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Feb 27, 2008
"To learn through listening, practice it naively and actively. Naively means that you listen openly, ready to learn something, as opposed to listening defensively, ready to rebut. Listening actively means you acknowledge what you heard and act accordingly." --Betsy Sanders
A Blueprint for Alleviating Poverty
Acumen Fund is a non-profit with an ambitious plan: to create a blueprint for alleviating poverty using market-oriented approaches. Indeed, Acumen has more in common with a venture capital fund than a typical nonprofit. Rather than handing out grants, Acumen invests in fledgling companies and organizations that bring critical products and services to tens of millions of the world's poor. Acumen's founder, CEO Jacqueline Novogratz, has become a leading voice of the new philanthropy, which emphasizes sustainable bottom-up solutions over traditional top-down aid. Her solution, outlined in this TED video through a series of revealing personal stories, is "patient capital". "When you live on charity, it is very hard to say what you need," Novogratz observes. "Listening is not only about waiting, it's about learning how better to ask questions."
BE THE CHANGE
Visit Acumen's Knowledge Center where they showcase some of the lessons learned from their work, along with eloquent photo essays and stories. More ...
