TIME.com: Givers Who Mean Business -- Mar. 07, 2005

TIME.com: Givers Who Mean Business -- Mar. 07, 2005: "Givers Who Mean Business
THE HEART OF WALL STREET
By BARBARA KIVIAT
Monday, Mar. 07, 2005

The ninth-floor offices of the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs in developing countries build businesses, overlook Trinity Church in New York City's Financial District. Consider it a case of Wall Street crossing Hope Road. 'It's a good metaphor,' says Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen's founder. Some call it venture philanthropy, but Novogratz prefers the phrase 'private equity for the poor.' What that means is that a small company in India gets a $185,000 loan to make and sell affordable water filters. And that a Pakistani firm receives more than $260,000 in grants and loans to develop housing for urban squatters. All told, since its start in 2001, Acumen has raised more than $24 million from private donors and corporations and has invested in 16 projects in India, Pakistan, Kenya, Egypt and Tanzania. "