Our actions – and inaction – touch people we may never know and never meet across the globe. – Jacqueline Novogratz
Leaders can get stuck in groupthink because they’re really not listening, or they’re listening only to what they want to listen to, or they actually think they’re so right that they’re not interested in listening. And that leads to a lot of suboptimal solutions in the world. – 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
In India, we now see many highly qualified professionals ready to work in the rural hinterland and in their own towns and cities to tackle development issues directly without depending much on the government. – Jacqueline Novogratz
Despite the hundreds of non-governmental organizations and the continued outpouring of foreign aid, East Africa remains as a region overwhelmed by extreme poverty. – 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
People have to understand that unless social enterprise is experimental, it will not succeed in making a difference. – Jacqueline Novogratz
I studied international relations and economics at the University of Virginia. I paid my way by working as a bartender in the summer and at three part-time jobs during the year. – 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
Even when early innovations start to succeed, it is not uncommon to see growing businesses sabotaged for threatening the status quo. – 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
When I see people that are my age and reaching 50, the ones that are really sparkly and full of joy are the ones that are committed to something bigger than themselves. – 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
Standing with the poor means walking away from unethical leaders, even when their companies are ‘succeeding.’ – Jacqueline Novogratz
I think we so often equate leadership with being experts – the leader is supposed to come in and fix things. But in this interconnected world we live in now, it’s almost impossible for just one person to do that. – 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
President Kennedy said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. I would say that the converse is true. – Jacqueline Novogratz
Many business leaders are seeing the relationship between long term success and sustainability, and that’s very heartening. – Jacqueline Novogratz
I wrote ‘The Blue Sweater’ to inspire more people to become engaged in working to solve the problems of global poverty. – 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
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
We live in a world in which we’re seeing an increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots. – Jacqueline Novogratz
I am an insomniac. Most of my nights include a moment of wakening. Often I will make my way to the kitchen to make tea and read for awhile. – Jacqueline Novogratz
I have seen that traditional approaches to charity and aid don’t solve problems of poverty. In fact, too often they create dependence. – Jacqueline Novogratz
