This is a wonderful book for any of us who want to make a difference for good in the world. If you give to a development organization, support overseas workers or are involved in any kind of social entrepreneurship efforts—microenterprise, microcredit loans, water projects overseas, etc.—this is a must read. It is a handbook that looks at the mistakes and lessons learned from the failures of well-meaning people and governments. Novogratz eventually leveraged her twenty years of mistakes and successes into the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture capital firm for the poor that invests in sustainable enterprises bringing healthcare, safe water, alternative energy and housing to low-income people in the developing world.
The flap copy explains: “ Jacqueline Novogratz left a career in international banking to spend her life on a quest to understand global poverty and find powerful new was of tackling it. It all started back home in Virginia, with the blue sweater, a gift that quickly became her prized possession—until the day she outgrew it and gave it away to Goodwill. Eleven years later in Africa, she spotted a young boy wearing that very sweater, with her name still on the tab inside. That the sweater had made its trek all the way to Rwanda was ample evidence, she thought, of how we are all connected, how our actions—and inaction—touch people every day across the globe, people we may never know or meet.”
While reading, I highlighted extensively, knowing that I was sitting at the feet of someone who could help me bridge my own eager, but potentially misguided, desires to find ways to help the poor help themselves. My pages, marked by yellow, are an indicator of how valuable I found this book to be.
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