When Jacqueline Novogratz arrived, hot and sticky, at the Abidjan Airport in 1986 with “all the essentials—some poetry, a few clothes and, of course, a guitar,” the 25-year-old international banker turned poverty-slayer was convinced she was arriving on Africa’s Ivory Coast to change the world.

But reality can be a cruel poison. Novogratz soon learned she needed more tools than deep-seeded passion and determination for the challenges and misconceptions she encountered there.

“Failure can be an incredibly motivating force,” she tells SUCCESS. Since she had turned down a lucrative Manhattan bank promotion prior to leaving for Africa, she felt she had to prove herself before returning home. She had to develop her well-rounded world vision the hard way—in the thick of the developing world, often on her own, without an established road map.

Her March 2009 book, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World (Rodale Books), chronicles her passionate journey to the creation of the 8-year-old Acumen Fund, a nonprofi t global venture fund using entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. “As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, we need to find better solutions that will include everyone in today’s opportunities,” she writes. “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.”

Acumen Fund manages more than $40 million in investments in South Asia and East Africa, all focused on delivering affordable basic services to the poor (her immediate goal is to increase that to $100 million).

Novogratz’s change-the-world passion began early. “I grew up very disciplined, with nuns, a military family of seven, all the rest boys,” she says during a break from a frantic day of meetings in Acumen’s New York offi ces just before leaving on another far-fl ung trip. “I was very tough, and hard on myself, and had high expectations for myself.”

The compassion of the West Point, N.Y., nuns who taught her—particularly a fi rst-grade teacher, Sister Mary Theophane, whom Novogratz recalls with special affection—helped hone her lofty determination.

“It was from her that I fi rst heard that ‘to whom much is given, much is expected,’ ” Novogratz says. “I wanted desperately to be one of those kids who delivered. I wanted to commit to do something big.”

In a way, she took her own set of vows in those formative years. She would later embrace the writing of Thoreau and Shaw, extracting from the poets what it meant to live a full life. “When I would read Thoreau talk about people living lives of quiet discontent, I would say, ‘That is not going to be me. I am going to live out loud,’ ” she says.

So later it seemed natural to relocate to another part of the world, learn a language, make a difference and gauge what she was capable of. “I loved being a banker,” says Novogratz, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics/international relations from the University of Virginia. “But there was something inside of me that wanted to be a cross-culture, cross-class bridge to change the world. That was what drove me.”

During her first trip to Africa, she encountered a youth walking toward her wearing a blue sweater like one she had owned and loved as a child before donating it to charity years later in the States. “Certainly, when I found this child wearing the blue sweater that I had thrown in the Goodwill as a 10-year-old, I felt that I was in the right place—not necessarily doing the right thing, but in the right place.” Novogratz experienced both gut-wrenching failures and encouraging victories working on developing-world projects. She became convinced that there had to be more effective ways to address poverty than traditional charities. In 1987, she founded the microfi nance institution Duterimbere (translated, “to go forward with enthusiasm”) in Rwanda. At that time, microfi nance was a little-known concept.

Aiming to better fulfill her philanthropic goals, she returned to the States and earned a Stanford University MBA. After graduation in 1992, she took a position managing special projects at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she founded and directed the Philanthropy Workshop and the Next Generation Leadership programs.

Her education and her early efforts in philanthropy, banking and microfi nance would eventually contribute to her innovative Acumen Fund vision. The bottom line, she concluded, is that charity alone cannot end poverty. Rather than handing out grants, Acumen invests in fl edgling companies and organizations that bring critical—and often life-altering—products and services to the world’s poor.

“Early on, it was all about developing the confi dence and earning respect to be effective,” she says. “One of my favorite Martin Luther King Jr. lines is: ‘Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.’ When I fi rst went to Africa, I felt this great sense of compassion and was making excuses for people…. Once I let go of the idea of being Mother Superior trying to save the masses and instead found the joy of building systems that really do allow people to change their own lives, then I could be much more myself and challenge people to reach higher. What I learned is people live up and down to the expectations others place on them. That was incredibly liberating to me.”

She also learned to articulate her mission with more clarity to both those she solicits help from and those she wants to serve. Novogratz has become a leading proponent for fi nancing entrepreneurs and enterprises that can bring affordable clean water, housing and health care to poor people so that they no longer have to depend on traditional aid.

Today, Acumen Fund, which has offi ces in New York, Pakistan, India and Kenya, also includes the Acumen Fund Fellows Program, focused on training the next generation of business leaders with an understanding of global issues and poverty.

Novogratz rattles off a number of success stories, organizations founded with help from the Acumen Fund. WaterHealth International is bringing safe drinking water to 287 villages in India. A to Z Textile Mills, which produces 20 million long-lasting bed nets annually in Africa, provides malaria protection to almost 40 million people and employs 7,000.

“We’re seeing corporations embracing many principles of social entrepreneurship,” Novogratz says. “We’re seeing interest from the State Department and international agencies around the world. There is an increasingly widespread recognition that much of the innovation we’ll see will come from private individuals using the tools and skills of business.”

Novogratz admits that a large portion of her job is to ensure that Acumen retains its culture. She insists on being the final interview for every applicant, even if it is a 15-minute session for an administrative assistant post in India.

“Every Acumen employee carries our brand out there; they are our face,” she explains. “I only interview them for fi t; I don’t ask them about their fi nancial background. I look for what we call the Acumen Fund DNA. Are they intellectually curious? Do they have the rigor and discipline that will allow them to be as tough as we need them to be? Do they have what we call moral imagination, the ability to put themselves in someone else’s shoes? Can they laugh at themselves? Are they unafraid of failure? Are they fun?”

Today, she surrounds herself personally and professionally with people making a difference and having fun, including her husband, Chris Anderson, who curates the TED Conference, an annual event where thought leaders exchange ideas on world issues.

The ultimate goal Novogratz has for Acumen—and herself—is to help create a world in which every human being on the planet has access to basic, affordable services so they have a choice of freedom. “So I guess I don’t have any small goals,” she says, laughing. “That is what drives me—are my actions contributing to that?”

For Novogratz, it’s all part of a grand plan, even if the original playbook got tossed thousands of miles ago. “This is serious work,” she says. “I feel privileged to work with some of the most remarkable human beings on the planet, some of its most beautiful souls.”