Blueprint for Change, A: Market-Based Solutions for Global Poverty

Program Highlights

• Why it's OK to make a profit when helping the poor.
• Creating financially sustainable sources for critical goods and services.

Two-thirds of the world's four billion people earn less than $4 per day. Yet, due to lack of supply and inadequate distribution, these same individuals often pay higher prices for essential services such as clean water and health care. Jacqueline Novogratz explains how entrepreneurial systems that apply the rigors and discipline of the marketplace can gradually make inroads on this seemingly overwhelming challenge. Rather than spending our philanthropic dollars on give-away programs that don't solve problems over the long run, Novogratz details successful projects that have applied proven business practices to achieve measurable results in some of the world's most desperate regions.

Before developing Acumen Fund, a global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty, Jacqueline Novogratz served as Manager of Special Projects at the Rockefeller Foundation. There, she created and directed The Philanthropy Workshop, an international education program that built a network of 100 philanthropists in the U.S. and Argentina; and The Next Generation Leadership, a program focused on building a corps of 21st century leaders. Ms. Novogratz founded a micro-enterprise organization in Rwanda, and has worked as a consultant to UNICEF and the World Bank in various African countries. She holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from the University of Virginia.