After decades of global antipoverty efforts in which nonprofit organizations operated on a separate track from the business sector, disappointment with the results is leading a diverse group of institutions to test a new approach. In recent years, groups as diverse as the United Nations (UN), the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), nongovernmental organizations, national governments, and corporate giants such as Microsoft and Visa have backed the idea that philanthropy and profitability are not opposing forces. The central premise is that increasing the well-being of the poor while increasing the profits of the private sector can simultaneously be a sound development and business strategy.