A couple months back I finished reading the The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund. As i was reading I kept coming across nuggets I wanted to remember and come back to, so at the half way point i started using a highlighter.  It was a great exercise that reminded me of the importance of active vs passive reading. Below are the lines I want to remember, starting from pg 117.

117 
now i was definitely back in africa, where despite the crushing poverty that faces the majority of people, there is a sense of boundless enthusiasm that never fails to infuse me with energy

120 
still, i longed for the colors of africa...i missed the simple way that people embraced one another; the way they always asked about your family, your day, your health before discussing business

//it was growing clear to me that those who sought power and money made the rules; yet power alone could corrupt and corrode.  “power without love, “ martin luther king jr. said in one of his last speeches, “is reckless and abusive,” and, he continued, “love without power is sentimental and anemic.”  the world needed both..// 

122 

john never stopped learning.  i have a vivid image of him standing at the front of the class with pen in hand as he took notes each week on what the 10 people in the seminar had to say.  it certainly made me pay more attention and listen more carefully.  if he were writing down what my classmates were thinking, then there was probably wisdom in it for me, as well.

john made the world better just by being in it.

123
he shook his head.  “you should focus on being more interested than interesting”

124
but i learned quickly that giving money effectively can be much more difficult that making it

philanthropy can appeal to people who want to be loved more than they want to make a difference 

130
“there are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”  - buddha

134
in every culture, in every stratum of society, good and bad stand side by side

135
programs serving the poor needed to do a better job of giving people the chance to aim high and believe in themselves- and of holding them accountable for reaching their goals.

139 
Once, she convinced the mothers in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in DC to stand on the street corners where their sons dealt drugs in order to shame their boys into going home with them.

140
...conveying with her eyes her deep and firsthand knowledge of how much crueler the poverty of a broken spirit can be than the poverty of income alone.

141
..from those to whom much is given, much is expected

142
“Leading,” Mayor Blackwell told us, “is a lifelong proposition- and the people who seem least like you are usually the people you need most.”

161
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” - martin luther king, jr

167
There are non more dangerous to extremist than moderates.

**interesting point, that extremists feed off of extremists, they have a symbiotic relationship w each other... like bush vs osama, ea gave purpose to the others cause

169
... our worlds challenge is not simply in determining how we punish, but instead in how we prevent the kinds of atrocities that can come only from a deep-seated fear of the other in our midst.  such fear is fueled in a world where the rich feel above the system and the poor feel entirely left out.

175
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

178
the genocide had exposed the dangers of a country overly reliant on aid, illuminated the perils of government power concentrated in too few hands and dependent on systems lacking accountability, and shown the fault lines of idealism without tough pragmatism.

184
“my friend, i did know fear and wanted die, but i am strong now and have my own business and hope for the future.  still, i have known every kind of prejudice.  i was hated because i was tutsi, hated even more because i was married to a hutu, hated because i was hiv positive, judged because i was a woman.  what does it matter who accepts me? most of all, i must accept myself.

187
it is only those things that you build inside- those things that no one can take away from you- that matter. now we try to live from a place of love. and we understand that you can only have great joy if you also know great pain.”

188
big flows of aid can create as many incentives for corruption and mismanagement as for change.  markets alone won’t solve the problems of poverty. low- income people are invisible to most entrepreneurs, who dont see them as paying customers. poor distribution, lack of infrastructure, and corruption all add up to a failure of markets to deliver to the poor what they want and need at prices they can afford.
//
what is needed going forward is a philosophy based on human dignity, which all of us need and crave. we can end poverty if we start by looking at all human beings as part of a single global community that recognizes that everyone deserves a chance to build a life worth living.

189
i was sitting with the new president of the Rockefeller foundation, sir gordon conway, in his 22nd fl office overlooking manhattan, sharing my frustrations about traditional philanthropy, remarking that it often lacked clear measures and accountability and seemed at times more focused on making donors feel good than on effecting change.

190
gordon drew in his breath and thought for a minute, and when he suggested i take a few months to explore the possibility of creating such a venture [acumen fund] and do it on the rockefeller foundation’s dime, i nearly fell out of my chair.

191
i was torn between the freedom to build exactly what i wanted on the one hand and the certainty of access to power and a real level of financial resources on the other. 

196
a wise ceo of a health care company gave me advice i will never forget.  ‘just start, ‘ he said.  ‘dont wait for perfection. just start and let the work teach you.’

199

the ‘free’ or lesser paying patients were treated at the older facility and slept on mats on the floor, but every surgeon rotated between the two hospitals, so the actual quality of care was the same. 

209

go to the people
live with them , learn from them
love them
start with what they know
build with what they have. 

but of the best leaders,
when the job is done,
the task accomplished,
the people will say:
“we have done it ourselves.’
-lao tzu

236
social marketing advocates- those who believe that nets should be sold- argue that giveaway programs result in quick fixes that dont last and point to evidence in Ethiopia and other countries where, only a few years after net distribution, actual usage rates fell precipitously. this, too, is true.

//

increasingly, we’re seeing skirmishes that may lead to big wars in this century over who has rights to water.

one in five of us- have no access to a glass of clean water.  

242
changing any kind of behavior is not easy. and in places like rural india, most people think water comes from god, so there is a lot of pressure to accept whatever god decides to give you. convincing people that they nonetheless have a choice about the kind of water they drink is neither easy nor free.

244
ive learned that there is no currency like trust and no catalyst like hope.

ive 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.

extraordinary wealth has been generated by this global economy, and millions of people have been lifted out of poverty.  yet it brings as much danger as hope unless and until every single one of us gets a fair chance to participate.

254
but empathy is only our starting point. it must be combined with focus and conviction, the toughness to know what needs to get done and the courage to follow through.