The Blue Sweater Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World

by Novogratz, Jacqueline

• ISBN13: 9781594869150
• ISBN10: 1594869154
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-03
• Publisher: Rodale Books

Summary

For the first 5,000 copies of The Blue Sweater purchased, a $15 donation per book will be made to Acumen Fund, a nonprofit that invests in transformative businesses to solve the problems of poverty. The Blue Sweater is the inspiring story of a woman who left a career in international banking to spend her life on a quest to understand global poverty and find powerful new ways 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 tag 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.From her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist venturing forth in Africa to the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, Novogratz tells gripping stories with unforgettable characters'”women dancing in a Nairobi slum, unwed mothers starting a bakery, courageous survivors of the Rwandan genocide, entrepreneurs building services for the poor against impossible odds. She shows, in ways both hilarious and heartbreaking, how traditional charity often fails, but how a new form of philanthropic investing called "patient capital" can help make people self-sufficient and can change millions of lives. More than just an autobiography or a how-to guide to addressing poverty, The Blue Sweater is a call to action that challenges us to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink our engagement with the world.

Author Biography

Jacqueline Novogratz is founder and CEO of 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. A serial entrepreneur in the social sector, she travels frequently and currently resides in New York City.

Table of Contents

Prologue	p. vii
Innocent Abroad	p. 1
A Bird on the Outside, a Tiger Within	p. 18
Context Matters	p. 32
Basket Economics and Political Realities	p. 48
The Blue Bakery	p. 64
Dancing in the Dark	p. 79
Traveling without a Road Map	p. 94
A New Learning Curve	p. 112
Blue Paint on the Road	p. 130
Retribution and Resurrection	p. 147
The Cost of Silence	p. 161
Institutions Matter	p. 176
The Education of a Patient Capitalist	p. 189
Building Brick by Brick	p. 209
Taking It to Scale	p. 228
The World We Dream, the Future We Create Together	p. 243
Acknowledgments	p. 255
Index	p. 258
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