The State of Philanthropy with Jacqueline Novogratz

The McKinsey Quarterly has been doing a series of articles with Acumen Fund founder Jacqueline Novogratz. In this interview, Novogratz talks about the state of philanthropy and her vision of a more equitable market. It's pretty easy to see why she's a leader in this space. She has an incredibly thoughtful perspective on markets at their best:

Having seen particularly through the Rwandan genocide—but also other big messes—having seen what big top-down government and charity programs also have potential to do in stripping people of their dignity, but also in breeding corruption—in making the metric for decision power rather than profit. It is equally problematic a metric. And so where I’ve come from, which is also imperfect, and I don’t think there is a perfect solution, is this idea that power is not a good listening device, because power is all driven from who you are: my tribesmen, my family, my community. But the market actually is a good listening devise. I give you a pair of blue shoes as a gift. You say, “Thank you very much, they’re wonderful.” And then you throw them in the garbage as you leave. I ask you if you want to pay for it, you say, “Yes. No. I’d pay for it if they were brown or pink.” We’re having a conversation. So I see real power in the private sector as a way of listening, as a way of creating efficiencies. And at Acumen Fund we absolutely see the limitations—and that we need moral conversation in the world around what we’re trying to do at the end of the day. And there are absolutely interventions that need to be given free. And there are interventions that need to be given at a highly subsidized rate—sometimes to all people, sometimes to some.

Check out the full interview here, or check out Novogratz's new book "The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World."