Jessica Jackley on How to Embrace Tension as a Leader & Build an Unforgettable Organization

“You should ask yourself first, what truly, like in your bones, do you actually value and what do you really wanna get done in the world?” –Jessica Jackley

Jessica Jackley’s answer to this question has always been the same: To help people. But she never guessed she’d do it as an entrepreneur.

Jessica once believed that business was nothing but greed and manipulation. But then something funny happened: Entrepreneurs kept proving that capital could be used for good. So she listened—to talks from Dr. Muhammad Yunus, to the early pioneers at the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, and to her friends in East Africa with brilliant plans to better their communities with just a hundred dollars.

That listening led Jessica to start Kiva, now one of the world’s largest crowdfunding platforms for social good. Today, she’s leading the world in social entrepreneurism: proving that when we listen, connect, and design solutions around real human stories, the paths to helping people are infinite.

In our conversation, Jessica shares her unexpected path to social entrepreneurism, how Kiva scaled, and her approach to designing an impact-driven career without sacrificing time with family.

Find links to resources mentioned and key takeaways in the show notes for this episode: https://www.futurenonprofit.com/jessica-jackley