Marin Kaleya ’12Journal 1
This summer, I am working at Acumen Fund, a social venture fund headquartered in New York, with offices in Mumbai, Karachi, Nairobi and, more recently, Accra. During my internship, I am primarily responsible for developing Acumen’s 10-year report, which will tell the story of what Acumen has accomplished in its 10 years, what the organization has learned, and what is to come. The report will be an important part of Acumen’s 10-year anniversary. As part of the organization’s commitment to creating a world beyond poverty, Acumen is devoted to educating others on its work and helping other organizations in the sector by sharing its experiences and learnings. This document will serve as a vehicle through which to communicate its accomplishments at this milestone anniversary.
Under most circumstances, it is difficult to write such an overarching account of an organization as an outsider or a newbie. However, Acumen has made it fairly easy to get acquainted with the organization and to understand not just Acumen’s mission but its personality, vision, and path forward. Once or twice a week we have onboarding sessions for the summer interns and newcomers to the organization. We have heard from the heads of the portfolio, business development, talent, influence, and legal departments. We also had the opportunity to experience part of the Acumen Fellows leadership development program, which was incredibly interesting and helped me understand more fully Acumen’s approach to influence and education.
In addition, to better understand the organization and the trajectory it has taken in the last 10 years, I spent much of my first two weeks reading in succession the quarterly newsletters and blog posts the organization has shared since its founding. What struck me is the entrepreneurial spirit of Acumen Fund — they helped foster the impact investing sector in an environment where traditional philanthropy was one of the only non-governmental options in international development. Since the fund was founded in 2001, over 190 impact investing firms have been created. It is such an honor to work for such a pioneering organization that is committed to continuous learning, and I am excited to create this report that will promote awareness of Acumen’s mission.
I am already seeing the ways in which my business education is helping me in this role. I have had to synthesize a great deal of information about the organization and think strategically about the way to talk about and promote its success and mission to various audiences. Without frameworks for working through data, opinions, anecdotes, and stories, this task would be infinitely more difficult. I am looking forward to seeing how the work progresses and understanding how I can leverage other parts of my MBA.
Journal 2
The annual report is progressing nicely. I have had the opportunity to meet or speak with members of the Acumen Fund team from every global office, focus area, and function. It has been an excellent learning experience to see how the various parts of the business work together, and to understand more completely the priorities of the various divisions. I came up with an outline for the report and began writing some of the individual pages and delegating writing for other pages to function heads.
A couple of weeks ago, we met with the creative firm that will be laying out the graphic design of the report. Since I am managing the project, I led the meeting and outlined my vision for the document with the full support of Sasha Dichter, the director of business development. Being given such responsibility after just a month at the firm is a huge departure from my career in the corporate world. I have seen how Acumen Fund leverages its limited resources to achieve impact — by hiring people they really trust and empowering them to take decisive action. I feel very lucky to be working with this talented group, and honored that they have entrusted me with this important project.
I really feel like I have become integrated into the company at this point. Due to the scope of my project, I have been working closely with the portfolio team to understand the investment trajectory of the fund over the past 10 years and to learn how to navigate PULSE, the social impact measurement tool that Acumen Fund created with Google a few years ago. I have become so fluent in the program that I have taken the responsibility of liaising between the business development and portfolio teams with regard to social and financial metrics. Acumen also hired two new employees in business development, and I have been helping to train them in PULSE, and giving them insights into the relationship between the two departments.
As I learn more about Acumen Fund and the social venture capital and impact investing sector, I am more convinced of the impact this industry can have. Acumen Fund’s success stories — A to Z Textile Mills, d.light, Saiban, GEWP, and WHI — are clear evidence of how supporting emerging entrepreneurs can transform lives, industries, and mentalities. While we measure outputs like number of bed nets sold, the outcomes of these organizations are more difficult to measure, but just as important. The outcomes range from better yields for African maize farmers, to affordable light that allows Indian children to study after dark, to a global recognition that entrepreneurship is a viable career choice. Acumen Fund aims to bring dignity to the people it touches.
Journal 3
I finished my internship at Acumen Fund last week. Three days before my departure, I presented my proposal to a key decision maker, who liked my suggestions but decided that the annual report should go in a different direction. I spent my last three days at the organization recalculating and reorganizing the report. Ultimately, a number of my suggestions will be incorporated into the report, but the document will be strikingly different from my original proposal. Nonetheless, I find that my experience at Acumen Fund has impacted me greatly.
Acumen Fund puts a strong priority on finding interns and staff not just with the right abilities, but the right ethos as well. Consequently, throughout my time here, I have expanded my professional skill set and my understanding of social venture capital, while also developing a more robust appreciation for the philosophies behind the work. Watching Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” with the rest of the Acumen Fund interns changed the way I view the people I encounter as well as the recipients of Acumen Fund capital and their customers. I have also learned so much from our weekly Monday morning meetings, where we talk about values in action. We have garnered insights from John Githongo’s most recent articles, talked about the legalization of gay marriage, and then how these things makes us feel about the work we do and the untenable circumstances the communities our portfolio companies work with find themselves in. It has been a great opportunity for personal development.
From a functional perspective, this summer I enjoyed working in communications and business development. In addition to the great team, which was comprised of a group of incredibly thoughtful, inspired, and talented people, my role afforded me unique opportunities throughout the organization. The comprehensive nature of my project required me to familiarize myself with Acumen Fund’s internal culture and external personality. The breadth of my assignment allowed me to speak with people in every department and country, which helped me feel integrated into the fabric of the organization.
Equally important, my team constantly validated my contributions, reminding me that my work was of significant value to the organization. They consistently pushed me to challenge myself to achieve impact with everything I did. Though I am leaving without having seen my project to completion, I feel a strong sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
