The Blue Sweater

  ‘This is a wonderful book by a remarkable woman. It’s a story about doing enormous good while having some extraordinary experiences and even adventures. It touches the heart and the mind. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about what’s really going on in the world.’ – Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post American World and editor of Time magazine   ‘I hope many, especially young people in India, will read and be inspired by The Blue Sweater… India’s new wealth combined with its growing band of social entrepreneurs can surely move us closer to make the bazaar more accountable to the needs of the samaaj.’ -Rohini Nilekani   The Blue Sweater is the inspiring story of a woman who gave up a career in international banking to spend her life understanding global poverty and finding powerful new ways of tackling it. It all started in Virginia, with the blue sweater, a gift that quickly became her prized possession – until the day she outgrew it and gave it away to Goodwill. Eleven years later, in Africa, she spotted a young boy wearing that very sweater, with her name still on the tag inside. That the sweater had come all the way to Rwanda was evidence of how we are all connected – how our daily actions, and inaction, touch people across the globe – people we may never know or meet. From her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist venturing forth in Africa to the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, Jacqueline Novogratz tells gripping stories with unforgettable characters – unwed mothers starting a bakery, courageous survivors of the Rwandan genocide, Indian entrepreneurs bringing services to the poor against impossible odds. She shows, in ways both hilarious and heartbreaking, how traditional charity often fails, but how a new form of philanthropic investing called ‘patient capital’ can help make people self-sufficient and change millions of lives.   The author’s royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to Acumen Fund.