BIF Speak - Social Good
Jacqueline Novogratz, Rockstar in the philanthropy world and Design Advocate, Bruce Nussbaum by Adrian Chernoff
The New Yorkers take center stage.
Ending starvation didn’t start with prioritizing for peasants. The Acumen Fund works in a new way in starting by making loans to peasants.
Jacqueline began at Rockefeller Foundation in researching philanthropy. She learned that the lens of focus was not on the right source. That is why a she created a new approach is needed. Acumen is a non-profit venture capital for the poor. Invested loans and equity are an experiment to help the lowest income people of the world. And it appears to making an impact.
BIF Research Advisor Clay Christensen on Disruptive Innovation for Social Change
With the Business Innovation Factory's focus on public and private sector collaboration, a recent HBS article co-written by BIF Research Advisor Clay Christensen, really hits home. Disruptive Innovation for Social Change argues that a different support structure is needed for organizations that are devoted to social change. It's a manifesto for organizations who want to create scalable, sustainable, systems-changing solutions in the social sector.
Meet BIF-4 Storyteller B-Debi Brooks: Medical Research Agent
Benjamin Franklin said if you don’t watch your workers, you might as well leave a bag of money in their midst and walk away. Applying this principle of oversight to a group of scientists from esteemed institutions is surprisingly unconventional,. And that's exactly what Debi Brooks, co-founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research is trying to do.
Meet BIF-4 Storyteller Cat Lainé: Disruptive Innovator in the Social Sector
When I first spoke with Cat Lainé a few months ago I was so impressed with her passion and conviction. She doesn’t shy away from the underside of life, a personality trait that led to her decision to leave academia, where she was studying infectious disease epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. A self-described “autodidact,” she prefers to be in the field, analyzing problems and creating solutions from the ground up. Today, she’s trying to solve some of our world’s most pressing problems. We knew she had to be a BIF-4 storyteller.
It's Time to Pick the Next BIF Bookgroup Selection
April is just around the corner and as our discussions around the Invention of Air wind down, it's a good time to select our next book. To start us off, I'd like to suggest Jacqueline Novogratz's recently published 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.
April BIF Book Group Selection: The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz
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.
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