think your goal is 100% right: I believe that if we can create empathy for the poor, as they really are—full of dignity and talent and promise but hampered by a shocking lack of opportunities, relative to our own lives—then we can’t help but do something to help them.

When we started Acumen’s San Francisco chapter last fall, we knew we wanted to do something that had a distinctly Northern Californian flavor. So we took a page from Silicon Valley’s tech community and held a pitch night last month where five emerging social enterprises gave their best business plan presentations to a panel of Bay Area venture capitalists and veteran entrepreneurs like Premal Shah of Kiva.

More than 200 people came to see entrepreneurs like Shah and Leila Janah of Samasource share the lessons they learned from building their nonprofits from the ground-up.

Whether facing cost constraints, building a new brand in an unknown market or creating traction in an online marketplace, all of the speakers shared a common commitment to approaching long-standing problems with innovative technology solutions. It was an incredible opportunity to hear from individuals who are so boldly championing social enterprise as a solution to the economic and social disparities endemic to global poverty.

The second half of the event was dedicated to showcasing some of the pioneering social entrepreneurship happening in the Bay Area through a VC panel and social entrepreneur pitch session.  After sharing her experience working with D.light in India as a 2009 Acumen Fund Fellow, Heidi Krauel graciously moderated the VC panel and pitch session. Each social entrepreneur was given five minutes to pitch their business models to the VC panel and then responded to five minutes of Q&A from the panelists.  The social entrepreneurs’ pitches – spanning businesses in microfinance, water, cleantech, international development and web – underscored the incredible level of commitment it takes to launch a social enterprise.  Their excitement and dedication was truly inspiring. We hope the critical questioning from VC panelists Wes Selke of Good Capital, Beaudean Seil of Hunstman Gay Capital Impact and Esther Park of RSF Social Finance, will help them refine their business models as they work to build their organizations.

We partnered with Hub Bay Area and SOCAP10 at the Hub’s new downtown SoMa location. Just a few hours before the event, the Hub was still buzzing with activity with members dispersed throughout the 8600 sq. ft. of communal workspace. But, by 6 p.m. the Hub’s staff had expertly transformed the interior from a sea of modular work islands, designed to foster radical collaboration and idea flow, into an event space soon to be filled with 200 attendees. The wine was flowing courtesy of our sponsors Y&B Wines and The Bubble Lounge.

Following the pitches, we were thrilled to be approached by other social entrepreneurs interested in similar events in the future. For us, this was a true measure of the event’s success.  We hope Social Enterprise from Scratch is just the beginning of SF for Acumen’s potential to serve as a resource and inspiration for our community.

Join SF for Acumen and Nuru Project for DIGNITY, a photo auction and exhibit benefitting Acumen Fund. The event will be held on Saturday, August 7th at Gallery 16 in San Francisco, and will feature 30 prints by renowned photographers for auction.  All tickets include open wine/beer bar and hors d’oeuvres, and proceeds from the event will support Acumen Fund. Register here.

Mediha Abdulhay and Kim-Mai Cutler are co-leaders of the SF for Acumen chapter. They organized the Social Enterprise from Scratch event at Hub SoMa in San Francisco in June 2010. Learn more about SF for Acumen on our Community site.

Pakistan for Acumen (PfA) did something different…the leaders of this newly-formed volunteer Chapter sought out an inspiring venue, T2F – The Second Floor in Karachi, PK – to host its event earlier this month. As a result, a group of curious and energetic students and professionals came together to learn about how PfA can spur conversation and debate about social entrepreneurship.

PfA arranged this event with the intentions of:

• Furthering dialogue/debate around social entrepreneurship by asking the questions: What does it mean? What does it mean from Acumen’s lens? What is the role of sustainability, social impact and scale? How can we find balance for the greatest success?
• Creating an opportunity to energize young professionals, students and entrepreneurs about social entrepreneurship as a career choice, and discussing the value this creates for the development of Pakistan.
• Getting more young professionals involved with PfA Chapter activities.

The event kicked off with a screening of Jacqueline’s video as featured on PSB NewsHour. The short clip provided good fodder for discussions about Acumen Fund’s work. Following the video, PfA shared a powerful presentation highlighting issues like ‘who are our social change agents?’ and ‘social business that serves the poor’. These topics resonated with me because they clearly articulate Acumen’s values of acknowledging entrepreneurs who, despite a variety of challenges, are still striving to create businesses/markets to serve the poor. The interconnectedness perceived by the participants was evident in the discussions that followed the session.

Sarah Dimson, an Acumen Fellow working with AMC in Pakistan, deliberated on how affordable housing has proved the potential for scaling the social enterprise sector. She talked about her personal experience of working with AMC, an emerging housing company that not only builds houses, but also communities! Her enthusiasm and the commitment with which she has accepted the challenge to work in the sector and this country strengthen the need for the chapter to come forward and start taking action.

“In my presentation, I highlighted how microinsurance as social enterprise is assisting low income families to get out of a poverty trap and augmenting the microfinance sector to expand and develop a new market. I shared my excitement that the enormous exposure to forums and opportunities, networking with the world’s top-most leaders, and invaluable source of knowledge about the sector, has helped me broaden my thinking. Excited about sharing my vision of creating future leaders for Pakistan, I concluded the presentation with an invitation to act by saying ‘Do you have any dream or plan to be, yourself, a change agent or be a part of the change? If not, join the Acumen Community; you will have one very soon!’”

I was extremely touched by the interest and quality questions after the presentations. The curiosity to have a metric for measuring social impact and the suggestion of a lab investment gave me comfort that the event had a leap-forward impact on the participants’ understanding of the sector. Questions like ‘how to measure the social impact,’ strengthen Acumen Fund’s efforts of developing the right metrics and tools to do so. The group itself was challenged, had the chance to unearth these kinds of queries, and is willing to contribute in developing such tools.

I had the opportunity to meet a few exciting folks from the business and technology sectors who want to do their part. Farhan Zaidi, an IBA graduate, invited me and Acumen Fund to hold such gatherings at his campus. Another group of gentlemen expressed their deep interest in the Fellows Program and Summer Internships as an opportunity to learn more about the space. I was amazed to see another passionate woman, Iqra Shaukat from the Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (AIESEC), striving to bridge the divide between the developed world and Pakistan by offering an exchange program for youngsters across the globe. AIESEC is currently seeking networking opportunities, so their groups would exhibit greater diversity.

I hope this event will go a long way in advancing the discussion and bringing more people on board with Pakistan for Acumen, and the sector at large.

Zahoor Muhammad is an Acumen Fellow in the Class of 2010, working with FMiA in Pakistan.

This past Sunday, I found myself standing in a hidden bohemian (albeit) shabby chic virtual warehouse in the heart of London’s East End with Michelin Star chefs prepping and dicing in the upstairs kitchen.  I looked out to a sea of faces at this Dining for Dignity event, hosted by London for Acumen – some new and some very familiar.  Those faces staring back at me were faces I identified as Acumen’s growing community of true game-changers, who I know will continue to inspire me, and yet there I was for the evening hoping to inspire them.

After a 6-course Michelin star menu – prepared by the former team of Richard Corrigan and Tom Aikens: Ollie Pudney, Dominic Robinson and sommelier Dawid Koegelenberg – I took to the stage and began to educate the room about the concept of venture philanthropy. I talked to them about A to Z and their blended approach of business and philanthropy, and more importantly, I tried to reach them with this story that meant more than debt, equity and metrics.

This evening would never have taken place without the goodwill of Eyjafjallajökull.  I say that flippantly, yet truthfully.  It was this Icelandic ash cloud that destroyed travel plans for many and brought me together with Yasmina Zaidman and her team at Acumen.  For those few weeks, I was in the presence of an overwhelming number of social innovators. It was then that I decided to dedicate my time to London’s plans and vision in support of Acumen.

Sunday was a humbling night.  This event, the first fundraiser of the year for our group, brought in more than GBP 980 for Acumen.  The buzz that evening felt unstoppable.  We as a chapter have only begun to realise our momentum, our press that evening was phenomenal, the goodwill from some outstanding individuals was recognized, and we expect that this is only the beginning.

Learn more about London for Acumen and join us!

See more photos from the event and check out the BBC coverage, below.

Jill Richmond is one of the chapter leaders of London for Acumen. She helped organize the Dining for Dignity event on June 13, 2010.

I recently concluded my 3-month volunteer internship with Acumen Fund, and am writing to share my amazing experience with you.

First up, a little bit of context: I took a gap year after college to work in the social enterprise sector. I spent some time building hybrid value chains with Ashoka in the slums of India, and worked at the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in Switzerland before coming home to Singapore. Getting to work for Acumen Fund was a dream come true for me. I had read The Blue Sweater and heard about how Acumen was revolutionizing the impact investing sector. So when the opportunity came up, I jumped! I split my time between the Communications Team and the Portfolio Team – I helped run Acumen’s online properties with the former, and supported our internal knowledge management functions with the latter. Coming away from the internship, I would strongly recommend working with Acumen Fund for 2 reasons.

First of all, Acumen Fund is truly leading the impact investment sector through its work. On the portfolio front, Acumen has built a track record of impressive investments in its short 9-year history. Launching social enterprises is tough, but Acumen has picked winners like D.Light Design and Dial 1298 that are quickly scaling their models for social impact. As such, I had the benefit of working on research pieces that crystallized the learning from successful ventures, analyzing topics such as Cross-Subsidization and Marketing to BoP Communities. On a macro-level, Acumen has had the foresight to build the foundation for the entire impact investment sector. By developing the Impact Reporting & Investment Standards and the Pulse system for social impact measurement, Acumen has given impact investors a common basis to quantify social impact. These are achievements of inestimable importance. If you want to learn how impact investing works and where the future of the sector lies, this is the place to be.

Unsurprisingly, Acumen’s leadership with its portfolio work has translated into success in telling its story. While there are many impact investment funds in the world today, none commands the same mindshare in the social enterprise community. Acumen has excelled at presenting its compelling story to the very people who need to hear it, from future leaders at business schools around the world to political heavy weights in Washington. While Acumen’s actual investments only work across a handful of countries, its story is challenging people around the globe to consider patient capital as a viable means of sustainable development. Already, this has spawned impact investors around the world seeking to replicate Acumen’s model in geographies where Acumen is unable to reach.

Secondly, the people at Acumen Fund are truly a joy to work with. Even though I was based in Singapore for my internship, I was deeply impressed by their sense of professionalism and competence. Business people often associate nonprofits with inefficiency, but that couldn’t be further from the truth at Acumen Fund. The team was always informed, prompt and thoughtful in supervising me, and I believe that everyone I worked with could have been just as successful working in a leading bank or consulting firm. Beyond that, everyone was extremely warm towards me, and very willing to dispense career advice whenever I needed it. Saving the world alongside a wonderful team does sound like a pretty compelling job description, doesn’t it?

I conclude my internship with Acumen Fund with some sadness, but I’m thankful that this was only the beginning of my relationship with the team. This experience taught me how a passionate, competent group of individuals can change our very notions of philanthropy, aid and capitalism. The world has traditionally kept philanthropy and entrepreneurship separate because they never saw a way to make them work well together, but Acumen Fund’s work has shown us a way forward. As I proceed in my own career, I’d like to learn the ropes of impact investing first-hand, so I can help bring to bear the power of patient capital back home in Southeast Asia.

Thank you Acumen Fund – for changing the way I look at the world, and inspiring me to change it. I’ll always be grateful for this opportunity, and promise to stay in touch.

Yours truly,

Shijie (SJ) Lu

Shijie (SJ) Lu is based in Singapore and has been a volunteer for Acumen Fund’s Communications and Portfolio teams. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and will be joining Deloitte Consulting in San Francisco this July.

Next week, join San Francisco for Acumen Fund and SOCAP 10 for an exciting discussion featuring social enterprise veterans, start-ups and social venture capital firms.  Kiva, Samasource and Naya Jeevan will share their expertise with budding entrepreneurs.

Event Details
Date: June 17, 2010
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: The new Hub SOMA, 2601 Mission St., #400, San Francisco, CA 94110
RSVP: http://socentfromscratch.eventbrite.com/

The final night of Acumen’s Portfolio Gathering highlighted the hard work of eight employees from Acumen portfolio companies, who were recognized with Frontline Awards.  Leah Okullo, an associate in our East Africa office, emceed the event, providing short stories about the  commitment and determination of each honoree.  The awards program was modeled on a similar event at the Pakistan Community Gathering last year and was a highlight of the Portfolio Gathering for many participants.

Congratulations to our honorees:

• Hannah Mwangi, UHEAL
• Sally Aluoch, Ecotact
• Josephine Mburu, Sustainable Healthcare Foundation’s CFW Shops
• Jack Njiru, Botanical Extracts EPZ
• Abel Kuley, Botanical Extracts EPZ
• Kennedy Nyamwaya Bundi, Insta Products
• Janet Bett, Jamii Bora
• Felix Bunyasi, Western Seed

The following is Leah’s speech from the event:

Leah Okullo, Master of Ceremonies

Welcome to a very special part of our program this evening. When we speak of the impressive achievements in the social sector, often times it is the pioneering philanthropist, ideologist, or more recently, the social entrepreneurs who come to mind.

However, there is also a second group of people who need to be acknowledged here, our ‘unsung heroes’ – the front lines of these social organizations.

These are the people who are the backbone of the companies they work for, and especially given today’s challenging political and economic climate, they really have their work cut out for them.

They are the ones who go door-to-door in the heat. They are the ones who galvanize communities to empower themselves. They’re the ones who deal with the hostilities of skeptics and grapple with the bureaucrats on a daily basis.

Most of the front line staff being honored today do come from the communities which their organizations are serving – and this is really capacity building, self-sustenance and dignity at its best.

Today we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the dedication of the frontline staff of some of our investee companies and thank this group of people upon whose shoulders Acumen Fund’s entire ecosystem is dependent.

I am sure each and every one of us as a team has learnt a lot from spending time in the field with them.

Please join us in thanking these exemplary individuals.

Jacqueline, would you please join me on stage to present the plaques to our honorees tonight.

First, we would like to Hannah Mwangi from UHEAL.  Hannah, please join us on stage.

As we heard from Patrick Quarcoo yesterday, customers buy friendship and love.

Hannah is an ophthalmic assistant working with UHEAL. Her job is to attend to the patients, which includes counseling and passing on  information on various medical conditions related to the eye: testing vision, checking eye pressure and dilating patient eyes, and maintaining the specialized equipment to ensure that it is good order, clean and stored well at all times.

But Hannah has also gone above and beyond her call of duty. She was the first employee of UHEAL and was asked to run the administration and patient support work for the doctor with no training in any of these things.

She soon learned all the ropes and made the place what it is today . Her background is in tailoring but you would not know it unless somebody told you that.

In the client feedback survey UHEAL conducted in December, a majority of the clients mentioned that they came to the place because of Hannah because she is patient, caring and makes them feel loved and valued.  She takes times with each client making sure their experience at the clinic is delightful.

Hannah, please accept this plaque as a token of our gratitude.

Next, we would like to honor Sally Aluoch from Ecotact.  Sally, please join us on stage.

If cash is king , then Sally is Queen to Ecotact. Sally was among the first employees of Ecotact.  She started as a cleaner, and was then promoted to a cashier shortly thereafter.

Today, Sally supervises the Iko-toilets facilities throughout Nairobi .  Her responsibilities have grown to include supervising cleanliness in the Iko-toilets, as well as depositing cash collected from the facilities.

Despite the high volume of cash transactions done every day, there have never been any irregularities.  She is also keen on checking on cash collected by cashiers, who trust her because she was once a cashier just like them.

She is also trusted by Ecotact management, as she reports back on employee issues with empathy but also in a spirit of accountability.

Sally does demonstrations for new employees on how best to clean the Iko-toilets, building trust throughout the organization.  She even steps in as a cashier or a cleaner whenever necessary.  She has energy to visit all of the Iko-toilets, checking cleanliness on her own, without supervision.

Sally has proved to be dedicated and committed to her work,  and a team leader to the Ecotact team.

Sally, please accept this plaque as a token of our gratitude.

Next, we would like to honor Josephine Mburu from the Sustainable Healthcare Foundation’s CFW Shops.

Josephine Mburu is the Field Services Manager at the Sustainable Healthcare Foundation’s CFW Shops.  Josephine trained as a nurse in Germany and chose to forgo highly-paid positions in Europe and the US to come back to Kenya.

With her deep insight into healthcare and also a strong grasp of the business essentials of running a franchised healthcare business, Josephine is a driving force at CFW Shops.  As one of the longest-serving employees, she is also a treasure trove of knowledge and has supported the organization through periods of transition.  She’s  an extremely committed individual who is driven by a strong need to make a difference in the community that she is a part of.

Her boss and CFW’s Country Manager, Spencer Ochieng, has this to say about her: “Josephine possesses a positive, can-do attitude which is infectious to those around her. Her efforts have greatly contributed to the success of SHF as an organization and, in turn, the realization of our mission. She easily mixes with all ranks, works long hours and is absolutely committed to her work; in short she is a great asset to me as the Country Manager and to the organization in general!”

Josephine please accept this plaque as a token of our gratitude.

Next, would Jack Njiru from Botanical Extracts EPZ please join us on stage.

In the words of Winston Churchill, as we heard from Bruce Robertson this week, “Never give up, never give up, never never never never.”

Jack is the Production Manager at the BEEPZ processing plant and is responsible for managing all production activities in the factory. He is also very involved in assisting the technical team to improve recovery rates in the factory and  works closely with the Technical Director, factory manager and the development lab staff.

We would like to honor Jack because in recent months, Jack has maintained a very positive attitude and has been able to assist management in working with the production team.

We very much appreciate Jack’s approach to his work and look forward to his input in the future and his assistance to build up the production team.

Jack, please accept this plaque as a token of our gratitude.

We have a second awardee from Botanical Extracts EPZ, but he is unable to join us this evening.  Patrick, would you please come up to accept Abel Kuley’s award on his behalf.

Abel Kuley manages all BE’s activities in Tanzania, particularly relating to raw material production but also in dealing with local authorities and financial management.

Abel has played a truly amazing role to keep production activities going in the face of challenging financial circumstances. He has interacted with farmers and creditors and kept his team motivated. He holds one of the hardest roles within BE, particularly given the distance from the main BE operations in Kenya.

Raw material is absolutely the lifeblood of the company and BE will depend heavily on Tanzanian production, so we are very appreciative of Abel’s efforts to keep this production going and to keep his team intact in such an independent and competent way.

Patrick, please accept this award on Abel’s behalf.  We are sorry he can’t join us here tonight.

Kennedy Nyamwaya Bundi, is the honoree from Insta Products.  Ken, please join us on stage.

They say perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.

Kennedy (“Ken”) Nyamwaya Bundi joined Insta way back in 2004, starting as a shipping clerk.  Of his own volition, he studied for and passed exams to earn his Certificate, and then a Diploma, in East African Customs Freight Forwarding & Shipping Management.

He has subsequently taken additional exams, and is conversant with tax import and export regulations, all of which changed recently with the introduction of the New East African Customs Union.

Ken works tirelessly in his position to expedite  Insta products shipments throughout East Africa often overcoming immensely complex customs issues.  For importing ingredients, he similarly works with Kenya government offices to cope with difficult regulatory systems that breaks down, and the many unexpected events that prevent customs clearance in a timely fashion.

You will find Ken even working Sundays, holidays, and evenings, driving between Insta’s offices in Athi River (EPZ) and downtown Nairobi, to ensure Insta’s business is successful.

Ken, please accept this plaque as a token of our gratitude.

Next, we are pleased to ask Janet Bett from Jamii Bora to join us on stage.

Truly, when the world says, “Give up, hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.’”

Anyone seeing  Janet’s  elegance and good looks today would never have imagined this lady, Janet Bett, was once looking rugged and dirty as she begged in the streets of Nairobi.  A trained teacher, Janet left a marital home when her husband threw her and  her six children out.

He made sure that she lost her teaching job with the TSC and went to the extent of burning all her certificates. Her younger brothers would not allow her and her kids to stay home because that meant competition for the little milk from their mother’s cows.

Janet traveled to Nairobi with the hope of being reinstated.  Months passed b and nothing was happening.  She slowly drifted to the streets where her friends were begging.

For 10 years, the streets were Janet’s  home until she met Ingrid Munro, the founder of Jamii Bora who unfortunately could not be with us tonight.  Janet would gather together with her friends around Mama Ingrid whenever she brought her adopted children to play with their friends.

Janet soon became Mama Ingrid’s translator.  Soon after, she joined Ingrid as Ingrid created Jamii Bora.

At Jamii Bora, she became Head of the Tumaini project that reaches out to the very destitute with a word of hope.  A typical day in Janet’s life involves going out to the street; she sits down on the verandas to chat and listen to the street families.

Some share their problems and others even give excuses why they can’t save. But Janet is very firm and assertive and the beggars have learnt that there is no easy way out of poverty except through climbing up the ladder by saving, taking loans and servicing them.

It is through her that Jamii Bora adapted the saying that “not even the sky is the limit.”  She has helped mobilize over 40,000 members either from street families or the very destitute families from the slums.

In the streets, Janet is a heroine.  People call out her name; the street boys carry her hand bag and protect her wherever she goes.  While walking in the streets of Nairobi, she is safer than the Police Commissioner because all the street families are her friends.

Janet, please accept this plaque as a token of our appreciation.

Finally, we would like to recognize a member of Western Seed’s staff, in absentia.  Saleem please join us on stage.

Franklin Roosevelt once said “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”

We  would like to recognize Felix Bunyasi who hails from Kebwefwe in the Trans Nzoia district just outside Kitale. Felix started as a field assistant with the Grasslands Research Station in Kitale in 1964. He worked under Steve Eberhart, Penny, Larry Darrah, Peters and Crompton until he retired in 1997 when he joined Western Seed as Saleem’s Breeding Technician.

Felix has since worked tirelessly under challenging conditions, planting and managing experimental trials all over western Kenya and at the Breeding Station.

Felix was officially retired in 2007 at age 65 but continues to work on an annual contract. At 7 am every morning he is up and about and supervises the nursery and field staff until sundown. Felix broke his leg in a motorcycle accident in 2003 and, although was incapacitated for 10 months, returned back at the station and has not missed a day since.

Saleem please accept this plaque on behalf of Felix, as a token of our gratitude.

I’d like to end with an African proverb that I feel really captures the essence of our work as Acumen Fund, and the types of environments that our entrepreneurs are working in. And it goes like this:

“When a needle falls into a deep well, many people will look into the well, but few will be ready to go down after it.”

So I would like to thank our honorees from making the extra effort to make sure that we–our entrepreneurs, Acumen Fund, and our community–are in the well looking for the needle, which is part of what we have been doing this past week.

Shukrani  for making this happen.

Brian Trelstad is Chief Investment Officer at Acumen Fund. He attended the 2010 Frontline Awards program in Kenya.

Leah Okullo is a Program Associate at Acumen Fund East Africa. She served as emcee for the Awards ceremony.

Last week, for the second time in Acumen Fund’s 9 years, we gathered 35 managers from 25 of our portfolio companies , along with our senior portfolio staff and a small group of partners, advisors and thought leaders, for four days of intensive discussions and reflection at the Lukenya Getaway, near Nairobi. The Portfolio Gathering’s success depended upon creating a “seamless web of deserved trust,” a phrase suggested by Bruce Robertson, the South African entrepreneur and Aspen Institute-trained moderator who facilitated the program.

As part of the community, you will find more ways to get involved with Acumen Fund than ever before. In the past six months, we have seen so many individuals step up and do more:

• Volunteer groups have formed around the world in New York, San Francisco, London and Dubai.
• Individuals are raising money for Acumen Fund by running races, climbing mountains or by simply sharing their excitement about our work.
• Not to mention, the successful Dignity Benefit that was organized entirely by volunteers in  New York City

Connect with other Acumen Fund supporters and share in our exciting journey to create a world where dignity, not dependence, is the norm.  We’ve only just begun, and with your help, we can do so much more.

How you can get involved:

• Join our community
• Raise funds for Acumen
• Host a book discussion
• Tell a friend

We look forward to seeing you online!

By the age of five, I was fortunate to have lived in two vastly different continents, while being raised with a set of values and language from a third. These varied experiences have shaped my compassion for humanity.

I was born in Accra, Ghana, a nation on the coast of West Africa. In the early 1960s, my maternal grandfather, a mechanical and agricultural engineer, was sent to Ghana on deputation from India as Chief Engineer of Agriculture, a sector that was considered the backbone of the Ghanian economy. His mandate was to automate the crop cultivation process for the cassava plant, the most important staple food crop in Ghana. Previously, the cassava crop cultivation process was very labor-intensive and many of the farmers that subsisted on this crop for their livelihood could not earn enough to lift themselves out of poverty. The machines my grandfather invented to automate the cultivation process substantially helped increase the farmers crop yield and led to higher incomes for farmers.

With this backdrop, I grew up with an acute understanding of the plight of the Ghanaian farmer. In Ghana, the highest incidence of poverty occurs in the agricultural sector and is dominated by small holder farmers. These farmers worked long hours in intense heat and faced chronic food insecurity. Their families lived in decrepit, overcrowded shacks with boarded up windows and inadequate ventilation. They slept on dirty mats on earthen floors and had limited access to safe water, electricity or plumbing. Meanwhile, their sparsely clothed children ran through the flooded streets and lacked any opportunity to get an education.

Despite these hardships, the spirit of the Ghanaian people was remarkable; they were happy, sociable people with an optimistic outlook. This picture of poverty has always stuck in my mind, and although my grandfather played a small role in helping alleviate some of the poverty, I realized at an early age that there was still a lot of work to be done in helping the impoverished.

When I was five, my parents immigrated to the U.S. to pursue their post-graduate studies. My paternal grandmother, a native of Peshawar, Pakistan, came to live with us. While my parents were very busy post-graduate students, my grandmother primarily cared for me and my siblings. She not only instilled in us a deep appreciation for the rich Indian culture but also taught us how to speak Punjabi, her native tongue. I recall the vivid stories my grandmother recounted about her childhood in Peshawar and how difficult life became after the 1947 Partition, which divided the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-dominated but nominally secular India and the newly created Muslim state of Pakistan. Because my widowed grandmother was Hindu, she was forced to leave Pakistan with my father. They migrated to India as refugees, homeless and without any monetary support. The hardships they faced in reconstructing their lives were innumerable. My father, who was a very hardworking and ambitious student, did whatever it took to excel in school. Thanks to the scholarships he received and a few professors along the way who truly believed in him, my father attained his engineering degree and was finally able to rise out of poverty and stand on his own feet. Although my grandmother passed away over twenty years ago, her stories have stayed with me and my compassion for the underprivileged has only grown with each visit to India.

After business school, I worked on Wall Street as an equity research analyst. I have always been intrigued by what makes certain companies successful while others, with a seemingly good product or service, don’t make it off the ground. I focused my attention on undiscovered small capitalization stocks that I believed would flourish and whose stock price appreciation would bring it into the mid/large-cap world in the next two to five years. I took a multi-faceted approach to analyzing these companies — focusing not only on their valuation, earnings and business model but also on their market opportunity (something that wasn’t clearly defined for these small companies), distribution model, competitive positioning, relationships with vendors and customers and management style. I employed a “kick the tires” style of research where I regularly called company customers, vendors, competitors, employees, creditors and industry experts to get a “true” picture of a company’s health and its future prospects. It was very hard work and it required a long-term perspective but it translated into high quality stock picking. Although my work was respected by my hedge-fund clients, after more than fifteen years on Wall Street I decided to take a back seat and spend more time with my family while pursuing other interests. I wanted the next chapter of my life to be more about helping others and “giving back.”

During this time, I read a lot about the power of microfinance in alleviating poverty. I liked the concept because it empowered the poor by leveraging their entrepreneurial spirit and placing the potential for success in their own hands rather than simply giving them handouts. Last spring, I heard Acumen Fund CEO Jacqueline Novogratz interviewed on National Public Radio while promoting her book, The Blue Sweater. As she described her philosophy — specifically her entrepreneurial approach to solving global poverty with “patient” capital — and explained how Acumen Fund stands on the shoulders of microfinance, I was intrigued. I immediately bought her book and read it from cover to cover. I was not only spellbound by her vivid storytelling but also particularly impressed by the social entrepreneurs in whom Acumen Fund invests and works alongside. Finding the right social entrepreneurs in whom to invest reminded me of my work finding undiscovered small-capitalization companies, but the reward is considerably more fulfilling.

I was so inspired by The Blue Sweater that I went to a book reading in Manhattan to personally meet Jacqueline and ask how I can get involved. I am excited to find ways to channel my compassion for the poor in India and Africa, to leverage my investment skill set and to be part of the Acumen Fund community working to effect real change.

We reached out to Kevin to understand why he did it and in his own words:

“When I signed up for the Ironman, I was a little curious as to why such a large event doesn’t formally promote charity, so I simply decided to do one on my own. Through a bit of research, I became very interested in infrastructure development in some of the impoverished areas of India and Pakistan. I think that the projects that Acumen Fund is involved in are simply amazing and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your work.”

And on his Ironman:

“The Ironman was pretty sweet – I had a lot of fun even though I got destroyed by the professionals.  The best memory I had of the race was during the run, when a 68 year old lady passed me up – really made me feel like a champion.  But I really just do these things for fun and I get so much enjoyment out of it now when I know that I can raise money towards something I really believe in.”

Kevin demonstrated true generosity in his actions – taking it upon himself to help without a request for recognition or support from Acumen Fund – and for that we are truly appreciative.

We are also really excited by what Kevin did, because these dollars can really add up. All it takes is 60 people like Kevin to help us raise $100,000. Don’t forget that, as a non-profit, Acumen Fund relies on donors and fundraisers – many of whom aren’t too different from Kevin. You could really make a difference in our mission to end poverty.

Are you up for being one of the 60? If so, here are some easy ways that you as an individual can help:

• FirstGiving – an easy-to-use fundraising site where you can leverage just about any activity – like triathlons, trekking, skydiving, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries – to raise funds for Acumen Fund.

• Facebook birthdays – instead of a present, ask your friends and family to support Acumen Fund.  Several of our own staff have already jumped on this.

• Set up a Squidoo Lens – link your lens to our official lens and we’ll watch the dollars roll in. Seriously.

• Join/Start an Acumen Chapter – Is there a group of Acumen Fund supporters in your city ready to jump into action? If so, we’d love to have a Chapter there. We’re actively seeking leaders for a SF Chapter right now – do apply if you’re in the Bay Area, or flag your interest for us to come to your city and we’ll get back to you by the end of September!

These are just a few of ideas, but there are many more out there – we’d love to hear from you.

We have heard interest in starting an Acumen Chapter in the San Francisco Bay Area, but first we need to find leaders! The leadership of several key volunteers in New York has been critical to the group’s success, and we believe that it will be no different on the West Coast.

What is a Chapter?
A Chapter is essentially what we’re calling an Acumen Fund volunteer group – a group of like-minded individuals who share a passion and interest in Acumen Fund’s work and our sector. The objectives of each Chapter are to educate their communities on patient capital and raise funds in support of Acumen Fund.

What if I’m not a young professional – is a Chapter for me?
Absolutely! Everyone is welcome! The NY group started out as a young professional’s organization but has continued to grow and attract an increasingly diverse membership. The leadership team continues to refine its strategic direction and plan activities that cater to different needs, so watch this space!

As a Chapter volunteer will I go overseas or work on projects for Acumen Fund’s investments?
We get inundated with requests from individuals who want to travel to and work with our investees, and at this stage it is simply not possible. Many of our investees are fully focused with running their businesses, and are unable to cope with volunteers. That said as opportunities arise, we will definitely make them known to all Chapter volunteers. Interested parties should also apply to be an Acumen Fellow.

What’s in it for the Chapter leaders and volunteers?
Yes, we recognize that these are volunteer positions and it takes extraordinary people to step up and give their time so generously. Rather than tell you what we think is in it for them, hear what some of our NY volunteers have to say:

“Being the founder and leader of the NY young professionals was a big time commitment, but an extremely worthwhile one. I got to work with like-minded talented young professionals, who share a similar vision to use our skills to create social change, build my own leadership and organizational skills with support from Acumen Fund staff, and develop lifelong relationships with a community of people who seek to build a movement for social enterprise and patient capital.” – Erica Dhawan

“I volunteered with the NY young professionals to help organize the Dignity event.  I met an incredible group of motivated, passionate, and inspiring people.  On a personal level, I feel that the New York young professionals are that rare networking group that actually makes an impact, creates a movement, and enables everyone involved to learn and grow from our experiences working together. I can’t wait to get going on our next endeavor!” – Nina Sharma West

Ok, how do I flag my interest to get involved?
Read more about Chapters and our application process here. Or dive straight in:
•    If you are in the SF Bay Area and would like to be a Chapter leader – apply here.
•    If you are in the SF Bay Area and would like to be a volunteer – fill out your info here.
•    If you’re not in the SF Bay Area and think we should start a Chapter there – tell us why!

Thank you for all your support. We look forward to getting an amazing Chapter going on the West Coast, and we are definitely planning to start Chapters elsewhere. So watch this space!

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?

Last week when speaking on the “Creating Private Capital Markets” Panel at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference, I noted that one of the big opportunities for Acumen Fund and other organizations in our sector is to capitalize on a huge influx of talent.  Demand to work in our sector is at an all-time high, the result of the rising profile of social enterprise; the blowup in the financial sector (a lot of people with financial skills are rethinking their path); and, hopefully, because society as a whole (or at least the younger generation) is taking a momentary pause to reconsider our definitions of success.

Acumen Fund and other organizations in our sector are currently experiencing overwhelming levels of interest.  One data point that I mentioned on the panel: 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?”

This question was salient enough that Jonathan Greenblatt, co-founder of Ethos Water, saw fit to repeat it in the lunchtime plenary panel where he spoke together with Bill Drayton, CEO of Ashoka; Clara Miller, CEO of the NonProfit Finance Fund; and lecturer and political analyst David Gergen.  This helped me realize that “the other 690″ isn’t just a question for Acumen Fund, it’s a question for our sector.  With all of the creative destruction underway in the global economy, there’s a fundamental shift in how talent will be deployed.  For burgeoning sectors like ours, this creates a demand/supply imbalance for talent, and a collective opportunity if we want to take it.

A couple of ideas to chew on:

What if some of the economic stimulus money were used to create a new Global Peace Corps, one that takes some of the best and brightest people of all ages from around the world and gives them opportunities to work on projects (private and public) that are creating positive social change?

What if all of the 690 people who applied to Acumen Fund’s summer internship – plus their colleagues who are interested in working at Endeavor and Root Capital and the World Resources Institute and the International Aids Vaccine Initiative and the Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation and a hundred other fascinating places to work – created vibrant, online communities on Ning or Facebook or Twitter or through NetImpact to share their own entrepreneurial business ideas, and what if the best of these ideas were made available to early-stage investors and grantmakers and social venture competitions run by business schools around the world?

What else should we be doing?

Many have already asked how they can help. Just to name a few ways, you can:

• Write a short review on Amazon and/or comment on the reviews already there
• Send this message to all of your friends
• Become a fan of The Blue Sweater on Facebook (and stay up to date on media, events, etc.)
• Email the website address (www.thebluesweater.com) to friends and colleagues 
• Blog about it
• Mention it on Twitter
• Buy copies for your friends!

You can purchase books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or at your local bookseller.

The world has never needed all of us working for the common good more than it does today. Thanks for being part of our community of friends – and thanks for helping us spread the word!

Sincerely,

Margo Alexander

P.S. A good friend has generously committed to give Acumen Fund $15 for each of the first 5,000 books sold! We are grateful for this pledge and hope you will help us by buying early!

We need someone to help us make this happen, so we’re hiring for a Business Development Manager – Marketing. What does that mean? It means we’re looking for a storyteller, a translator, and a listener, who at the same time is ready to roll up their sleeves with data and numbers and analytics. You might be a great blogger or an old-school marketer with lots of new tricks up your sleeves. But either way you bring off-the-charts passion, energy, commitment, and humility to this role.

Put another way, you’re probably either a super-duper marketer who knows how to use online tools, or you’re world-class with online tools and also have got some great marketing ideas. If you’re neither of these things, this job (PDF) probably isn’t for you.

We’d like to see what you can do – details on how to apply are on this Squidoo lens.

To: Acumen Fund friends, Partners, community members and website visitors

From: Acumen Fund staff

Re: Unscheduled, unplanned website maintenance

Memo: Thank you! Our website went down this morning (New York time) for some “unscheduled, unplanned maintenance,” as we’re calling it. Basically, our server had a big hiccup and we’re in the process of restoring our data, backing everything up, and re-starting the whole shebang. Almost as soon as it happened, we started getting e-mails from you – our friends, colleagues, partners, Partners, community members, fans – to let us know what was up. As much as we don’t like to get caught with our servers down, it is totally refreshing and reassuring to know that there are so many of you out there who care enough to write. So seriously, thanks.

We’re working as hard as we can to get this fixed. In the meantime, might we suggest a visit to our YouTube channel? How about our Fellows blog? Or NextBillion.net, which Acumen Fund co-owns? There’s also the Facebook cause, the LinkedIn group – you get the idea.

We hope you’ll bear with us as we make these fixes. Thanks again to everyone who wrote – we’ll post again here on the blog when life is back to normal.

Gratefully,

Acumen Fund

Congratulations, Niko!

Suffice to say, I was not expecting to find microfinance shout-outs on a cooking blog. But when I saw this post, I was really struck (again) by the power and reach of Kiva’s model. Kiva just makes it so easy for people to participate in the micro-lending “movement” – anyone can become a lender and forge personal connections to individual loan recipients in the developing world. Not only is it easy to participate, but now it’s apparently getting easier to enlist others, too. The virality is really impressive.

Acumen Fund’s model is obviously different from that of Kiva (small & medium enterprise finance vs. micro-lending to individuals), but we have similar ambitions around engaging large numbers of individuals in our work. How do we give any interested, eager individual a way to participate? How do we create personal connections between the customers of our portfolio companies in India, Pakistan, East Africa and people who live thousands of miles away? How do we build a “movement” around the development-through-enterprise sector in the way that the microfinance movement has sprung up in recent years? How do we translate that “movement” into changes in the way people approach philanthropy and development?

We don’t yet have answers to these questions, but Kiva has at least shown us that there are plenty of people out there who want to try to help solve poverty if you can just give them a way to get involved. Our challenge in creating a “movement” will be to supply easy ways for people to participate so that maybe one day someone else’s search for a simple recipe will change the way she looks at the world.

P.S. If you ever find yourself with an “extra zucchini” problem, I recommend this recipe.

On the website, it’s now possible to view metrics reported by many of our investees. These investment metrics are fed directly from our Portfolio Data Management System. We are not able to share all the available data, and some of our new investments are still in the process of collecting data, but we are committed to sharing as much information as we can, as often as we can – and this is a step in that direction.

If you are reading this at acumenfundblog.org, then you’ve already noticed the wholesale redesign we’ve given the site. If you’re reading via RSS, e-mail or other syndication, consider clicking through and visiting our newly redesigned blog. We’ve completely overhauled the Acumen Fund blog, changing everything from the aesthetics to the way content can be saved and shared. You can also easily subscribe to the blog feed, view videos sourced from our YouTube channel and even suggest a story for us to write about on the blog.

These updates were made with our community in mind. Earlier this year, we asked for your feedback via an online survey and the overwhelming theme of your feedback was, “we want more!” Hopefully, by sharing investment metrics and upgrading our blog, we’ve taken a step in the right direction. As always, we welcome your comments and feedback on the new features – let us know what you think by submitting a comment, suggesting a story or simply e-mailing us. Thank you for being part of this community and helping us change how the world tackles poverty.