Novogratz Quotes & Sayings

I think I still have a great sense of adventure and trust, and am surprisingly idealistic given all the horrible things I've seen since I was 25. I think how I have changed is that I have a much deeper understanding of the dark forces in the world, of power. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Wealth today has been created by a world view dominated by fast-moving networks, open information, bottom-up entrepreneurialism. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I've been working on issues of poverty for more than 20 years, and so it's ironic that the problem that and question that I most grapple with is how you actually define poverty. What does it mean? — Jacqueline Novogratz

Acumen Fund's patient capital investment in Western Seed is intended to enhance the food security and economic independence of Kenya's smallholder farmers. — Jacqueline Novogratz

There are 60 million generators in Nigeria. The generator owners and distributors have a strong incentive to not encourage the distribution of solar and other alternative energies, even though it's better for the country, it's better for people. As a world, we've got to get more serious about confronting those obstacles. This knows no culture, no race, no ethnicity. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Monsters will always exist. There's one inside each of us. But an angel lives there, too. There is no more important agenda than figuring out how to slay one and nurture the other. — Jacqueline Novogratz

You should focus on being more interested than interesting. — Jacqueline Novogratz

The human spirit is extraordinary. If we give the 3 billion people who live in poverty the opportunity to change their lives, they will. For too long, we've looked at needing to "save" these people - with an emphasis on "these people" - rather than removing the constraints keeping them from solving their own problems. — Jacqueline Novogratz

As both developed and developing nations search for alternative sources of energy in response to the growing energy crisis, we at Acumen Fund believe that investing in entrepreneurs who provide innovative energy solutions is an increasingly critical part of the solution. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Philanthropy is no longer about writing a check for $10,000 to the opera. — Jacqueline Novogratz

We often don't realize what our action & our inaction do to people we think we will never see & never know. — Jacqueline Novogratz

How you see where you are always depends on where you've been. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And it's in the total of all those acts that the history of this generation will be written. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Human beings tend not to spend money on health preventionally. We tend to spend it on top treatment. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Why do some people stop growing at age 30, just going from work to the couch and television, when others stay vibrant, curious, almost childlike into their nineties? — Jacqueline Novogratz

Grief releases love and it also instills a profound sense of connection. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Poverty is not only about income levels, but for lack of freedom that comes from physical insecurity — Jacqueline Novogratz

I was encouraged to break all the rules but to take the best of philanthropy, the best of investing, and the best of development finance, and experiment with new ways to create this venture capital model of using philanthropy to back patient capital investments, and then build solutions that were measured in terms of the kind of impact and change they were making on people's lives and in the world, not just on the financial return. — Jacqueline Novogratz

People need to believe that they can participate fully in the decisions that affect their lives and have a stake in the societies in which they live — Jacqueline Novogratz

The time for change is now. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Too often people view idealists as naive. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I was an accidental banker. To please my parents, I went for an interview with Chase Manhattan Bank in 1983. They promised to send me into their offices in more than 40 countries and essentially audit the practices. It was an extraordinary job. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Entrepreneurs are the seekers of solutions, and that they will go into these places where both market and traditional aid has failed or traditional charity has failed. — Jacqueline Novogratz

When we deny the poor and the vulnerable their own human dignity and capacity for freedom and choice, it becomes self-denial. It becomes a denial of both our collective and individual dignity, at all levels of society. — Jacqueline Novogratz

The only way we really create change is to enter any situation with the humility to listen and to recognize the world as it is, and then the audacity to dream what it could be. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I've heard it said that the most dangerous animal on the planet is the adolescent male. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I've learned that generosity is far easier than justice and that, in the highly distorted markets of the poor, it is all too easy to veer only toward the charitable, to have low
or no
expectations for low-income people. This does nothing but reaffirm prejudices on all sides. — Jacqueline Novogratz

We run Aravind like McDonald's," he explained, "clean and organized, with every process known and understood so that we get maximum efficiency. Two-thirds of the patients pay nothing or nearly nothing, and yet the hospital is consistently profitable - and growing. — Jacqueline Novogratz

The only way to end poverty, to make it history, is to build viable systems on the ground that deliver critical and affordable goods and services to the poor, in ways that are financially sustainable and scaleable. If we do that, we really can make poverty history. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Sproxil will help combat the multi-billion dollar counterfeit drug market, empower customers, and give them the resources to make informed pharmaceutical purchasing decisions. — Jacqueline Novogratz

When it comes to solving problems of poverty, impact investing can act as a catalyst, but it is not a silver bullet. Successful businesses serving the poor need more than investment capital. They also need infrastructure to enable effective distribution, strong regulatory systems, access to markets, technical assistance as they scale up, and more — Jacqueline Novogratz

I would like philanthropists to take more risks and invest more in risk capital. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Rockefeller viewed his philanthropy through the lens of his business, and it really mirrored the Industrial Revolution. It was highly centralized, it was top down, it was based on experts, and it was big-picture. — Jacqueline Novogratz

If you're looking at distributing alternative energy in Nigeria, for instance, what gets in your way is not people's ability to pay, not people's desire for a clean solar lamps or biomass opportunities. But there is a strong status quo that really depends on selling diesel. — Jacqueline Novogratz

As a young woman, I dreamed of changing the world. In my twenties, I went to Africa to try and save the continent, only to learn that Africans neither wanted nor needed saving. Indeed, when I was there, I saw some of the worst that good intentions, traditional charity, and aid can produce ... — Jacqueline Novogratz

Traditional charity and aid are never going to solve the problems of poverty. — Jacqueline Novogratz

The older I get, the more determined I feel to do whatever I can to help release that human potential somehow. Not in a fluffy way nor in a hardcore way. But in that middle ground, that marriage of love and power. I'm not afraid of either. — Jacqueline Novogratz

By going from the bottom-up again, we see where successes work, and you can also see where the status quo can be the biggest obstacle or roadblock to success. The kind of entrepreneurs in whom we need to invest are the kind who are willing to fight that status quo, bureaucracy, complacency, and corruption. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Companies like Husk Power Systems are working to impact positively not only the environment, but to ensure that someday everyone, including the poorest of the poor in rural India, will have access to clean and affordable electricity. — Jacqueline Novogratz

People across the world are yearning to be connected to stories of hope. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Your job is not to be perfect, your job is only to be human. — Jacqueline Novogratz

The Pakistanis are very resilient people. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth. — Jacqueline Novogratz

So many low income people have seen so many failed promises broken and seen so many quacks and sporadic medicines offered to them that building trust takes a lot of time, takes a lot of patience. — Jacqueline Novogratz

We are each other's destiny. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Our actions - and inaction - touch people we may never know and never meet across the globe. — Jacqueline Novogratz

When I first went to Africa, I thought that I was personally going to save the continent, if not the world. — Jacqueline Novogratz

When Jeff Sachs says every poor person should receive a free bed net, I agree - but in reality, many end up not receiving one. And I don't live in a world of shoulds. — Jacqueline Novogratz

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I took mine and fell flat on my face. As a young woman, I dreamed of changing the world. In my twenties, I went to africa to try and save the continent, only to learn that Africans neither wanted nor needed saving. Indeed, when I was there, I saw some of the worst that good intentions, traditional charity, and aid can produce ...
I concluded that if I could only nudge the world a little bit, maybe that would be enough.
But nudging isn't enough. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I still feel that the kind of leader I want to be is one that spends time understanding our work in a way that allows me to translate it for policymakers and people who have real access to resources. — Jacqueline Novogratz

When systems are broken, it's an opportunity for invention and innovation. — Jacqueline Novogratz

My whole life has been spent with people who have taken every knock in the world. No advantages. Yet they greet you with a big smile, they give you what they have, and they keep coming back. They are the fighters. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Where micro-finance focuses on small loans to individual, low-income women, think of Acumen Fund more like a venture capital fund. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Nothing important happens in life without a cost. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I have also been touched by the dark side of power and leadership. — Jacqueline Novogratz

My dream is to find individuals who take financial resources and convert them into changing the world in the most positive ways. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Philanthropists should find innovations that release the energies of people. Individuals don't want to be taken care of --they need to be given a chance to fulfill their own potential. (142) — Jacqueline Novogratz

Even when early innovations start to succeed, it is not uncommon to see growing businesses sabotaged for threatening the status quo. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I feel like I'm a relentless, pragmatic, determined optimist. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Power corrupts on an equal-opportunity basis. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I also took issue with the practice of donors typically only funding programs instead of institutions ... That is a fine strategy for providing alms or direct charity. At the same time, no one would invest in a company and not expect it to pay for hiring great people, paying the rent, and keeping the lights on. We need philanthropists to build institutions in the social sector too. — Jacqueline Novogratz

The poor don't live in functional market economies as the rest of us do, but in political economies where corruption and broken systems extend from local government to moneylenders. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Buddhist monk Maha Ghosananda was quoted by author Jacqueline Novogratz in The Blue Sweater: "If you move through the world only with your intellect, then you walk on only one leg. If you move through the world only with your compassion, then you walk on only one leg. But if you move through the world with both intellect and compassion, then you have wisdom. — Whitney Johnson

I'm relentless in that I deeply believe in people. — Jacqueline Novogratz

As a 25-year-old banker, I decided to leave my career and change the world. This sounds like a move that a 25-year-old banker might make today - to escape the chaos. — Jacqueline Novogratz

A sustainable world means working together to create prosperity for all. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Impact investing has become a broad umbrella that includes all investing with a focus on both financial return and social impact, but in its best form, impact investing prioritizes impact over returns and achieves outcomes that traditional investing cannot. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I was going to save the world, and I thought I would start with the African continent. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Dignity is more important than wealth. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Just start Don't wait for perfection. Just start and let the work teach you. — Jacqueline Novogratz

In the case of maternal health care, you look at, well naturally, it's the mother who's the customer, who makes the decisions. But in truth, the mother in many areas, in certain parts of India, the mother has very little decision-making power at all. The real decision-maker is the mother-in-law. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Very small investments can release the infinite potential that lies in all of us. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Poverty is too complex to be answered with a one-size-fits-all approach, and if there is any place that illustrates that complexity, as well as a better way forward, it is Rwanda. — Jacqueline Novogratz

There are cases where government-to-government aid actually has worked. Look at the eradication of smallpox and the near eradication of polio. But these are really top down solutions that require government-to-government support and aid. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Don't let people tell you to do it this way. You are on the verge of figuring out hybrid models
with companies and nonprofits, markets, government, crowd-sourced philanthropy. The capitalist system as we know it is not working. — Jacqueline Novogratz

People really don't want handouts, that they want to make their own decisions. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Many business leaders are seeing the relationship between long term success and sustainability, and that's very heartening. — Jacqueline Novogratz

There's a real moral imperative in being an organization that takes the time to sit and listen to the customers and the people they're serving. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Acumen Fund is my prayer in response to genocide and what happened in Rwanda. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Africans didn't want saving, thank you very much, least of all not by me. — Jacqueline Novogratz

This idea of universal access to basic healthcare has to be figured out as a world. No country has figured it out in part because it is driven by ideology. — Jacqueline Novogratz

What farmers gain most of all from the increase in agricultural productivity, of course, is choice. — Jacqueline Novogratz

We are connected to each other not only as humans, but to every living thing on the planet. — Jacqueline Novogratz

We can send people to the Moon; we can see if there's life on Mars - why can't we get $5 [mosquito] nets to 500 million people? — Jacqueline Novogratz

In today's world, the elites are growing even more comfortable with one another across national lines, yet at the same time, less comfortable with low-income people who share their nationality. How we create those bonds of community that are truly global as well as national is one of our generation's great challenges. — Jacqueline Novogratz

President Kennedy said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. I would say that the converse is true. — Jacqueline Novogratz

On the one hand, I loved being a banker. I loved how numbers could tell a story and how you can invest in ideas and see them translate into products and services and create jobs. What I didn't like, particularly where I was working in Brazil during the debt crisis of the early '80s, was how the poor were excluded from the banking system. I made the decision to try and experiment with whether we could use the tools of banking to extend the benefits of the economy to the poor. — Jacqueline Novogratz

If we have learned anything, it is the horror that can happen when people don't think for themselves, but instead follow authority blindly. — Jacqueline Novogratz

After all this atrocity, this is how human beings really pray. — Jacqueline Novogratz

We need moral leadership and courage in our world. — Jacqueline Novogratz

You have to learn to ask questions in a way that will elicit more nuanced answers, rather than the answers you would like to get. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Freedom is what beauty feels like when it can most express itself. — Jacqueline Novogratz

To be part of building a movement, you have to keep moving. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Listening is not only about waiting, but it's also learning how better to ask questions. — Jacqueline Novogratz

I'm feeling optimistic about rural Pakistan. Farmers are making good money. — Jacqueline Novogratz

As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, we need to find better solutions that will include everyone in today's opportunities. (197) — Jacqueline Novogratz

I believe the government should ensure all children are provided with a good education. — Jacqueline Novogratz

The time for us to begin innovating and looking for new solutions is now. — Jacqueline Novogratz

We have to remember that the girls and the women are most isolated and violated and victimized and made invisible in those very societies where our men and our boys feel disempowered, unable to provide. — Jacqueline Novogratz

We live in a world in which we're seeing an increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots. — Jacqueline Novogratz