Acumen & Martin Schoeller

To celebrate Acumen’s 15 years of impact, I saw an opportunity to make the venture fund’s milestone a bigger moment by bringing visibility to its unique approach to tackling poverty.

Jacqueline Novogratz, one of Forbes’ 100 Greatest Living Business Minds, founded Acumen to change the way the world tackles poverty. The fund invests philanthropic capital in entrepreneurs tackling issues like clean water and health care to help scale their game-changing solutions. Acumen believes when markets work for everyone, the poor have the power to transform their lives.

As Head of Content and Communications, I wanted to make that idea central to the campaign. We would challenge the public’s perceptions of the poor. Low-income people are often reduced to invisibility, seen as disregarded, at times forgotten members of society. How the poor are perceived is critical to ending poverty. I wanted the public to see them as people with tremendous potential and recognize our shared humanity.

I knew there was only one man for the job: Martin Schoeller. Martin is a preeminent photographer renowned for his iconic, close-up portraits of the world’s most famous faces: President Obama, Bono, Jane Goodall, the list goes on. By applying Martin’s stark, powerful style of photography to people living under $5 a day, our campaign would force the public to see the poor in a different light and acknowledge the humanity in all of us.

Knowing our budget was small, I leveraged my network to secure a meeting with Martin. Because of my deep knowledge of his work and knowing his passion for social justice, I convinced him to come on board. From there, I mapped out a plan with my colleagues across Acumen’s global offices and produced a two-week shoot with Martin that spanned eight locations across Kenya and India.

While Martin captured the customers of Acumen’s investments on camera, I interviewed them to bring voice, as well as visibility, to the poor. It was important the narratives be told in their words, so the public would understand their realities, hopes and dreams, and how the solutions Acumen funded changed their lives. We set out to capture 15 portraits and first-person stories and came home with 75. The work was that inspiring!

With such incredible material, I know we had to build this campaign out properly to do our subjects justice. And so I got to work…

I once again leveraged my network to bring on creative agency The Working Assembly pro bono to help us build out the campaign concept while I took lead on copywriting.
I developed a dynamic campaign site with our digital director to create a home for all of the portraits and stories to direct traffic.
I secured funding to purchase a two-week run of a Times Square billboard timed with our launch and conceptualized the digital ad with The Working Assembly.
I enlisted the help of PVBLIC Foundation to secure digital ads and outdoor ad space across New York in places like bus stops, newsstands and unused storefronts to expand the campaign’s footprint.
I created a digital marketing plan with my digital director that leveraged influencers like Christy Turlington, Paul Polman, Monica Lewinsky and TED’s Chris Anderson and other partner organizations tackling poverty.
I devised a press strategy and managed all media relations, landing coverage with CNN, The Guardian, Fast Company, TIME, National Geographic and Vanity Fair.
I produced an auction of Martin’s portraits with founder Jacqueline Novogratz and CCO at New York’s Milk Studios with a host committee that included AirBnB’s Joe Gebbia, Marina Abramovic, TED’s Chris Anderson, GE’s Beth Comstock, and Pioneer Works’ Dustin Yellin.