A rapt audience of music lovers, humanitarians, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, diplomats, and dear friends of South Asia and especially of Pakistan rose to their feet at the conclusion of Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony last Monday evening, as George Mathew, the Beethoven for the Indus Valley Orchestra, the Dessoff Symphonic Choir, and four young stars from the Metropolitan Opera brought the curtain down on Music For Life International’s first global humanitarian concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
The concert was introduced by Dr. Nafis Sadik, Chairperson of the concert’s Co-Presenter American Pakistan Foundation, followed by a radiantly inspiring message by Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, focusing on the spirit and resilience of the Pakistani people and on the transformative work that Acumen Fund is carrying out in Pakistan. Images from Novogratz’s own travels in flood-ravaged Pakistan accompanied the Symphony. Net proceeds from the concert will benefit Acumen Fund’s work in Pakistan and there is still time for you to make a donation.
Read the continuing press coverage of the concert below, take a look at the charming story of bestselling author Novogratz’s “unexpected fan,” and find out how you can maximize the impact of this historic concert.
Make a big difference by supporting Acumen Fund’s work in Pakistan. If you were at the concert and felt inspired to do more, this is your moment. Won’t you give $20, $25, $50, $100, $200, $500 or more to bring about life-saving change for millions of people affected by this disaster?
Or consider making a contribution in any amount to Acumen Fund on Facebook Causes and invite your friends on Facebook to do the same.
Every dollar makes a difference. Support our fellow human beings in the Indus Valley today.
If you were moved by Jacqueline’s remarks at the concert or if you missed them, we recommend her book, which was a central part of the inspiration for Beethoven for the Indus Valley.
And even though he was up past his bedtime, Jacob was backstage at Carnegie Hall while his father, George Mathew, conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and awake to congratulate everyone after the concert!
Remember the evening with a commemorative poster.
This elegant 18″ x 24″ poster, designed by Intrakt, can be yours for only $15.
(Payment includes poster tube and shipping. $10 of the price of each poster is tax deductible and will support the work of Music for Life International Inc.)
Our countdown to Carnegie
View our previous newsletters to learn more about the organizations, artists and other individuals who joined us on the journey to Beethoven for the Indus Valley.
I write to you just days after our Annual Investor Gathering, a full-day event in which we bring together our community to take stock of the past year and look ahead to the future. This has been an extraordinary year for Acumen Fund, so let me start by giving a brief synopsis of where we stand.
2010 Investor Gathering morning deep dive discussion on rebuilding Pakistan.
When we started Acumen Fund, we were intent on investing in companies that promised to serve at least one million people. It has taken some of our companies six or seven years, but there are now six Acumen investees that fall into this category.
To name a few, Ecotact in Kenya saw more than 6 million uses of its 27 public sanitation facilities in 2010. d.light design brought safe and affordable solar light to more than 2 million. Global Easy Water Projects (GEWP) has sold more than 400 thousand systems to some of the world’s poorest farmers. And WaterHealth International (WHI) has brought safe drinking water to more than 300 villages, and has catalyzed an industry of five other companies bringing water to 1,000 villages. In total, the more than $50 million that Acumen Fund has approved has helped bring services to more than 40 million people and created more than 35,000 jobs in a sustainable way.
Nine years after we launched Acumen, people still ask us what we mean by sustainable. Of course, we are a nonprofit, and we don’t expect to cover all of our costs simply by the revenue generated on our investments.
An Ecotact facility in Nairobi, Kenya
We are driven not by financial returns, but by the change we are effecting through our investments. We hope to see our capital returned to Acumen so that we can reinvest it – and we are on track to do that. However, our most critical metrics are around the number of people we serve on an ongoing basis, the sustainability of the companies we help build and the transformative industries we help create – asking questions such as are they growing? Enduring? Bringing quality services with integrity?
We established Acumen Fund in 2001 to help pioneer a new category of philanthropy, one that focused on investing, on metrics and on merging the best of business practices with the moral imagination needed to serve the poor. In the past several years, 192 new “social impact” funds have registered. When I spoke at the SoCap conference this year, I underscored how important it is for all individuals involved in social investing to be mindful of our ultimate missions. What the world needs is not simply funds that invest and earn a little less than market returns. At Acumen, we are trying to help build a world in which every human being has access to basic, affordable goods and services so that they can live with greater choice and opportunity – and with greater dignity.
The world needs models for understanding what it takes to bring affordable, high-quality energy to low-income rural villages. In Bihar, for example, one of the poorest states in India, the government has declared that more than 20,000 villages “cannot be reached” by extending the traditional grid. An entrepreneur, Gyanesh Pandey, and three colleagues decided that there had to be a better answer, and through great determination and grit they founded Husk Power Systems. The innovative company gasifies rice husk – an abundant resource given that Bihar is located in the rice belt – and distributes electricity in a decentralized, low-cost way to far-flung rural villages.
Husk Power Systems in Bihar, India
Acumen’s patient capital investment is part of Husk Power’s story. Several types of capital were needed along the way: the company got its early start through support from friends and family and from a business plan competition; Shell Foundation, in many ways an unsung hero, provided further grants and significant management assistance; the government of India agreed to subsidize the price of the electricity generated; and we worked with Husk to create a more feasible business plan. Our patient capital investment has now been joined by more traditional investment money, and the company is on its way. Currently more than 130,000 people benefit from safe, clean affordable light – and this in places that previously lived in blackness from sundown to sunrise. Patient capital is one part of the answer. But it must work in conjunction with other types of capital – and partnerships – as well.
Acumen Fund’s community continues to grow and thrive. I want to extend a deep sense of gratitude to everyone bringing so much, financially and otherwise, to our mission. This year we saw more than 100 new or renewed Partners, who are becoming involved through new efforts such as Venture Partners, in which they will spend significant time supporting specific investments. We’ve also seen the growing phenomenon of chapters that support our work: there are currently 10 around the world, with two more, Boston and Japan, in formation.
If I’ve learned anything these past nine years, it is that there is no more profound currency than trust. I was deeply moved at the end of summer by the Pakistan floods, and greatly saddened by the lack of media coverage. My husband and I traveled to the country to see the situation on the ground. We found massive devastation – 21 million people homeless – but we also found Acumen Partners doing Herculean work to bring real support to those most in need. I felt proud to know and be part of them. On our last evening, we shared dinner with our advisors at the home of Partner Farrokh Captain, and we talked about how we might leverage trust to help. While Acumen is not a relief agency, there is much we and our companies and advisors can do to help transfer some of the most relevant goods in Acumen’s global network. We also can convene and connect. We have been suggesting that the U.S. government consider matching dollar-for-dollar what Pakistanis are doing through private sector efforts and philanthropy to help their fellow citizens.
Mairani, a woman I met in a relief camp in Pakistan
Let me end focused more specifically on voice and poverty. The Blue Sweater has been chosen by a number of universities as their Common Book read, which means that all incoming freshmen read the book and then use it as a learning tool. As a result I’ve had the privilege of visiting a number of U.S. campuses this fall. What struck me again and again is how hungry young people are to dive into more complex conversations about the kinds of solutions an interconnected world needs – and how they feel there are too few places to do so.
We are seeing too many of our leaders move from a place of ideological certainty just at the moment when we need to step back together to better understand how we as a world came to a place of such interconnectedness with a rising gap between rich and poor. Our world demands new solutions that start with defining the problems at hand and then using our many resources, including the markets, including government, and including patient capital and philanthropy, to solve them. Doing so will take a more proactive, imaginative and moral leadership.
At Acumen Fund, our commitment to invest in entrepreneurs as well as to invest in leaders and in ideas is stronger than ever. In so many ways we are just beginning. In all ways, we need you to help us use the ideas of patient capital, dignity and interconnectedness to extend the civil rights movement to reach every human being on the planet.
This is no time to think small.
Wishing you all good things,
Jacqueline Novogratz
Fall 2010
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Investor Gathering
See video from last week’s annual Investor Gathering.
2009/10 Annual Report
Our first-ever Annual Report, highlights our investments in businesses that change lives, ideas that change the world and leaders that show the way.
Kashf featured in The NY Times
In his column in The New York Times, Nick Kristof writes about Roshaneh Zafar of Kashf Foundation and the impact of her work in Pakistan.
Acumen Fund now accepts business plans online! If your model delivers significant social impact, plans to be financially sustainable, and has the potential to achieve scale, go here for information on how to submit your plan and how we evaluate investments.
A few weeks ago I emailed a Pakistani colleague to ask for her advice about which organization – among those recommended by Acumen Fund – to give to for flood relief.
While looking at the recommended organizations, I found myself thinking about all the things one thinks about in these situations: how much of the money will go directly to help people? How credible and well-managed is the organization? What kind of difference will this make in people’s lives?
All normal questions, though in some way they felt absurd upon further reflection. I gave what I could give because of the tragedy that these floods represent, because of the tens of millions of people whose lives have been uprooted and whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed. I gave as an act of solidarity, as a too-small act of expression of my shared humanity with those who are suffering.
But the actual gift – its monetary value – in the context of everything, is tiny, is miniscule, is quite literally a drop in the bucket. It’s like casting a vote in an election – something totally irrational in terms of my ability to affect an outcome, but something that is fundamental as an expression of my rights as a citizen, an act in support of democracy, and a statement of my values.
In this way, the act of giving is an act of self-expression, a statement of my values and obligations as a citizen of the world, and, perhaps most importantly, an act of generosity. And generosity is act that expects nothing in return.
This made me wonder again what was going on when I was pondering the potential efficacy of my gift. Was I, in some way, unable fully to let go of the notion that “this is my money that I worked hard to earn, and I’m only parting with it in exchange for something tangible that I’m getting” (in this case for someone else).
This may be where I – where we – get tripped up. The thing that we’re used to doing, that we’ve been trained to do, is to buy stuff. We part with money and in exchange we get…… whatever it is that we get.
Maybe philanthropy is something completely different, maybe it’s a sheep in wolf’s clothing: an act of self-expression disguised as a transaction. In which case we’ve got the order all wrong – we cannot first go through all the learned calculations of what-am-I-getting-for-my-money but instead have to start with ourselves, who we are, and who we want to be.
I worry that in our pursuit of better, smarter philanthropy, we run the risk of trading in soft-heartedness for hard-headedness, and in so doing everyone ends up coming up short – because this is a false choice, one we don’t have to make. Of course we want money to go the furthest, we want to support the best organizations, we want to make change. But the “we” in the equation matters a lot. We, people who give (and people who ask others to give), are affected by our own actions. We are also striving to be the best version of ourselves. And we, in the act of giving (the way we approach it, the reasons for our actions, the way we let these actions change us) have a chance to take another step towards becoming the person we hope to be.
This post originally appeared on Sasha Dichter’s Blog, where he writes on generosity, philanthropy and social change. To raise your voice in support of Pakistan and find a list of organizations we support on the ground, visit http://www.ontheground.pk/
Sasha Dichter is Director of Business Development at Acumen Fund.
The following article was posted on the TED Blog on September 20, 2010.
Founder of Acumen Fund Jacqueline Novogratz recently visited Pakistan (along with TED Curator Chris Anderson) to offer what help she could and work with local friends on their relief efforts. On returning to New York, she gave a short talk at TED HQ and shared the stories of the Pakistani people she met along with a profoundly touching video created using her photographs against the music of Peter Gabriel (who generously gave his permission).
An impromptu Q&A with TED staff took place after her talk but wasn’t captured on film, so the TED Blog followed up on Friday and asked some of the questions her touching stories prompted. Here are the answers she gave:
After you spoke, one person asked “What can we do to help?” Could you answer that question again for the TED.com community?
There are some incredible Pakistani organizations and individuals doing things on the ground. There’s a real opportunity to give directly. We need to share the links to Ali Siddiqui’s family’s foundation, the Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation. There are two other great organizations — one is called the Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) and is run by Dr. Sono Khangharani. The other is the National Rural Support Program. There are also some terrific international organizations, like Mercy Corps and the IRC there.
What I found most promising was that civil society, private individuals and organizations are stepping in. Those who have the connections to access goods, to facilitate distribution and to use other assets that their companies have, are able to move goods and services very quickly and efficiently. For instance, Ali Siddiqui has access to airlines, trucks and the technology platforms of the financial services companies, and so has been able to move things quickly, efficiently and with real accountability. They are also putting up significant funds of their own. At this point, the Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation has raised more than a million dollars from Pakistanis for this work. So by giving to organizations like these, you contribute to what citizens in their own country are already trying to do. That’s a real model of partnership, which is the kind of model we need in the world.
Is this the first time you’ve seen a model like this working at this scale?
At this scale: yes. But, I’ve certainly seen it before. In the earthquake, the Pakistani population really stepped up as well and gave clothing, food and real support. But the earthquake was much faster, it affected a smaller number of people. Just trying to imagine what this scale is — 20 million people displaced — is so mind-boggling. Pakistan needs all the help it can get.
Meanwhile, all reports indicate that aid has been slow in coming considering the size of the disaster. What do you think about that?
I think that aid has been slow in coming because of fear of corruption, fear of association with terrorism, and I would say that there’s an element of donor fatigue as well. But with that said, this is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. What’s happening now is a much-needed relief effort. What’s next is the reconstruction phase which will continue for some time, which needs our help and ultimately will impact all of us.
Would you mind addressing some of the comments the video of your photographs of Pakistan has received on YouTube as well as the emails you’ve received about it? There have been some rather xenophobic statements — how do you feel about that?
I think there’s too much fear in the world. Fear is clearly manifesting itself in really shocking and sad responses. It’s important to recognize that it’s a very small minority, but that voice not only makes you sad, it also reinforces that the world needs to go back to fundamental principles. We need to remind ourselves that all people are created equal, and that fundamental to what it means to be human is a yearning for dignity. I think we often don’t realize that dignity for the poor is dignity for all of us. When we deny the poor and the vulnerable their own human dignity and capacity for freedom and choice, it becomes self-denial. It becomes a denial of both our collective and individual dignity, at all levels of society.
The kind of conversation you’re referring to is unaccountable — it’s a non-conversation. It’s just a series of very sad and fear-filled comments. I prefer to see it as a reminder of how much work there is to be done on behalf of everyone. What we have to do, as a world, is to continue to put out the meme that this disaster is not happening to people who are not like us. These are people who are exactly like us, and indeed, are us.
During your time in Pakistan, our shared humanity must have been so apparent. What was it like to meet so many people in such an awful situation?
Well, when I woke up in New York in the middle of the night and said to Chris, “I can’t be on vacation,” it was because, over the last ten years, I realized that this has become my neighborhood, in a very physical way. It surprised me how much I felt that this was my neighborhood, but actually, this is how we should all be feeling.
When I was there, a couple things really reminded me of our shared humanity. Clearly, one was looking at the faces of the children and seeing incredible potential, and talking to people like the man who said, “Why would I go back?” He said, in English “I have seven years of education. I want to contribute. I want to be part of this.” I kept thinking, “Would I have this grace? Would I have this ability to interact with someone very privileged if I had been stripped of everything?”
The other piece that really hit me was that when we talk about people who’ve lost all their belongings, we have to contextualize what that means. When you see people who are without, it’s too easy to react with pity. What’s more powerful is that when you see people who’ve lost their belongings, and those belongings consist of three or four blankets and a couple of changes of clothing for an entire family, and you realize that you can put those belongings into your carry-on bag, that’s the really humbling piece. We live in a world in which we’re seeing an increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots. And yet, those without are still thinking about the very same things that any of us would think about in a similar situation: Are my children ok? Can I protect them? Can I feel proud in front of my husband or my wife? When will I get back so that I can send my kids to school? When can we start to get on with our lives?
On the horizon in Pakistan’s future, there are many considerations. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a second round of fatalities because of malaria, cholera and malnutrition. Can anything be done about the conditions that are facilitating this?
At the beginning of a relief effort like this people are just moving in, everything’s new, they’re trying to cope with this brand new situation. What happens is that once the waters start retaining, you get situations of stagnant water and with stagnant water, disease flourishes. That’s when malaria and cholera start moving through the population. We’re starting to see that now. Distributing malaria bednets and clean water filters becomes very important in this next phase of the reconstruction.
The next thing that often happens in these situations is that people start adjusting to life in refugee camps, and that has enormous collective psychological ramifications. A culture of dependency can start. It’s too easy to blame either side — this is all part of the psychology of trauma and relief. Early on in the process, it’s very important to bring in initiatives that enable people to be involved in changing their own lives, whether through micro-loans or getting farmers access to seed. The good news is that the floods are leaving an alluvial layer and creating very nutrient-rich soil, so the expectation is that the country will see a bumper crop of wheat. But the farmers have to have access to seed and fertilizer to allow them to sow that wheat. By denying them access, ironically you’ll be putting them in a situation where they’re financially dependent and then become psychologically dependent.
We need to think strategically for the long-term and we should be thinking about the rebuilding and reconstructing right now, before the relief effort is over.
Obviously, the Pakistani economy will suffer as a result of the damage to infrastructure, crops and more. Do you see hope in Pakistan’s future?
The Pakistanis are very resilient people. The result of what’s happening in Pakistan can go either way. We could see a breakdown in society, but we can also see a situation where we are able to build it back better. The United States has already pledged over 150 million dollars, some of that has been focused on humanitarian aid but a lot of that is focused on infrastructure and development.
It seems to me that there’s an enormous opportunity right now to do two things: One is that, in using that aid, we should move away from the traditional approach of using American sub-contractors to do the work and invest immediately in local Pakistani organizations and corporations that can hire some of these young men to rebuild the infrastructure. I met a number of people who said, “Well, what I want do is adopt a village and build it back exactly like it was before.” To me, that feels like a lost opportunity. Let’s aim for something better so that people can start aspiring and seeing themselves as able to be upwardly mobile.
The second piece is to take that aid, even if it’s just a percentage of it — 10 percent of 150 million dollars — and match what Pakistanis themselves are bringing to the table, are willing to execute on and are willing to be accountable for. My bet is that we’ll see not only a different and more positive set of results, but an extraordinary level of goodwill in Pakistan and throughout the Arab world. I daresay we’ll also see a change in the United States as we start to shift from seeing ourselves as policemen or the ones who come in and fix things, to true partners that are looking at what it takes to build real change.
When Jacqueline Novogratz and I returned last week from our visit to Pakistan’s flood hit areas, we couldn’t get out of our heads the faces of the people we’d seen — in equal measures beautiful… haunting… hopeless… hopeful… These faces are the best possible answer to the insane indifference so much of the world has shown in response to this crisis, which by any objective measure is one of the worst this century.
We wanted to spread the word about what we’d seen, so we wrote to one of our heroes Peter Gabriel and he generously agreed to let us use an unforgettable song of his as the soundtrack to a video that will show you the people we met.
Every one of these people has lost almost everything they own: their homes, their possessions, their animals… in most cases, all but the clothes they’re wearing. Please stop what you’re doing for 5 minutes, take a deep breath, sit down next to someone you care about, click the full-screen button below the video, and then press play.
If it’s too slow to load, you can do a lower-res version below (but the high-res version is preferable).
If this moved you, please point other people to this video. And to find out more, including a shortlist of trusted, effective organizations to give to, please visit http:/www.ontheground.pk
Thank you.
This post originally appeared on the blog of TED Curator, Chris Anderson on September 13, 2010.
In November, George Mathew and Bowie Snodgrass’ newborn Akbar Jacob Mathew was featured on the Acumen blog as “an unexpected Blue Sweater fan” with a photo of him holding Jacqueline Novogratz’s New York Times bestselling book, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the gap between the rich and poor in an interconnected world.
If you were moved by Jacqueline’s remarks at the concert or if you missed them, we recommend her book, which was a central part of the inspiration for Beethoven for the Indus Valley.
This elegant 18″ x 24″ poster, designed by Intrakt, can be yours for only $15.
