Become Inspired by Jacqueline Novogratz to "Just Start" During Covid-19

Jacqueline Novogratz, Twitter.

Ten years ago I was sitting in an office building during my lunch breaks with Jacqueline Novogratz's book The Blue Sweater open on my lap. Then incredibly the following year I got to meet her at the East Africa launch of the book.

Jacqueline is one of my greatest role models and inspirations for her tenacious commitment to a better world, belief in dignity for all people, and compelling storytelling. I'm so excited to be able to see her livestreaming just about every day this month.

Manifesto for A Moral Revolution, audible.com.

Manifesto for A Moral Revolution: Practices to Build A Better World

Jacqueline released her new book on March 5: Manifesto for A Moral Revolution: Practices to Build A Better World.

Here's a summary of the book, shared by the publisher, Henry Holt and Company:

"In 2001, when Jacqueline Novogratz founded Acumen, a global community of socially and environmentally responsible partners dedicated to changing the way the world tackles poverty, few had heard of impact investing - Acumen's practice of "doing well by doing good."

"Nineteen years later, there's been a seismic shift in how corporate boards and other stakeholders evaluate businesses: impact investment is not only morally defensible but now also economically advantageous, even necessary. 

"Still, it isn't easy to reach a success that includes profits as well as mutually favorable relationships with workers and the communities in which they live. So how can today's leaders, who often kick off their enterprises with high hopes and short timetables, navigate the challenges of poverty and war, of egos and impatience, which have stymied generations of investors who came before? 

"Drawing on inspiring stories from change-makers around the world and on memories of her own most difficult experiences, Jacqueline divulges the most common leadership mistakes and the mind-sets needed to rise above them. The culmination of thirty years of work developing sustainable solutions for the problems of the poor, So You Want to Change the World offers the perspectives necessary for all those-whether ascending the corporate ladder or bringing solar light to rural villages-who seek to leave this world better off than they found it."

Daily Practices with Jacqueline Novogratz

Join Jacqueline’s Daily Leadership Practices Series exploring what it takes to create meaningful social change. The first session, "It Will Take All of Us," was livestreamed on May 5 at 10:30 AM EDT.

You can register for the free online events. I registered for all of them. But you don't really need to register for the ones on the website that appear in color blocks and are organized by Acumen. Those are livestreaming from Jacqueline's Facebook page.

The May 6 livestream was lovely. She told us to "just start." Watch it on her Facebook page.

On May 5 she gave us a preview of that May 6 livestream, posting on Facebook, "Most people want to change the world, especially now. But too many sit and wait for a sense of purpose. Those strategies lead to more waiting. So just start.

"Join me on Wednesday, May 6th at 10:30am EDT as I share from my new book an essential short list of leadership practices for everyone who wants to do good in this world. For 3 weeks I am hosting daily readings of 12 practices exploring what it takes to create change. On Wednesday I will livestream from my page our second session: Just Start."

Jacqueline Novogratz, Jacqueline Novogratz Facebook May 6, 2020.

Jaqueline Novogratz

"Jacqueline’s work began in 1986 when she quit her job on Wall Street to co-found Rwanda’s first microfinance institution, Duterimbere. The experience inspired her to write the bestseller, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor, and create Acumen. Indeed, when she founded Acumen in 2001, few had heard of the words impact investing. Nineteen years later, under Jacqueline’s leadership, Acumen has invested $128 million to build more than 128 social enterprises across Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States. These companies have leveraged an additional $611 million and brought basic services like affordable education, health care, clean water, energy and sanitation to more than 260 million people. In 2015, Fast Company named Acumen one of the world’s Top 10 Most Innovative Not-for-Profits."

Continue reading Jacqueline's biography on the Acumen website.

What are you doing when you feel most beautiful?

I just grabbed this from an interview with Acumen Fund founder Jacqueline Novogratz that appeared in the New York Times today.

Q. Let’s shift to hiring. What questions do you ask job candidates?

A. By the time someone gets to me, I assume that they have the skills for the job, so I’m looking for fit. I ask people to tell me their story. How did you grow up? Who are the influences in your life? Tell me about a time when you really failed. And if you give me a really silly answer to that question, I’m going to know it and I’m going to ask you to leave. I have been known for the five-minute interview, which the team does not like.

Q. And what will prompt the five-minute cutoff?

A. If somebody says, “My biggest weakness is that I work too hard” or “I’m a perfectionist.”

I want to know the essence of who you are, what makes you tick, why you are coming here. If somebody just sees this as a steppingstone to somewhere else, I’m not interested.

Show me when you’ve taken leaps because you were so excited about the work that it was the only thing you could do. When did you feel like you really let yourself down, and what did you learn from it? What are you most proud of, and what are you doing when you feel most beautiful? People get a little confused by that last question, and they’ll ask, “What do you mean by beautiful?” What the world needs are people who are unafraid to build things of beauty from the inside out. And when I use that word, if people are honest with themselves, they know what I’m talking about: What are you doing when you are shining, when you’re in the zone, when you’re on fire? What are you doing when you feel that way? I think you learn a lot about someone when they answer that question.

What we’re really looking for are the hungry, curious seekers, but it has to be undergirded with hard-core analytical skills, so that people are unafraid to say, “This will work” or “This is never going to work.” So there’s got to be a tough, gritty core in them and an idealistic excitement about what’s possible to build in the world.

They have to have character. Are they self-aware? Are they ready to think about what and who and how they want to be in the world? Are they givers, because we don’t need takers. Are they fierce? Do they have an intellect that can kind of dance with you?

Are they doing this because they want to work on the toughest issues of the world, and not because they want to feel good about themselves? I think that’s probably a real differentiator with us. There are a lot of hard issues, and they have to want to help figure them out. It’s that alchemy I’m looking for, and not just the skills and the personality.

East Africa: Who What Where Why?

This post is an attempt to summarize what I have begun to refer to as my "self-funded, self-directed fellowship" ... otherwise known as my "East Africa Summer" - May 14 through Aug 22, 2011.

It all started with my Lehigh Comparative Politics class. Our TA Brian had spent a semester abroad in Kenya, and used to meet with a small group of interested students once a week, to show us photographs and tell us stories about Kenya. Years later two close friends, Sharon and Eric left at about the same time for Tanzania, to volunteer for extended amounts of time. I got to experience Tanzania vicariously through them. Then in January 2010 I watched the first Invisible Children documentary about the Lord's Resistance Army and Joseph Kony. I was really touched by Jacob's story, one of the Ugandan boys in the film, and started following Invisible Children's work. Over the course of the rest of 2010, things just kept piling on top of each other. I read Jacqueline Novogratz's book The Blue Sweater, and began going to Acumen Fund events. I started meeting people from San Francisco's social entrepreneurship community, while also reading about other young social entrepreneurs. I wanted my own experience, and I wanted to meet the social entrepreneurs in East Africa and hear their stories in person. Fortunately things culminated in my life in such a way that I was able to just jump in with both feet, and I began to plan an East Africa Summer.

The next part wasn't quite as easy. Invisible Children doesn't have a volunteer program in their Gulu, Uganda office. I had missed the Kiva Fellowship Program application deadline. I hadn't been to East Africa before and didn't have any friends there; I needed to plan out where I would be volunteering, and my return date. I remembered that the Daraja Academy of Kenya had invited me to volunteer at their campus in Kenya, after the successful athletic shoe drive that Caitie and I had organized the previous summer. I applied to volunteer at Daraja for a month beginning on May 14, and was accepted. Next, I needed to propose a project to be completed during my month's stay on campus. I am very interested in access to higher education and love mentoring my Level Playing Field Summer Math & Science Honors Academy students, so I proposed serving as a guidance counselor on campus, for the month. Daraja had a better idea - they needed help researching post-graduation opportunities for the students. Daraja is a young school - the oldest students are in Form 3 (high school juniors). So I would get to do some planning work, which sounded exciting! While I was quitting my job and giving up my San Francisco apartment, I figured that I might as well stay in East Africa for the summer. I reached out to one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, who I had met several months prior to see if he had any suggestions. Garang said that he could use my help with a particular project in East Africa, and we decided that I would return to the USA on August 22. So I was all set! I gave notice, gave away a lot of my stuff, packed what was left, drove that stuff and my dog to my mom's in NY, and then I was off to the airport.

I lived on Daraja's campus outside of Nanyuki, near Mount Kenya from May 14 through June 14. I spent most of my time conducting online research, interviewing civil servants (Nanyuki is the Laikipia District seat so there is a government compound in town), helping students prepare for the Music Festival competition, attending Sunday student-run religious services, ran a Blue Sweater Book Club using twenty-five copies of the book that had been donated by the Acumen Fund, participating in the sports program, sitting in on the Women of Integrity Strength and Hope (WISH) classes, and in general trying to get to know the students and the Kenyan education system as well as possible.

I had trouble reaching Garang of New Scholars while I was at Daraja, due to poor telecommunications infrastructure in South Sudan. So at this point it was time to re-invent the summer plans! From Daraja I proceeded to Jinja, Uganda to visit an old friend, Meghan who was volunteering with Light Gives Heat for the summer. I spent about a week in Jinja learning about Meghan's work and meeting her fellow volunteers and the organization's staff, went to Sipi Falls, Bujagali Falls, went white water rafting on the Nile, and spent a lot of time meeting staff and guests at the hostel where I was staying, which is where I learned so much about Ugandan culture, the education system, credit, and development. From there I headed onto Kampala, the capital of Uganda where I was invited to stay with a fellow Pace Law Environmental Program alum, Elaine who was on a Fulbright and was living on the Makarere University Campus. Thanks to Elaine and a Kiva Fellow I met, Michele, got to know the expat community and life in Kampala. I also got to meet the founders of one of my favorite social ventures, AFRIpads! While in Kampala I also explored the city, and learned that Jacqueline Novogratz had tweeted about me! I left Kampala for a few days, to track chimps in Kibale National Park. While there I realized that the water filter that I brought with me from the USA was not working and began to drink bottled water, not realizing that my body was already fighting water-borne illnesses. I'd met two Australian travelers on my first day in Uganda, who had invited me to go up to Gulu, Uganda with them to visit the Invisible Children office. I'd also met Tom, a Ugandan who attends university in Michigan and is active with his campus' Invisible Children Club but was home for summer break, at a coffee shop in Jinja. Tom had introduced me to someone who works in the Invisible Children Gulu office. Visiting Gulu, meeting the Invisible Children staff, staying at one of the Invisible Children staff houses, going to Krochet Kids' compound ... I learned so much! I wrapped up my three and a half weeks in Uganda with one final Nile rafting trip, and goodbye-for-now's to my friends at the hostel, and Meghan. Leaving Uganda ... crossing the border back into Kenya ... that was hard. I loved Uganda.

I headed right back to Nairobi, to begin the third and final part of my East Africa Summer. I stayed at a hostel (Upper Hill Campsite) that had been recommended by my Australian friends, as well as a San Francisco Surfrider friend Jules, who had been through Nairobi recently. I met some people who had been traveling all over Africa, and had interesting stories to tell. Thanks to Michele's roommate in Kampala, I quickly found a room in a Western apartment to sublet, in the heart of Nairobi. I spent most of the next six weeks in Nairobi itself, doing work. Even though I had technically already finished my project for Daraja, I decided to continue my research, independently. I felt as if I was just beginning to scratch the surface of understanding, when I left Daraja. There was (and still is) so much to learn. But it wasn't all work - I took side trips to Maasai Mara National Park "on safari", up to Daraja's campus for a quick weekend to meet Daraja co-founder Jenni who had been out of the country while I was living at Daraja, and to Mombasa and Diani Beach on the Kenyan coast. I met some great fellow travelers white water rafting and on safari, who I later caught up with in Nairobi - Maria, Elien and Jan. I also did a few "day trips" within Nairobi's city limits - to the David Sheldrick Baby Elephant and Rhino Orphanage for the public daily milk feeding and then for the tuck-in, and to Nairobi National Park. I got connected to two Georgetown alums in Nairobi, Angela and Laney, and another American living in Nairobi, Karen. I had so much fun hanging out with them, getting advice about health care when my illnesses started keeping me down, and helping Angela out with the Amanai Art Club that she started for Nairobi street boys. I got to meet two of my friend Sharon's Kenyan friends, two Kiva Fellows in Nairobi, Richard and Nila, and my friend Sowmya's friends from her International Peace Masters Program, Wilson and Edith. I also got to meet Acumen Fund Nairobi office team member Suraj, who invited me to the launch of the Acumen East Africa Fellows Program where I got to meet Jacqueline Novogratz, and to TEDxKibera. Lehigh young alum Freedom warmly welcomed me to Kenya, and helped me plan and run a Lehigh Alumni Happy Hour in Nairobi. I mentioned that one of my plans for my summer was to meet inspiring social entrepreneurs, and to get to hear their stories. I got to meet Jessica Posner, who has been an inspiration to me from the time that I first learned of her work with Shining Hope for Communities. I also got to reconnect with Garang from New Scholars, while he was in Nairobi from South Sudan, and learned how I can help him with his work. I remain so passionate about the work that needs to be done - and opportunities - in South Sudan.

In addition to all of these activities, and learning Nairobi I continued on with the research that I began at Daraja. While touring social ventures in Uganda, I noticed that every venture had social workers on staff. I began to consider that bursaries (college scholarships) were not quite enough - the students need mentors, too. While in Uganda I got to meet with a US Embassy employee who helps Ugandan students access US universities, and then got to meet staff in Kenya who are doing a similar thing. I set up appointments and dropped in on nonprofits and corporate operations that empower Kenyan students via both bursaries and mentoring programs, including Akili Dada, KenSAP, and Equity Bank. (I was invited to attend the two-week long second annual Equity Bank Congress on Kenyatta University's campus, which was an amazing experience - got to meet inspiring students, and was able to collaborate with fantastic bank employees.) While conducting my research at Daraja I learned about some of Kenya's top students, and found that many attended two "national" boarding schools for girls, both located in Nairobi - Precious Blood Riruta and Kenya High School. I was invited to visit both campuses, and learned so much from meeting the Precious Blood students and Principal, and staff at Kenya High School. Meeting John, one of the current Acumen East Africa Fellows, turned some of my thoughts upside down. Wow - one of the best things from my summer was people's willingness to go out of their way to teach me, and help me with my work.

I left Nairobi on August 22, to fly back to the States feeling as if my work was just beginning. I'm still trying to draw conclusions from all that I saw, experienced, and learned this past summer. I remind myself of Jacqueline Novogratz's keynote at the East Africa Fellows launch event, when she reminded us that she has been doing this work for twenty-five years. I can't expect to have figured everything out in three and a half months. And yet ... the best thing is just to begin. Thanks to Sanergy, a eco-sanitation solution social venture in Nairobi, I found out about Kevin Starr's PopTech talk.



It's given me a lot to think about. I also learned a lot from a conversation that I had with Saul Garlick at SOCAP11 (Social Capital Markets Conference) last month. What do I care most about? What is the problem that I want to solve? Forget about the rest of it. Just start with this. I'm working on it, and will update here when I'm ready! But the main theme is empowering young East African women to create change in their communities through mentoring, education, travel and extended service learning.

Thanks to everyone who followed along with my adventures by reading my East Africa blog posts, and checking in with me. It meant a lot!

East Africa Day 25 (Tues June 7): Introducing the Daraja Academy of Kenya Blue Sweater Book Club!

When Victoria and I met yesterday, I mentioned that I would like to hear Daraja’s (Kenyan) teachers stories about how they personally navigated the university process. The faculty and I were supposed to meet over lunch today. That’s been pushed back to Thursday - the students had an afternoon football (soccer) and volleyball tournament today with students from a Nanyuki secondary school. As a result, classes ended early and so lunch was shortened to squeeze every possible classroom lesson in, this afternoon. Since I didn’t have to plan for the lunch meeting, I decided to spend the AM preparing to speak to the students about my Blue Sweater Book Club!

Here’s a view of the office, with everyone who is currently using the space at their typical respective work stations. Mine is the one with the empty chair …



The members of the Book Club and I are meeting from 2-3pm on Sunday. I’ve selected the Prologue, and Chapters 13 and 16 for the students to read before Sunday, and then we will discuss those chapters at Book Club.

Why all of this talk about a book?? :) Some people might know that the author of The Blue Sweater, Jacqueline Novogratz, is one of my heros. Her story is part of the reason that I am here this summer, writing these blog posts:) In 2001 Jacqueline founded the NYC-based nonprofit Acumen Fund. Here’s a summary of her book, The Blue Sweater - I grabbed the text from the Acumen website:

The Blue Sweater is the inspiring personal memoir of a woman who has spent her life on a quest to understand global poverty and to find powerful new ways of tackling it. From her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist venturing forth in Africa to the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, Jacqueline Novogratz brings us a series of insightful stories and unforgettable characters -- from women dancing in a Nairobi slum, to unwed mothers starting a bakery, to courageous survivors of the Rwandan genocide, to entrepreneurs building services for the poor against impossible odds. She shows, in ways both hilarious and heartbreaking, how traditional charity often fails, but how a new form of philanthropic investing called “patient capital” can help make people self-sufficient and change millions of lives. More than just an autobiography or a how-to guide to tackling poverty, this book challenges us to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink our engagement with the world.

I don’t remember how I first heard about Acumen Fund, but I must have really liked what I had heard, because I joined the org’s email list:) In early 2010 I received an email from Acumen HQ, promoting the idea of Blue Sweater Book Clubs around the world. The email said that there would be formal Book Clubs in Nairobi and San Francisco, and that anyone was welcomed to attend those two events. I immediately signed up for the San Francisco Book Club. Long story short, I became a volunteer for the San Francisco Acumen Fund Chapter, and Acumen is now one of my favorite orgs. I’ve been so inspired by the people that I’ve gotten to know through Acumen – I realized it was really finally time that I did something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time – travel to Africa with an eye on the possibilities.

The football and volleyball tournaments went well this afternoon – Daraja won both! I snapped a few photos at the football match – some of our players in their uniforms, and the coaches – newly arrived return volunteer and recent UCSD graduate from Tucson – Car, with Teacher Peter, Wa, and Andy.





After the match I snapped this cute one of Maria and her fiance, Bennett, with some of the students. When not in Kenya, they live in Ocean Beach, San Diego.




I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for the talk that Victoria and I decided that I would give to the students tonight, after dinner. Seventy-seven students attentively looking at me, while I practiced my own public speaking skills. Ashtonishingly, I did not ramble and probably spoke for ten minutes, max. I told them that I had come to Africa to learn what it is like to grow up here, but that I will never really know what it’s like. I can’t make Kenya a better place for women, because I don’t know what the problems are and what the solutions could be, like the students know them. So I told them that I came here to learn what their dreams are, and to try to help the students realize those dreams. I explained that I am here partly because of The Blue Sweater, and my belief that there are other ways to make this world a better place, other than the traditional careers that we all think of. I gave the example of how when I was in university, I thought that law was the right path because it sounded good, and it seemed that I would have the power to effect change. However I’ve since learned that there are plenty of other ways to go about making the world a better place – like the work that Acumen does, and the things that Jacqueline talked about in The Blue Sweater. I explained that I wanted the students to consider that there are so many ways that they can make Kenya a better place, and that I came because Caiitie Ireland told me about the Daraja students, and that I know that they can do it. I told them that Acumen Fund thinks that they can do it, too – and that the org donated twenty-five copies of The Blue Sweater to Daraja’s library, because Acumen thinks that it’s important for the Daraja students to read the book, too. I told them that the books would not be going anywhere – they will be in the library if they want to read the book at a later date, but that if they can read thirty-five pages before Sunday (the ones I’d assigned) then I would be holding Book Club on Sunday afternoon.

The students were so quiet – it was hard to tell if any of the students were moved to read the assigned text by Sunday. FINGERS CROSSED! But on the way out of the room where we held the meeting, I received a lot of silent hugs from students, and Mary N (a Form 1 student, and one of the students that I helped coach for the Public Speaking Competition) told me that I had done a good job with my speech, and I believe another student thanked me for sharing. We’ll see what happens on Sunday. I’d like to be able to continue the conversation about entrepreneurship and striking your own path with the students. When I said that the books would be in the library if the students wanted to read them later, I saw Emily, a Form 2 student that I also helped coach for Public Speaking, who was one of the three students who gave me my campus tour when I first arrived here, shaking her head – as if “I’m happy to hear the books will be in the library – I’ll read it later. So that was reassuring, at any rate:)
I then put the books out in the library …



After setting out the books with high hopes and crossed fingers, I helped Sue “test out” the projector, laptop and laptop speakers that she brought with her to donate to campus. We watched Rosalia’s favorite movie, “Twenty Seven Dresses”. It was cute!

don't let your dreams be dreams.

Jacqueline Novogratz, the founder of Acumen Fund serves as an example of that to me, every day.

Clinton Global Initiative 2010 Annual Meeting - Live Stream :: Sept 21 - 23

I'm streaming this as I type ... phenomenal event with amazing speakers. I'm particularly looking forward to this panel this afternoon:

HUMAN POTENTIAL BREAKOUT SESSIONS
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Beyond Microfinance: The Next Stage of Economic Development

Commitment Presenter:
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, The World Bank

Participants:
Rangina Hamidi, Founder and President, Kandahar Treasure
Van Jones, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Luis Alberto Moreno, President, Inter-American Development Bank
Jacqueline Novogratz, Chief Executive Officer, Acumen Fund

Full list of panels & times on the live stream website.

Missed something? No worries! You can watch the archives of the 2009 (and even past 2010) presentations here.


Note: Check out the Clinton Global Initiative University, a forum to engage college students in global citizenship. Their 2010 conference took place in April. Watch the archived webcasts here.

TedxChange: The Future We Make :: Sept 20

Convened by Melinda French Gates and featuring some of the world’s most inspired thinkers and doers, TEDxChange marks the anniversary of the Millennium Development goals: Ten years in, where does the global community stand in the work to save and improve lives around the world? And what does the future hold?

It will be hosted by TED curator Chris Anderson (who is married to the very awesome Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder/CEO, Acumen Fund.)

11am EDT/8am PDT

You can either attend (or host) a live screening of the event, or watch it online. If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area then you can head over to Mills College for their screening, which is sponsored by the Center For Socially Responsible Business, Lokey Graduate School of Business.

RSVP on Facebook to get the latest updates.

One Tribe

I Love Jacqueline Novogratz.

Here she is, speaking at Milano: The New School for Management and Urban Policy. This was a standing-room only event that took place on Feb 17, 2010.



If you enjoyed this then check out the Acumen Fund, and read Jacqueline's book The Blue Sweater.

LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE her!

Incidentally, she's married to the curator of TED, Chris Anderson.