Acumen Fund, Market-Oriented Innovative Philanthropy
With so many charitable organizations out there, it’s difficult to stay abreast of the causes that are supported, the breadth of the organizations’ impact, and the success stories that result from their efforts. But the charities that practice unusual techniques in making a positive mark stand out from the others that still use the old school open hand method. One of those organizations is the Acumen Fund.
The Acumen Fund isn’t even a decade old yet—founded in 2001—but in those eight years the organization has developed from the ground up a unique approach to aiding the needy and impoverished. Instead of buying commercial time on TV and airing footage of the poor in faraway places to motivate us to give, the Acumen Fund follows a business model: “We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services—like health, water, housing and energy—through innovative, market-oriented approaches.”
Essentially, the organization uses its resources to invest in businesses whose objective is to serve low-income people across the globe. As with any investment organization, businesses seeking funds must first apply and meet exacting requirements before they are considered to be worthwhile ventures. One such business, GEWP, has used the capital investment from the Acumen Fund to bring water to parched areas of India. There, farmers rely upon irrigation to grow crops; the sale of those crops are their sole source of income. GEWP makes available an inexpensive irrigation system, KB Drip, that is easy to install, user friendly, and can be used for both small and large tracts of land. Local businesses sell KB Drip components to farmers, who then receive the benefits of having a regulated water source to grow their crops. With help from the Acumen Fund, GEWP has been able to significantly raise the yearly earnings of poor farmers in India, successfully removing them from the cycle of poverty. This venture is just one of the many in which the Acumen Fund has played an important role.
Through their approach of investing over giving, the Acumen Fund is practicing an important truth: giving a hungry family food solves their problem, but only for a short time. Instead of relying upon charitable dollars—money that comes from the wavering generosity of those who have enough to give—the Acumen Fund devotes its energy towards the building of marketable resources that grow with time. Smart business practices, yielding life-changing results for those who are most in need.
