Flickr!

Pictures from last week's event with Jacqueline Novogratz are up! Check out the Acumen Fund Flickr feed for all 52 pictures and don't hesitate to make comments or leave tags. Thanks again to our photographer Michael E. Lee and thanks to all of you for such a special evening.

Giving Circles

In his latest post, Seth Nemeroff shares his thoughts on giving circles:

A friend of mine recently forwarded a story from NPR about giving circles that I thought I would share with the YP community. The topic covered is one that is relevant to the questions of "What can I do? How can I get involved?" that keep coming up in conversations with YP members.

The concept of giving circles is not new; however, the timing is perfect for the growth of this model. The influx of demand into the social sector coupled with an increasing call to service from the public sector is creating an opportunity for innovative ideas around the differing notions of giving. The basic premise of a giving circle is a group of people (friends, co-workers, etc) pool financial resources and professional expertise to make a targeted contribution to a non-profit organization. The ability to make a larger sized donation by joining together in a group instantly allows you a louder voice with the organization the circle chooses. The "circle" allows for different ideas and concepts to be thought out and debated before making the grant decision and exposes you to the intricacies of the world of philanthropy (albeit on a small scale). The group also offers various professional services to the non-profit organization. This final part separates the giving circle from more traditional forms of donations and helps create a different type of answer to the "How can I get involved?" question.

I have recently become a member of a giving circle called the New York Venture Philanthropy Fund (NYVPF). The fund chooses an area that it wants to focus on (i.e. education, the environment, etc), then researches local New York-based non-profits that work in this sector before final grant decisions are made. Learning about the various steps of the process is rewarding and has broadened my knowledge of the non-profit sector.

There are many potential variations of this idea. Perhaps a group of YP members can join together to form a Young Professionals for Acumen Fund "branded" giving circle with the focus on Acumen or like minded organizations working in the areas that Acumen focuses on? If this is something that may interest you, feel free to reach out to me at sethnem@yahoo.com.

Volunteer Opportunity with Acumen Fund Fellows!

Acumen Fund Fellows Heidi Krauel and Joel Montgomery are in need of a Part-Time Research Assistant to help them complete some research on sales models at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). The goal of the research is to explore the barriers and breakthroughs of sales at the BoP.

They are seeking a bright individual with an MBA or Masters (or current candidate) who is passionate about social enterprise and willing to work remotely on a project to further research in the field. A commitment of at least 10 hours/week is needed to help facilitate this research. The Research Assistant will assist the team in answering whether or not sales at the BoP are the same as sales in a developed world context, or whether specific nuances/adaptations are necessary to be successful. The Research Assistant will also help in analyzing data once we complete the online survey and in-depth interviews.

Here is a full description of the research position. Thanks!

Catching Up

Time to share a few links that we've been meaning to post for a while:

Speak another language fluently? Consider volunteering for the TED Open Translation Project and translating a TED talk. Details at TED.com.

Check out the job posting for a Corporate Social Responsibility Manager for Wells Fargo in Hyderabad, India. For this and other great opportunities, visit nextbillion.net.

Meanwhile, on the nextbillion.net blog, our very own Seth Nemeroff writes about a discussion panel for the book Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day.

If you have any other links you'd like to share with your fellow young professionals, just leave them in the comments. Thanks!

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Sorry! One more thing. Cool opportunity for Indian professionals to "meaningfully bring your knowledge and talents to your land of heritage" as an Indicorps member. Learn more about their special Young Professionals Initiative.

Wrap-Up from Last Night's Event

We're posting a great-wrap up of last night's event from Julie Lee, a fellow Young Professional for Acumen Fund. She currently works at Acumen Fund as a Knowledge and Communications Consultant and is involved with many organizations in the social enterprise space. She has a strategy consulting background at Accenture and earned a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania.

Young Professionals for Acumen Fund just hosted an exciting reading and speaking event featuring Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund and author of the bestselling memoir The Blue Sweater. Even though I work at Acumen Fund, this was a can't-miss opportunity not only to enjoy the company of Jacqueline but to get to know other enthusiastic young professionals. In spite the crowd (there were upwards of 100 people), an intimacy reverberated throughout The Bubble Lounge, a fitting venue given that the room seemed to  bubble over with chatter and connections.

As I looked around the room at the twenty and thirty somethings who, collectively, cover a wide spectrum of NYC professions ranging from non-profits to multinational banks and corporations, I couldn't help but think about how Jacqueline had immersed herself in both ends of the spectrum at different junctures of her career path. Jacqueline started her career as an investment banker on Wall Street before becoming the CEO of a global nonprofit social venture fund. The Blue Sweater describes this journey and the personal discovery that we - the rich and the poor - live in an interconnected world.

Since the event, I have reflected on ways in which we young professionals are also connecting with each other while drawing from our diverse backgrounds and resources to achieve the shared mission of making social impact. A network that has impressively grown to over 500 members since its conception about a year ago, YP for Acumen Fund has the potential to harness all this talent and willingness to make positive change in the world. The recurring question of the evening was: "Now that I'm involved with YP, what can I do to help further the cause?" Here are my take-aways:

1. Fundraising - The most direct impact we can make is to support Acumen Fund's mission by raising funds. During the event, a young professional asked Jacqueline if Acumen Fund ever planned on expanding its investments to other countries (other than its existing portfolio work in East Africa, Pakistan, and India). The answer: it's part of the vision, but a level of committed funds are needed to do so. With 500+ members in the network, YP can set a goal of raising $50,000 (who doesn't like goal-setting?) if everyone sets out to donate or raise $100 each. Additionally, there are many opportunities to find creative ways of fundraising (events, more book readings, auctions). If you're ready, donate here.

2. Voice for Acumen Fund - Jacqueline said it herself: "Being a non-profit allows us to exercise patient capital and focus on changing minds, not just lives, and to experiment." As a growing network, YP can really make an impact at spreading the message and changing the minds of existing, unproductive assumptions on poverty and poverty alleviation. Acumen's market-based, bottom-up approach to lifting people out of poverty is a powerful and compelling story that can and should be shared with others.

3. Power of the Acumen Fund Network - Repetition hits it home: we are a network of 500+ members, and this really means something. Whether you are looking for ways to individually connect with others who share your interests or you want to combine resources and exchange ideas to further the Acumen Fund cause, the YP network is tremendously resourceful and can be leveraged to enable these goals. I have always found it invigorating to meet others who share the common goal of working collaboratively to make social impact - big or small - and the YP continues to make this possible.

Thanks for a Great Event!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the reading, Q&A, and book-signing tonight with Jacqueline. I hope you were as inspired as we were. And for those of you who weren't able to make it, we'll have posts, photos, and more in the next few days. In the meantime, check out Acumen Fund's twitter feed for a recap!