The Blue Sweater

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The Blue Sweater is the inspiring story of a woman who gave up a career in international banking to spend her life understanding global poverty and finding powerful new ways of tackling it. It all started 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 come all the way to Rwanda was ample evidence, she thought, of how we are all connected, how our daily actions, and inaction, touch people 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, Jacqueline Novogratz tells gripping stories with unforgettable characters, ending with herjourney to India. 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.

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Jacqueline Novogratz is founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a non-profit 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.