September 2010· Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater

Why Dining For Women?As a Dining for Women chapter leader and member of the Program Selection Committee, I believe that the DFW format provides a unique opportunity for women to 1) learn about the needs and injustices that our sisters face around the world and 2) give to the organizations that are making great change.

This summer, I had the privilege of joining Acumen Fund as a summer associate.

millions by investing in businesses that provide access to basic services like clean water and healthcare. Acumen's model of investing "patient capital" complements the work of Dining for Women's grantees. DFW's grantees work closely with the populations they serve and run sustainable programs that pass on intangibles like knowledge and

dignity and choice, rather than dependence.

When I read The Blue Sweater by Acumen’s founder Jacqueline Novogratz, I was inspired to tell friends and colleagues about this exciting approach that I think parallels DFW’s ambitions. I was pleased to learn that grassroots groups like DFW are an important part of Acumen’s outreach through The Blue Sweater.

For these reasons, we’ve created this Blue Sweater Discussion Guide especially for

for your dinner gathering, photos, maps, and much more. Enjoy reading and discussing!

Lindsay Siegel, Acumen Fund Summer Associate & Dining For Women Program Selection Committee Member/Chapter Leader

Contents

Why Dining for Women Matters 1

A Letter from Jacqueline 2

Links to interviews with Jacqueline 3

Recipes 4-7

Questions for Discussion 8

Timeline of events/Map of Africa 9

How you can help 10

Map and Timeline 11

Good News from Kenya 12

Recommended readings 12

About Acumen Fund 13

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women 2

A Letter from Jacqueline Dear Readers,

Thank you for choosing to read The Blue Sweater.

In many ways, this book is a love letter written in starts and spurts over ten years. I

one-bedroom apartment in New York City thinking about what I’d just experienced in

institution that would change society’s perceptions of what women were capable of accomplishing.

Among those murdered were friends of mine, people who believed in social justice and

the perpetrators were also people I knew and admired.

bank, and the people I’d known best in Rwanda. I was haunted by the phrase “Never Again” and felt an obligation to share the stories I held inside of me. And so I wrote.

In the meantime, I was overseeing two programs within the Rockefeller Foundation and feeling growing unease with a world that turned to traditional charity or philanthropy to solve its problems. I’d seen too many instances of where traditional

little accountability for results. At the same time, I’d seen markets ignore low-income people altogether. And I began to feel that telling stories, at least for me, was not enough. I needed to put my ideas – and values – into action.

In 2001, with the help of great friends and supporters, I started Acumen Fund, a

concept we now call Patient Capital. Patient Capital works between the markets and traditional charity. Patient capital investments are high risk, with a long time horizon

Today I feel more convinced than ever of the power of the idea of Patient Capital – and

Jacqueline in Rwanda with women she interviewed after the genocide

Jacqueline Novogratz in Rwanda

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women 3

in so many ways, we are just getting started.

The Blue Sweater chronicles my own journey from being a starry-eyed young woman with an adventurous soul who wanted to change the world to a more experienced seeker who still wants to change the world, but now has much keener sense of what works and what doesn’t. I write often in the book that dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth, and I continue to learn at a deeper level what this means. As

as a springboard into your own stories and experiences. I hope you will dig into the questions around what it means to be human, how we can do such evil – and wonderful – things, and what kinds of systems must we put in place to bring out our better angels and suppress our monsters. I’d love to hear your thoughts of the questions that most provoked you or intrigued you or inspired you. I will read your letters and email and, though I can’t respond to all of them, I will cherish them and know that I will learn

less traveled and to follow your own dreams, remembering that none of us achieves anything of real value without the help of many others along the way.

Now is the time for big ideas, for innovation and for building companies, organizations and systems that help the world extend that fundamental principle that all men were created equal to every human being on the planet.

Links to Interviews with Jacqueline

Join The Blue Sweater fan page +(http://www.facebook.com/thebluesweater) on Facebook for updates on speaking engagements and interviews.

Jacqueline speaking at TED: +

2009: + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD06XPtmLZY

TED@State 2009: + http://www.ted.com/talks/jacqueline_novogratz_a_third_way_to_think_about_aid.html

Jacqueline’s interview with Charlie +Rose: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10176

Jacqueline talking about and +reading from The Blue Sweater on Minneapolis Public Radio: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/06/17/midday3/

Jacqueline’s interview on the +McKinsey Quarterly, “The State of Philanthropy”: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Nonprofit/The_state_of_philanthropy_A_conversation_with_Acumen_Funds_CEO_2329

Very warmly yours,

Book club in Nairobi, Kenya, discussing The Blue Sweater, August 2009

Jacqueline (third from left) at Duterimbere microfinance bank, Rwanda, 1987 (Chapter 4)

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

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Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women

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Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women

Leadership & Women in LeadershipJacqueline encounters failure many times throughout her 1. life. Think about how her failures shaped future decisions. What is the relationship between failure and success both in this story and more generally? What is the relationship between failure and leadership? Discuss a few instances of your own failures and how they affected your life.

2. King Jr. is "Power without love is reckless and abusive; love without power is sentimental and anemic". How does Jacqueline balance power and love in her work and as a leader? In your own home or work life, how do you negotiate this tension? Does gender determine how a leader strikes this balance?

3. made.” Do you think some people are born leaders? Can leadership be developed over time and through experience? Does Jacqueline seem like a "born leader" or someone who became a leader?

Empowering Women and Individuals to Lift Themselves Out of PovertyIn Chapter 5, The Blue Bakery, why is it important for the Rwandan women who work at the blue bakery to feel that the bakery is their own? What else could Jacqueline have done to instill a sense of ownership among the women?

Approaches to Alleviating PovertyDescribe “patient capital” and Acumen’s approach. How 5. does it differ from microfinance? When do you think Acumen’s approach is most effective? What types of conditions call for more traditional aid and charity? (think about the earthquake in Haiti, for example)

Acumen Fund's approach sees entrepreneurs and businesses as primary agents of change in the effort to end poverty, while Dining for Women is focused on women as change-agents. Do think these two approaches are complementary? How are they similar and how are they different?

Think about Acumen Fund's investment in Water Health 7. International (WHI) in Chapter 15. Should poor people have to pay for basic services like water and housing? Why or why not?

Questions for Discussion These questions are meant to serve as guides to discuss The Blue Sweater through the lens of Dining for Women’s work. They are organized by theme to provide launching pads for thoughtful conversation.

Jacqueline and Dr. Venkataswamy of Aravind meeting in India (Chapter 13)

Jacqueline hidden behind the women (third from right) at the Blue Bakery, Rwanda, 1987 (Chapter 5)

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women

Despite her focus on building businesses to solve poverty, Jacqueline gives money directly to the poor at various points in the book. Why do you think she gives the money away?

Building Successful OrganizationsDescribe the transformation of the bakery in Nyamirambo from a donor-driven organization to a self-sustaining small business. Do you agree with how Jacqueline went about changing the bakery and the lives of the women who worked there? What effects did it have? How were Jacqueline's efforts with the bakery different from the "patient capital" approaches she later espouses?

How did Jacqueline build the foundations for starting 10. Acumen Fund? What components are necessary for starting successful organizations and ensuring their growth over time?

Collective Giving Collective giving and saving are prevalent in communities all 11. around the world. Reread Jacqueline’s description of tontines

gather together to give to one another and to save money? How is Dining for Women’s model similar?

General QuestionsOne lesson that Jacqueline learns over and over again is 12. the importance and power of listening to others. What are some examples from the book of either failure to listen or success in listening? Can you think of some instances from your own life where listening more or less might have changed an outcome?

Why does Jacqueline use her blue sweater story as a starting 13. point for her book? Do you have any experiences like the blue sweater story that explore the same types of themes in your life?

What caused women’s initial distrust of Jacqueline when she first arrived in Kenya? How does she build trust? How can trust be rebuilt after great tragedies like the Rwandan genocide or in countries where corruption might be the norm?

Discuss the dilemma that Jacqueline faces when buying 15. champagne in Rwanda in Chapter 7. Have you ever been in a similar situation where you were conscious of your own

confronts Jacqueline about privilege.

Why do you think Jacqueline wanted to return to Rwanda after the genocide? What did she learn from her

during her return trips? How did these stories change Jacqueline’s understanding of human nature or your understanding of human nature?

Jacqueline sees moral imagination as the ability to put 17. yourself in someone else's shoes and see the world from their perspective. When is moral imagination most necessary? How is it related to the concept of dignity? Is this a skill that can be taught, and if so, how?

Jacqueline with Drishtee customers in India (Chapter 13)

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women 10

Libya

Tunisia

Algeria

Morocco

Western Sahara

Guinea Bissau

Mauritania

Egypt

ChadNiger

EritreaSudan

Central African RepublicNigeria

MaliSenegal

Liberia

Togo

Cameroon

EthiopiaSomalia

DjiboutiGambia

Sierra Leone

Guinea

Ivory Coast

BeninDemocratic Republic of the Congo

Uganda

GabonKenya

Burkina

Ghana Equatorial Guinea

Congo

Rwanda

Tanzania

MozambiqueAngola

Zambia

Burundi

Malawi

MadagascarBotswana

ZimbabweNamibia

South Africa

Lesotho

Swaziland

Libya

Tunisia

Algeria

Morocco

Western Sahara

Guinea Bissau

Mauritania

Egypt

ChadNiger

EritreaSudan

Central African RepublicNigeria

MaliSenegal

Liberia

Togo

Cameroon

EthiopiaSomalia

DjiboutiGambia

Sierra Leone

Guinea

Ivory Coast

BeninDemocratic Republic of the Congo

Uganda

GabonKenya

Burkina

Ghana Equatorial Guinea

Congo

Rwanda

Tanzania

MozambiqueAngola

Zambia

Burundi

Malawi

MadagascarBotswana

ZimbabweNamibia

South Africa

Lesotho

Swaziland

MAP OF AFRICA (Interactive worldwide map (http://ow.ly/nYh6) also available on Google maps: highlights important locations for Jacqueline and includes excerpts from the book.)

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Jacqueline starts working at Chase Manhattan Bank

(Ch. 1)

Moves to job at African Development Bank (Ch. 1)Meets boy in

Kigali, Rwanda wearing her blue

sweater (Ch. 1) Jacqueline and others found Duterimbere (Ch. 3)

Starts working with blue bakery

in Nyamirambo in Kigali (Ch. 5)

Consults for the World Bank on project in Gambia (Ch. 8)

Graduates from Stanford

Graduate School of Business

(Ch. 8)

Founds Philanthropy Workshop at

Rockefeller Foundation (Chapter 9)

Rwandan genocide (Ch. 9)

Returns to Rwanda to understand the impact of genocide (Ch. 10-12)

Runs Next Generation Leadership

program w/ Lisa Sullivan (Ch. 9)

Starts laying groundwork for

new philanthropic model with Rockefeller Foundation

support (Ch. 13)

Jacqueline founds Acumen Fund (Ch. 13)

Acumen Fund makes first

investment in Aravind Eye

Hospitals in India (Ch. 13) Acumen Fund

invests in Kashf, its first investment in Pakistan (Ch. 14)

Acumen Fund invests in A to Z bednets in East

Africa (Ch. 15)

19831984

19851986

19871988

19891990

19911992

19931994

19951996

19971998

199920

00

2001

2002

2003

Borrowers from Kashf, a microfinance institution in Pakistan and an Acumen Fund investee (Chapter 14)

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women 11

DonateGive to Dining for Women to help support its operations +

and growth. Help Acumen support more businesses that serve the poor. +

Send Acumen Fund a check or give through the website.

Be entrepreneurial!

Come up with your own creative idea to raise money and help.

Are you up for hosting a blue bakery-themed bake sale? Do +

you have plans to run a marathon, climb a mountain, or skydive? Have a birthday, anniversary or company party coming up? Use the opportunity to raise funds for Acumen Fund and get more of your friends involved. Inspire other Acumen Fund supporters by sharing your +

ideas and photos from your activities on our community site at community.acumenfund.org.

How You Can HelpYour community’s support can do a lot to change the way the world is addressing poverty. These are some ideas to “just get started,” as Jacqueline’s mentor once told her.

Give The Blue Sweater to a friend or recommend it to your book clubUse your existing networks – whether at work, school, or church – to bring people together and host more book discussions +

using The Blue Sweater, Half the Sky, or similar books.

Join Acumen Fund's communityCheck out our community site at + g to meet other Blue Sweater fans and supporters of Acumen Fund from all over the world – who knows, some may even be in your neighborhood.

Additional Resources

Dining for Women website: + www.diningforwomen.org

Acumen Fund Blog: highlights news and offers +commentary on patient capital, entrepreneurship, Base of the Pyramid (BoP) business strategies, and projects related to Acumen Fund’s work: www.acumenfundblog.org

Nextbillion: Industry blog that posts job opportunities and +recent events in the enterprise-development sector: www.nextbillion.net

Acumen Fund YouTube Channel featuring videos of +investments mentioned in the book: http://www.youtube.com/user/acumenfund

“Imagine a World” video on Acumen Fund: + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGJMIMYIhl4&feature=channel_page

Follow Acumen Fund on Twitter: @acumenfund +

Suggested additional materials on the Rwandan genocide

The BBC’s coverage and history of the genocide: + http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1288230.stm

PBS’s Ghosts of Rwanda webpage contains video +interviews, excerpts of news reports, a timeline, and discussion about the genocide:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/

Rwanda-Genocide.or + g has links to a variety of other resources on the web if you’d like to learn more about the genocide.

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women 12

Jacqueline with Jawad Aslam, former Fellow and current entrepreneur, near Saiban in Pakistan (Chapter 14)

Jacqueline with Dr. Sono of Microdrip in Pakistan (Chapter 14)

Good News from Kenya

This is an excerpt from Jacqueline's blog post published on Africa.com in May 2010. To see the full post, please visit: http://www.africa.com/blog/blog,good_news_from_kenyainspired_by_jacqueline_novogratzfounder_and_ceo_of_acumen_fund,24.html

Our white van snaked through the now familiar streets

community center for The Blue Sweater Challenge event. The day’s overcast sky had broken with a pounding, tropical rain and everything around us felt softer, a rosy kiss goodnight from the evening sky. We walked through the turquoise metal door to the courtyard and the first thing I saw was a table of books written by good friends — Seth Godin, Bill Easterly, Saj-Nicole Joni — behind which stood Chris, Gerry, Dickson, Herbert and Alex – five of the seven original organizers of The Blue Sweater bookclub, all of them from the slums of Nairobi. Kevin, the controller (and the first one to read the book and start a book club) was busy with Suraj Sudakhar, the remarkable Acumen Fellow who was responsible for making all of this happen.

Habari gani! What’s news!

We all hugged and laughed and caught up quickly. Alex is still working with Acumen and working with Suraj to plan a path to work in media. Herbert is working on his university degree and will graduate in October. “I have a-ha moments

discussing the new constitution and my mother said she was going to vote for the first time in too many years. She used to feel her vote didn’t count, but now we’re all feeling

like this, there becomes room for real change.” I couldn’t have smiled more broadly.

Community water system built by Water Health International, an Acumen Fund investee in India (Chapter 15)

Jacqueline’s recommended readings if you enjoyed The Blue Sweater

David Bornstein, + How to Change the World

Paul Collier, + The Bottom Billion

Seth Godin, + Tribes

CK Prahalad, + The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid

John Gardner, + Self Renewal, On Leadership

Amartya Sen, + Development as Freedom

Dining for Women Discussion Guide for The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz

September 2010 · Copyright © 2010 Acumen Fund & Dining for Women 13

Acumen Fund is a 501(c)3 social venture fund that invests in enterprises that offer access to critical, affordable products and services to the poor through scalable, market oriented approaches. Our investments currently focus on four key areas: water, health, housing, and energy.

Contact Us 76 Ninth Avenue, Suite 315, New York, NY 10011

Phone: 212–566–8821 · Fax: 212–566–8817 www.acumenfund.org · blog.acumenfund.org

ABOUT ACUMEN FUND

Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. Acumen seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. The organization was incorporated on April 1, 2001, with seed capital from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three individual philanthropists. Its investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches.

The key is patient capital. Acumen uses philanthropic capital to make disciplined investments – loans or equity, not grants – that yield both financial and social returns. Any financial returns it receives are recycled into new investments. Over time, we have refined the Acumen Fund investment model, built a world-class global team with offices in four countries, and learned what does and does not work in growing businesses that serve low-income people.

ACUMEN FUND'S PHILOSOPHY

Charity alone isn’t the answer... Poor people seek dignity, not dependence. Traditional charity often meets immediate needs but too often fails to enable people to solve their own problems over the long term. Market-based approaches have the potential to grow when charitable dollars run out, and they must be a part of the solution to the big problem of poverty.

The marketplace alone isn’t the answer... Very low-income people are too often invisible to businesses and society. Businesses see no significant market opportunity and governments view low-income areas as having insufficient tax revenues to pay for basic services like clean water, healthcare, housing and energy. Building new models that provide these critical services at affordable price – in the face of high costs, poor distribution systems, dispersed customers, limited financing options and, at times, corruption – requires imaginative business solutions and partnerships supported by investors willing to take on a risk/return profile that is unacceptable to traditional financiers.

Changing the Development Paradigm... Acumen Fund believes that pioneering entrepreneurs will ultimately find the solutions to poverty. The entrepreneurs Acumen Fund supports are focused on offering critical services – water, health, housing, and energy – at affordable prices to people earning less than four dollars a day.

For more information on Acumen Fund, please visit www.acumenfund.org.

ABOUT JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ

Like so many young people today, Jacqueline Novogratz gave up a career on Wall Street for a chance to change the world and pursue a life of adventure. Trained as an international banker and development expert, in 2001, she founded Acumen Fund. Together, she and Acumen Fund have pioneered a “third way” -- called "patient capital" -- between venture capitalism and traditional charity, one that seeks to effect real change in countries where the average citizen lives on less than $4 a day. This new approach regards people living on limited incomes not as passive victims, but as potential customers and budding business people in their own right.

Prior to Acumen Fund, Jacqueline Novogratz founded and directed The Philanthropy Workshop and The Next Generation Leadership program at the Rockefeller Foundation. She also founded Duterimbere, a micro-finance institution in Rwanda. She began her career in international banking with Chase Manhattan Bank. Jacqueline is currently on the advisory boards of Stanford Graduate School of Business and Innovations Journal, published by MIT Press. She is an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow and a Synergos Institute Senior Fellow, as well as a frequent speaker at international conferences, including the World Economic Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative and TED. Jacqueline has an MBA from Stanford and a BA in Economics/International Relations from the University of Virginia.