NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

A generational shift happening, and it means only good things for those of us who are working to solve global problems. More individuals, many of them millennials, bring a strong sense of purpose to how they make their money, how they spend it, and how they invest it.

Increasingly, they want options to make both money and a difference. They are pursuing more of a “conscious coupling” (to borrow a phrase from pop culture) between turning a profit and making progress against pressing problems.

In the next 40 years, generation X and the millennials could inherit up to $41 trillion from baby boomers. But many are not waiting until they are older – and their wealth has been made or inherited– to start impact investing.