April BIF Book Group Selection: The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

Posted by Chris Flanagan on April 7, 2009

April's BIF book group selection is here. This month we're reading Jacqueline Novogratz's new book The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

Jacqueline is a social entrepreneur and the CEO of Acumen Fund, a private equity company she founded in 2001 that has invested in 32 entrepreneurs who are building systems to bring affordable basic services to low income people in India, Pakistan, Kenya and Tanzania. By applying business metrics to philanthropy, she is fundamentally changing the model for catalyzing change in developing countries.

Acumen Fund is not a micro-lender. Its investments range from $300,000 to $2 million and the intent is to create business models that can be duplicated and scaled up. One recent success is A to Z Textile Mills. The Tanzanian company makes insecticide-treated mosquito nets to protect people against malaria. Acumen Fund invested $325,000 to entrepreneur Anuj Shah to help the company set up a factory which today produces more than 15 million bed nets a year. It is now the country's second largest employer; And the investment? Acumen Fund got it back.

A past storyteller from BIF's Collaborative Innovation Summit [ watch her story here ] Jacqueline's book is a personal memoir of her quest to understand global poverty and to find powerful new ways of tackling it.

I'm thrilled to be reading this book and look forward to another month of great conversations.

Join the BIF Book Group and let's start talking! 

About the BIF Book Group

Our book group community launched in March, 2009 by Business Innovation Factory (BIF) chief catalyst Saul Kaplan. His idea: Our community of innovators loves to read, write, and share ideas about good books. We are also blessed with many authors in the BIF community. So why not start a book group?

Our structure is simple and straight-forward. In true BIF fashion, we will innovate as we grow. Suggestions for books will come from our community. We will rotate facilitation responsibility to any member interested and enable all members to pose questions and share ideas with the group. When possible, we will interact directly with the author.

New members will always be welcome. It's easy to get started: Head to the community and see for yourself.

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