Nonprofit Venture Capital Fund Discusses Impact of the Economic Crisis

April 24, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute

Jacqueline Novogratz sees business as part of the solution to poverty in developing countries.

The organization that she founded, the Acumen Fund, in New York, raises philanthropic dollars, which it then invests in businesses in South Asia and East Africa that provide health, water, energy, and agriculture products and services to people earning less than $4 a day.

Too often, says Ms. Novogratz, traditional aid breeds dependency. But at the same time, she says, market capitalism alone isn’t enough to lift poor countries out of poverty. She describes the Acumen Fund as a middle approach.

Ms. Novogratz, who was in Washington to speak at the Global Philanthropy Forum, talked to The Chronicle about the effect the world economic crisis is having on the Acumen Fund’s work and the businesses that the group invests in.

About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.