Women of Other Faiths
Using common values contained in their respective teachings, women of all religious traditions can work together and collaborate in many areas especially peace building and women’s empowerment. Collectively women of all faiths can learn from each other’s struggles and histories, while showing support for women’s religious leadership roles worldwide. Please contribute to this archive by suggesting women of all faiths to be featured through our recommendation form.
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Jacqueline Novogratz
When I founded the Acumen Fund I heard discouragement from everyone. I would go to the financial institutions, and the guys there would say, ‘It sounds fuzzy; it sounds messy.’ In the aid and foundation industries, people would say, ‘You're going to make money off the poor.’ The real lesson is that if a lot of people aren't telling you you're crazy, you're not on the right path.
Known For: Founder, Acumen Fund
Faith: Christianity
Country: United States
About
Throughout her international banking career, Jacqueline Novogratz has consistently focused on the financial empowerment of women. In 1991, she established Duterimbere, a microfinance institution in Rwanda offering women small business opportunities.
Ten years later, in her initiative to wed sustainable business and philanthropy, she founded the Acumen Fund, an organization committed to global poverty reduction. With offices in the U.S., Pakistan, India, and Kenya, Acumen has had a strong global impact on world poverty alleviation through a market-based approach. Her focus is on healthcare, housing, water, and financial products. Unlike microfinance, this venture capitalist model emphasizes the longevity of existing business and the ability of the companies to help the wider community.
At the Rockefeller Foundation, Ms. Novogratz began The Philanthropy Workshop and the Next Generation Leadership program. She serves on the board of the Aspen Institute, the advisory councils of Stanford Graduate School of Business and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Legatum Center, and regularly speaks at the World Economic Forum. In 2009, Ms. Novogratz published her memoir, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World. This best seller highlights this financial activist’s success in restructuring the global distribution of wealth in more effective ways and debunking the theory of charitable donation as a plausible solution for the poor.
