The mighty $12bn Ford Foundation announced last week that it has recruited Roy Swan, a senior Morgan Stanley banker, to run a portion of its investments. No surprise there, you might think: philanthropy is now such a multibillion-dollar “business” in the US, that foundations need plenty of financial savvy.

But this recruitment has a twist: Mr Swan is not only being tasked with producing market returns, but “social” returns, too. More specifically, the Ford Foundation recently earmarked $1bn for “mission” or “impact” investing, or investments that are supposed to promote social change and old-fashioned profits.

That is because the Ford trustees no longer think that charity is “just” about handing out cash for worthy causes; it is also about aggressively trying to harness capitalism and capital markets to promote change. Or as Darren Walker, the foundation head, recently told a Financial Times conference: “It’s not just 5 per cent of your money you give away that matters. What you do with the other 95 per cent is almost more important.”