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Getting down to business:

Acumen Fund

ISSUE:

Despite the tremendous wealth being created in the world today, there is a growing gap between rich and poor. Traditional charity often meets immediate needs but is not designed to enable people to solve their own problems over the long term. And markets alone will not solve the problems of poverty. Very low-income people often remain invisible to businesses and society. Businesses see little market opportunity in selling to customers who make less than $4 a day, and governments often lack the resources and systems of accountability to deliver the range of services that are currently lacking.

IDEA:

Acumen Fund invests in and provides hands-on management assistance to local, socially-minded entrepreneurs, and aims to demonstrate that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises to serve people earning less than $4 a day. Acumen Fund focuses its investments across four key sectors that directly affect quality of life and opportunities for the poor: water, health, housing, and energy. In addition to financial capital, Acumen Fund works to channel talent to these enterprises through the Acumen Fund Fellows Program, which supports the development of a new kinds of practical, moral leadership.

IMPACT:

Over the past six years, Acumen Fund has invested in 25 enterprises in six countries that are delivering critical goods to millions of poor consumers. For example, Acumen Fund’s investment in A to Z, a Tanzanian manufacturer that produces long-lasting anti-malarial bed nets, has allowed them to scale production, lower product cost, and explore strategies for sales and distribution to the poor. In India, IDEI has successfully developed and brought to market small-scale and low-cost drip irrigation systems that allow farmers to expand output and increase incomes.

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