The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World

When Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund, was in her early twenties, she turned down a promotion on Wall Street and went to the Cote d'Ivoire to open a new branch of the African Development Bank focused on microfinance for women. But the West African women she was supposed to work with shunned her. They talked about her derisively in her presence, letting her know exactly what they thought of an untested, unmarried, American woman with poor French skills being sent to lead them. They intimidated her, locked her out of the office, and (Novogratz suspects) actually gave her food poisoning to scare her away. It worked. On her next assignment, in Nairobi, she spent hundreds of hours analyzing the loan portfolio of a young microfinance organization. Presenting her results, she recommended a drastic restructuring. A week later, she found her handwritten report had been "lost," and all her work destroyed. Any other 24-year-old might have gone home. For Novogratz, these heartbreaking episodes led to some profound revelations: "I wanted to help," she writes, "but that didn't matter to anyone but me." "Donors could convince themselves to give to nonperforming organizations based on a few good stories. The world needed something better than that." But the failures didn't end there. She spent two months reviewing a UNICEF-funded loan program for income-generating projects in Kenya. She found hundreds of broken maize mills, empty schools and unsold baskets: countless "well-intentioned projects gone wrong," a system riddled with kickbacks, and no accountability. In the end, government officials found her report "too pessimistic." A World Bank official in Gambia rejected her proposal to lend to small businesswomen instead of giving them grants, using then-conventional wisdom that the very poor couldn't pay back loans. As Tom Watson, the founder of IBM, famously said, "if you want to succeed, double your failure rate." Because eventually Novogratz found big successes, like the bakery in Kigali where she helped a group of unwed mothers wean their operation off charity and become a real business. And Duterimbere, a micro-lending organization strong enough to survive the genocide in Rwanda. Not to mention the success of the eight-year-old Acumen Fund, which Novogratz calls a "nonprofit venture capital fund for the poor." Just as Acumen absorbs the depth and breadth of her experiences and the advice of her mentors, the strength of this deeply personal book lies in its rejection of simplified narratives, easy truths and personal dogma. Novogratz has emerged as a leading voice of a "middle way" in development thinking: "Philanthropy alone lacks the feedback mechanisms of markets, which are the best listening devices we have; and yet markets alone too easily leave the most vulnerable behind." She writes: I've learned that many of the answers to poverty lie in the space between the market and charity and that what is needed most of all is moral lea

First, full disclosure. I am a friend of Jacqueline Novogratz and Board Chair of Acumen Fund. I met her in 2001 at the time she was founding Acumen Fund. Although I did not have experience in this field, I became fully supportive of her evolving economic development concept and of her as a leader and entrepreneur. Her mission was stunningly bold--to end global poverty and change the world. Acumen Fund was created to be a radically different kind of philanthropy and to avoid common pitfalls of poverty alleviation programs. It aimed to create ongoing, self-sustaining enterprises to solve problems of poverty. As she described her dream, she spoke knowledgeably and definitively but I didn't know how she had come to her opinions and to the founding Acumen Fund. I did not know the personal and intellectual journey that shaped the person I met in 2001. Now I do. "The Blue Sweater" describes her early development as a social activist and, increasingly, a strong leader. She describes the learning and experiences that formed her ideas and, simultaneously, gives insight into the maturation of an extraordinary person, open to learning, and to teaching, and, above all, to listening respectfully. She is a unique combination of soft heart/hard head and her true voice tells an amazing and inspiring story. It is a journey worth sharing!

Most of us have chosen to live a smaller life, one focused on our work, our families and our neighborhood. It's easier that way. In this urgent, timely and timeless book, Jacqueline shows us a different way. Jacqueline's world gets bigger every day, not smaller. Her interactions increase possibility, they don't diminish it. Her investments enrich communities, they don't take from them. When you hear the joy in her voice, or feel the emotion in her stories, you will realize that the world is bigger than you ever imagined. More important, you'll understand the power of connection, the necessity of interaction and the power you have, right now, to change the world. Too often, we judge a book by its cover, or a song by its opening riff. The Blue Sweater is a deep book, one that you'll want to reread and then share again and again. I hope you'll suspend disbelief just long enough to read this book. It will change you, for the better. Thank you Jacqueline.

It's been very difficult for me to review Jacqueline Novogratz' excellent book, "The Blue Sweater." Every time I sit down to write about it, I don't feel like I have the words to do it justice. I've gone back and read it a second time, and I still find it hard to organize my thoughts well enough to convey how greatly I appreciate this work. It moved me to think and feel deeply; to ponder over what is essential to live and live joyfully despite economic upheavals, cultural diversity, and resource scarcity; and to consider in what ways I might myself care for my fellow brothers and sisters, love them, and learn from them. So let me just dive in and do the best I can. First, the book reads like a novel. It is full of vivid imagery, color, sensitivity and compassion. It is also, like the author, pragmatic and sensible. I was struck by the complexities of poverty but also the incredible hope and promise of those who value every shred and moment of life--because they have to if they are to survive. I was amazed at how something as simple as a mosquito net could entirely transform a life and how people crushed by illness and tragedy manage to be so much more alive and gratefully engaged with the world than so many of us who are more privileged are. I was brought face to face with my own emptiness in reading this book--not a bad thing--and also a stirring sense of what I might have to offer in this world. "The Blue Sweater" succeeded in shifting my focus, and rather profoundly so. I feel more hopeful for our world now because I'm thinking about what I, myself, need to do in the context of my family and community. I only wish the book had photographs of the incredible people in Africa, India, and the Middle East whose stories the author shares with us. I found myself very interested in Novogratz' Acumen Fund activities and her ideas about combining philanthropy with market forces to help the poor build and sustain better lives. I was especially struck by the need to listen to the people one is trying to help and that no one solution is enough; it takes approaching problems in many different ways that all feed into each other if people are to build successful, sustainable communities that promote the health, well-being, and dignity of all citizens. I could not help but wonder if the principles Novagratz has found to be successful could not be applied somehow to middle- and working-class people in the U.S. and other developed countries who are seeing their quality of life erode and yet do not have the skills to survive or even an awareness of ways they harm others. (This is an entirely different kind of poverty, but it is poverty nonetheless, an ignorance and learned helplessness that is ultimately destructive.) If some, like the retiring baby boomers, could be harnessed to help work to strengthen communities and build connections/collaborations with the poorest among us here, it could be a way of skill-building and also increasing awareness of the ways