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

Today, even the oldest-school, stodgiest investment firm will boast about its impact investing arm. But when Jacqueline Novogratz started Acumen in 2001, the term “impact investing” had barely been used.

At the time, the idea that investors could make serious money by putting capital into companies pursuing serious social missions was not favorably received in traditional financial circles.

“When we started, I can’t tell you how many people would tell me that I clearly didn’t understand how business operated,” Novogratz, 60, said in a Worth interview.

Photo courtesy of Edward Howell.