Community Action

In 2001, when Jacqueline Novogratz founded Acumen, a global community of socially and environmentally responsible partners dedicated to changing the way the world tackles poverty, few had heard of impact investing - Acumen’s practice of “doing well by doing good”. Nineteen years later, there’s been a seismic shift in how corporate boards and other stakeholders evaluate businesses: Impact investment is not only morally defensible, but now also economically advantageous, even necessary.

Talia Leman's heroic efforts on behalf of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina ranked in the top five of the relief fundraisers, including major international organizations. After completing that incredible project, she continued with something even bigger: orchestrating and leveraging the philanthropic efforts of millions of children from twenty countries to bring aid to four continents, so far. And she did all of this before turning 16.