From original article:

"Here's another mature truth: When it comes to treating the world's social or environmental ills, charitable funds and government coffers are not enough to get the job done. Stomach-churning financial crises don't help, either. State funds and benevolence can foster real change. But to deliver change on a larger scale, and to make sure the recipients of charitable giving don't become dependent on philanthropy, investors need to flex even greater financial muscle.

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"At the same time, "impact investing" - finance that teams social or environmental goals with monetary ones - is beginning to gain real momentum, helping Berkeley into affordable housing in D.C. and distributing clean energy across Nicaragua, to name just two projects funded this way.

"Investors' motives range as widely as the projects they fund. To major philanthropic organizations like The Rockefeller Foundation, impact investing offers a chance for already hardworking cash to stretch that much further. Wealthy individuals might be lured by the entrepreneurship typical of the sustainable businesses looking for a financial helping hand. For big pension funds like New York's Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), supporting emerging market projects in sectors outside the mainstream, as many funds targeted by impact investors are, diversifies risk."

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