
Sasha Dichter
You could read my bio, but wouldn’t you be more interested in reading my manifesto? It’s the best summary of what this blog is really about.
OK, now that that’s done, here’s a bio:
Sasha Dichter is, among other things, the Director of Business Development at Acumen Fund, a global non-profit venture fund that invests in enterprises that fight poverty in the developing world.
Sasha began his career at Booz | Allen | Hamilton as a consultant in the Communications, Media and Telecom practice, spending most of his time in South America and Europe working on privatizations, acquisitions, market entry, and product development strategies for wireless companies — all this despite renting a lovely studio on the Upper West Side in NY. He received a dual degree from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School and spent his graduate school summers in Indonesia at the microfinance bank Bank Rakyat Indonesia and at a venture-backed startup called Navic Networks (which, amazingly, was recently acquired by Microsoft). After graduate school Sasha worked at IBM and GE Money in Corporate Citizenship. Sasha joined Acumen Fund in January of 2007.
Sasha has recently been featured/quoted in:
- 2010 Jury, Buckminster Fuller Challenge
- The Financial Times: Investors Boost the “Missing Middle”
- Families in Business: Philanthropy and Microfinance, July/Aug 2008
- Investors’ Dealers Digest: The Forgotten Squeeze
- Jetwork Magazine
Recent Speaking Engagements:
- 2009 Jewish Funders Network (video)
- 2009 Harvard Social Enterprise Conference
- 2008 SoCap Conference, Venture Philanthropy and International Government Investment panel

10 Comments
September 8, 2008 at 2:41 am
Sasha,
This is great. Thank you for sharing it and for this great and inspiring work. My best regards to your family. Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Ari
November 16, 2008 at 10:48 pm
[...] Defense of Raising Money: A Manifesto for NonProfit CEOs written by a man by the name of Sasha Dichter. Now you may think that sounds like a very boring topic, but if you care about any cause – be it [...]
November 17, 2008 at 11:32 pm
[...] hablar con quienes sí podrían decidir si aportan capital a vuestra idea, creo que el texto de Sasha Dichter, CEO de Acumen, puede inspiraros y daros ánimos. Una propuesta firme, sólida, solidaria y de [...]
December 11, 2008 at 3:55 pm
[...] Sascha Dichter is the Director of Business Development at Acumen Fund, a global non-profit venture capital fund that invests in enterprises that fight poverty in the developing world. He writes in his blog about how optimism and pessimism play a part in today’s financial markets. He tells an old joke to illustrate the subjectivity of a down-turn: Two guys hear a bear outside their tent in the woods. The first guy starts lacing up his Nikes, and the second guy says, ‘What are you doing? There’s no way you can outrun a bear.’ The first guy says, ‘I don’t have to run faster than the bear; I just have to run faster than you.’ [...]
December 29, 2008 at 10:25 pm
[...] About Sasha Should nonprofit leaders be like boiled broccoli? [...]
April 8, 2009 at 2:26 pm
[...] Who are the leaders in your life? I love this quote – Look around you at great leaders who you know or respect. What do they spend their time doing? They are infused with drive, passion, vision, commitment, and energy. They walk through the world dissatisfied with the status quo. They talk to anyone who will listen about the change they want to see the world. And they build a team and an organization that is empowered to make that change. – Sasha Dichter [...]
April 28, 2009 at 5:02 am
[...] About Sasha The perfect job [...]
September 2, 2009 at 11:47 am
Sasha,
small suggestion — unless you have a reason not to, could I suggest that you have links in your blog entries open in a new tab — I clicked on a link and followed that trail to learn more about Acumen and then had a tough time getting back to your blog….many people just give up.
WordPress makes it easy — when you add the link, click on ‘target’ and then click on ‘open in a new window’ — that way you won’t lose people who want to read more about a linked topic, but then want to come back to your blog….
Rita
(I tried to send this to you in your email form and it failed…seems to be something wrong with that funcion.)
September 2, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Rita, this is a great idea. Absolutely I’ll do this – I didn’t know it was an option. Also I’ll check out the email form…thanks for the heads up!
October 14, 2009 at 11:09 am
[...] 12:09 pm Filed under: coaching | Tags: assumptions, attitudes, sasha dichter The always insightful Sasha Dichter gives a quick, accurate, and illuminating description of what good coaches do. We take the space [...]