Acumen’s Global Fellowship Program

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAHATMA GANDHI AND LAL BAHADUR SHASHTRI.
(This post is about a charitable organisation and the training it offers to social enterpreneurs and I feel you would approve.)


Has anyone heard of Acumen? It is an organisation that invests in future leaders by training them for a year for social entrepreneurship. It runs leadership programs that teach individuals innovative and practical ways to assist the poor and to merge their social skills with business acumen. It gives these carefully selected future leaders operational and financial skills so that they, in turn, can equip the poor with the means to earn a living. Besides investment techniques, valuation, marketing and operations these future leaders are also trained in self-reflection, negotiation, storytelling and much more. 

After you complete the two month training in New York you begin a nine month field placement helping with one of Acumen’s various global (charitable) investments. A few work plans in the past have included: 

• Developing a model for expanding access to low-cost drip irrigation systems in India, Pakistan and Kenya.
• Creating and implementing a Customer Relationship Management strategy to support the expansion of a chain of maternity hospitals in India. 

Application Form: The application process is now open for the year 2013-2014. The cut off date is 11:59 pm (EST) of 16^th November 2012. Filling in the application is a detailed process and just so you know it isn’t for the faint hearted, here’s a sample form you’d need to fill in. Links to the FAQs, the form and tips to fill it in are at the end of this post.

The application for the Acumen Fund Global Fellows Program consists of four parts:

• Personal information

o   Contact details, qualifications, professional background, number of years of work experience and your main area of expertise

• your business skills that would be valuable for the field of social entrepreneurship.

o   a strong example of how you have demonstrated a commitment to bringing about positive social change.

• 2 references
• Your resume/CV (to be uploaded)
• Short & long answer questions (see below)

Short Answer Questions (40 to 50 words each)

Your greatest: achievement, failure - why? Your strength as a leader and opportunities for growth.

Long Answer Questions (150 words each)

Why the Global Fellows Program, and why now?  What would you bring to the program? What are you most passionate about?

What's your story? (300 words) 

 

Apart from the above they ask for and give additional information.

Links:

Watch this YouTube video about Acumen Fund Fellows to find out more. 

FAQs page – a must read before you apply. 

Form 

Tips to fill in the form: 

How Should Secular Indians Organise?

A previous post in June 2010 exhorted secular minded Indians to organise. The communal minded already seem to have, under the umbrella of a communal minded politician. The secular minded, on the other hand, are most disorganised. They are happy to co-exist and work or socialize with anyone they like, irrespective of the community they belong to. 

In today’s climate, with the hardened attitude of the communal minded towards anyone who is different or anyone who, from their own community, is ambiguous about those differences, our laid back, easy going attitude simply isn't enough. 

How do Secular Indians Organise in a safe and uplifting environment? My answer is guaranteed to surprise. It is simple, do-able and very effective.

Here are a few key factors to a good organisation

Accountability is important. It engenders trust. Take our politicians. We generally are wary of them as we feel their accountability to their electorate is lacking. Here's a youtube video by Cass Wheeler and Ho Sun Yee on accountability I found especially useful.

Awareness: Whether through a blog, website, word of mouth, ads or fliers, letting people know we exist is important. It helps us meet other like minded people. 

My suggestion is, get involved with charities. How would getting involved with charities help us fight communalism - a problem exacerbated by racist politics?

Charities have both those characteristics - awareness and accountability. The members of any charitable organization will tell us how essential it is to put aside individual egos and work as a team for a cause. They will also tell us they

• are normally there to right a wrong; to help alleviate pain and injustice.
• are already organized into a formidable force that makes a difference.
• are often under resourced but know how to utilise whatever is at hand to make a difference.
• need all the help they can get. It doesn’t have to be monetary help. Morgan Hunt, in his article about the significance of volunteering time to non profit organizations agrees that donating your time is good for you; sometimes it is better than donating money.

And I cannot think of any other approach that lets us be altruistic as we simultaneously acquire the many vital skills of belonging to such an organisation.

This is but a start. This is what so many more of us than ever before, can do right now. 

In conclusion, the first step to making our communal minded politicians accountable is through getting organized ourselves. Let us give a small portion of our time (daily / weekly / monthly) and our trust to charitable organisations that already exist. We can help them even as they help us get to know and appreciate one another, irrespective of the community we belong to. 

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