A Wealth of Knowledge
Acumen Fund’s investments support some of the world’s most innovative businesses. Yet, even if we reach our goal—$100 million in investments, touching 50 million lives—98% of the world’s poor will be unaffected by our work. We believe sharing what we learn with others will extend our impact beyond our portfolio. The Knowledge Center, an ever-growing library of stories, tools and lessons, allows others to leverage insights from our work to change how people and institutions fight poverty.
Acumen Spotlight
- Video
- Dorah: Quality Healthcare and Loyal Customers
- Photo Essay
- Affordable Irrigation for Subsistence Farmers
- Story
- When to Put Your Camera Away
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- Jacqueline's Letter: Autumn 2009
- Author: Jacqueline Novogratz | November 2009
- A quarterly update letter from Jacqueline recaps recent news and Acumen Fund's annual Investor Gathering, which took place in New York on November 17, 2009. Amongst other news, there is ...
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- Jacqueline's Journal - India October 2009
- Author: Jacqueline Novogratz | October 2009
- Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund, shares stories from her visits, along with a group of Acumen Fund partners and friends, with investees in India. They see how the affordable lighting ...
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- Quarterly update: Summer 2009
- Author: Jacqueline Novogratz | August 2009
- Quarterly update on Acumen Fund and Acumen Fund investees. Jacqueline discusses partnering with government to build scalable models, with examples of investees that are successfully doing so. Read for an update on ...
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- Acumen Fund: Valuing a Social Venture
- Author: Gautam Kaul, Moses Lee | May 2009
- Acumen Fund is a social venture capital fund that primarily supports ventures that deliver goods and services to the poor. This support involves using a variety of financial vehicles, such as debt and ...

- Jacqueline Shares Her Blue Sweater Story
The Blue Sweater is the inspiring book by Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen Fund's founder and CEO, who has spent her life on a quest to understand global poverty and to find powerful ...

- Reading The Blue Sweater in Kenya
Watch a video of a Blue Sweater reading group in a Kenyan urban slum.

- Bringing Solar Light to Rural Areas
D.Light Design is bring safe, solar light to areas where previously dangerous kerosene lamps dominate.

- Safe Drinking Water for Poor
WHI’s rural community water systems have already given one million people in India alone daily access to safe, affordable water. In 2007, WHI added 150 new water systems.

- Improving Livestock Productivity in Pakistan
Jassar Farms Private Ltd. (JFPL) is a corporate dairy farming business focused on dairy and breed improvement of poor livestock farmers aiming to increase milk productivity.

- Rural Last-mile Distribution Network
Drishtee, set up originally as a rural "Information and Communications Technology" (ICT) network orchestrator, has transcended into a last-mile distribution network that supports a vast number of rural entrepreneurs who provide a variety ...

- Why Conversations Matter: A Day with Micro Drip
I was eager for the road trip. It was a chance to get out of Karachi, where the inability to simply walk around freely must surely become stifling; it was also a ...

- The Farmer Calls the Shot
Generally, when I do the road trip from Nairobi into Western Kenya, I stay up late the night before so I can snooze during the journey. I sleep because I’ve taken the ...

- Simple Mathematics
This cost analysis hangs on a wall at in the Osembe Primary School, a concrete block building surrounded by rice fields not far from Lake Victoria.