Impact Voices
Editorials and guest essays from impact professionals
Matt Onek at MIE 2022 National Conference | Photo Credit: Mission Investors Exchange
Catalytic Capital | May 3, 2024
Inspiring impact at Mission Investors Exchange 2024 national conference
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Photo Copyright 2023 Caroline Yang. Used with permission from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Inclusive Economy | May 1, 2024
Changing how capital flows through communities to improve health
This series of guest posts is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Yuvo Health team photo | Photo provided by Cal Wellness
Impact Voices | May 1, 2024
Investment manager diversity matters when investing for health equity
Editor’s note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Latin America | April 30, 2024
Latin American family offices add investing tools to philanthropic toolkit
Latin America is witnessing a transformative trend in family office philanthropy: the shift towards impact investing. Traditionally, philanthropy in the region has been …
ImpactAlpha Latin America | April 30, 2024
How Fundación Bancolombia invests in Colombia’s small businesses for rural economic development
Rural economic development is a complex issue, including in Colombia. Rural regions are often culturally diverse areas, but have limited access to quality …
Adrienne Bennett, president and CEO of Benkari LLC, Detroit's Entrepreneurs of Color Fund participant. | Photo credit: Kellogg Foundation
Impact Voices | April 25, 2024
Lessons from the Kellogg Foundation’s $310 million in mission-driven investments
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Inclusive Economy | April 25, 2024
Addressing the broken child care system with impact investments
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Builders Vision's Lukas Walton, Joanna Cohen and Miranda Lindl O’Connell | Photo credit: Builders Vision
Climate Finance | April 24, 2024
The climate transition and investment opportunities for family offices
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Blockchain/AI/IoT | April 23, 2024
How impact investments in Anthropic can strengthen responsible innovation in tech
In the realm of AI discourse, much attention is directed towards fostering responsible development of the technology itself (e.g. Is it free from …
Impact Voices | April 21, 2024
Unpacking the experiments, barriers, and pivots: exploring community banking with Kataly Foundation
Developing an investment strategy that meets our fiduciary requirements as resource stewards, embodies our racial justice values, and prioritizes the communities we serve …
Macro Impact | April 17, 2024
Good economy actually is good news as impact investors adjust to new realities
(Editor’s note: In this conclusion to ImpactAlpha’s four-part Macro Impact series, contributing editor Rob Brown parses the economic signals for public and private …
Photo credit: reach52
Sponsored | April 17, 2024
Innovative startups are changing the landscape of health impact everywhere. Are investors aware?
Editor’s note: This guest post is sponsored by Impact Ventures by J&J Foundation, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with …
Students at Delaware State University: Photo credit: Delaware State University
Return on Inclusion | April 16, 2024
The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Impact Voices | April 16, 2024
How innovative financing structures can help close California’s housing gap
The way housing is financed and constructed in the United States has experienced little change in decades, leading to skyrocketing costs, barriers to …
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
Elevating impact reporting to raise the performance of impact fund managers
“One million lives touched.” “800 jobs created.” “50,000 acres of land restored.” Capital allocators often see these types of punchy headlines in the …
AceliAfrica's impact performance report explores ties between impact performance and financial risk and return
Impact Management | April 15, 2024
Six impact performance reports that go beyond the basics to give investors needed insights
Impact Frontier’s Impact Reporting Norms target a leverage point in the impact investing system: impact reporting. They promise to provide greater clarity and …
Credit: Mati Carbon
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
How Mati Carbon is using the carbon markets to address farmers’ adaptation finance gap and boost their incomes
Ashish Kumar is a long-time climate investor and a market / ecosystem builder. He is a strategic advisor to Mati Carbon. This month, …
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Catalytic Capital | April 9, 2024
The impact investing opportunity in Puerto Rico’s economic comeback
In one of Puerto Rico’s poorest neighborhoods, you can find what economists might call a “green shoot.” The plan for Oasis, a six-acre, …
Emerging and Growth Markets | April 9, 2024
How and why British International Investments directs capital to small businesses
Development finance institutions like to style themselves as the original impact investors. It was Lord Reith, the first chairman of the UK’s development …
Muni Impact | April 5, 2024
Billions to trillions: How municipal bonds can multiply the reach of the US ‘green bank’
To achieve stated climate goals, the U.S. government is embarking on what should be the largest coordination of private and public capital aimed …
SDGs | April 3, 2024
Blending Billions: Lessons from more than three dozen big blended finance transactions
In a world in which the UN SDG financing gap continues to grow, we face a double hurdle: blended finance is still struggling …
Sponsored | April 3, 2024
Seven red flags institutional investors should avoid when evaluating impact fund managers
As more investment firms launch impact funds, it has become increasingly difficult for institutional allocators to identify the most qualified fund managers to …
ESG | April 1, 2024
Why I love ESG regulation… and tell VC funds to forget about it as quickly as possible
Measure what matters. Disclosures are key. Transparency leads to accountability. Which investor, and in fact regulator, wouldn’t agree with these common-sense business mantras …
Impact Voices | March 27, 2024
Investing in life vs. tech: Lifting up nature-based solutions for ecosystems and communities
“We need to invest in life, rather than expensive infrastructure investments,” Anne van Leeuwen, a founding farmer from the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture, pleaded …
Impact Voices | March 26, 2024
Why Beta Impacto combined venture capital and an NGO to scale impact in Latin America
Over the past 15 years, my personal journey has been dedicated to making the world a better place, navigating through various stages of …
Catalytic Capital | March 25, 2024
Smarter targeting of capital gaps can make catalytic capital more effective
(Editor’s note: The insights in this article reflect the work of a diverse array of Catalytic Capital Consortium partners. The outputs of this …
Cohort from Village Capital's 2022 Innovations in Health Equity accelerator program
Sponsored | March 25, 2024
Elevating Outcomes Beyond Clinics: Investing in diverse-led startups to advance health equity in the US
Editor’s note: This guest post is sponsored by Impact Ventures by J&J Foundation, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with Impact Ventures, ImpactAlpha is exploring the …
Impact Voices | March 20, 2024
Three ways impact investors can help CDFIs provide stability in a high-cost environment
Even as inflationary pressures begin to subside, affordable housing and community-based organizations continue to operate on thin margins. That means they’re less able …
Impact Voices | March 14, 2024
How loan guarantees and catalytic capital can amplify federal ‘green bank’ funds
Much like the broader financial system, green lending in the US has primarily focused on higher-income, White borrowers with higher credit scores. The …
Impact Voices | March 13, 2024
US Export-Import Bank bucks the green finance agenda – to its own detriment
Should the US government really be allocating public funds to support oil drilling in the Middle East? This question comes sharply into focus …
Impact Management | March 12, 2024
A case study in private equity’s role in realizing impact
Essential insights: The core of the debate Recent discussions have raised critical questions about the role of private equity in fostering resilient, inclusive …
Muni Impact | March 11, 2024
To scale the IRA’s “green bank,” community lenders should engage muni finance markets
When the University of Virginia issued the first Build America Bond ($250 million) in April of 2009, it was just about three months …
Muni Impact | March 11, 2024
Scoring municipal bonds on racial equity and social impact
Municipal (muni) bond financing is as influential for communities as it might be invisible to many. It is the driving source of funding …
Impact Investing | March 8, 2024
Rachel Robasciotti, Adasina Social Capital: Climate justice is social justice
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Impact Voices | March 8, 2024
Sonya Dreizler, CHOIR: Build a bigger table
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Impact Voices | March 8, 2024
Lakota Vogel, Four Bands Community Fund: Rewriting the rules
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
exclude from paywall | March 8, 2024
Beth Bafford, Calvert Impact Capital: Everyone deserves a chance to fly
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Inclusive Economy | March 8, 2024
Tanay Tatum-Edwards, FreeCap Financial: We Can’t Change What We Don’t Measure
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Impact Tech | March 7, 2024
VilCap and IBM propel new technologies as a catalyst for life-improving services
The explosion of new technology and AI solutions promising improved efficiency, creativity, and sustainability coincides with record inflation, pessimism around economic resilience, and …
Impact Voices | March 5, 2024
Wrestling with the greedy, predatory, wealth-hoarding history of the financial system
The financial history of extraction, enslavement, and predatory greed have been heavy on our minds when designing the new investment strategy for the …
Impact Voices | February 29, 2024
How three investors are measuring their impact on climate resilience
2023 closed with a flurry of new climate finance commitments announced at COP28. These commitments–notably including $30 billion from the UAE and $12.8 …
Impact Investing | February 27, 2024
Impact value-creation playbooks provide X’s and O’s for generating alpha
Limited partners are becoming more adept at asking their impact-oriented managers a key question: Does it matter to financial performance if an impact-aligned …
Impact Voices | February 26, 2024
How Estímulo is blending finance for Brazil’s small businesses
Estímulo’s story stands as a compelling testament to the transformative power of blended finance in addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing …
Impact Voices | February 26, 2024
Designing catalytic loan products for impact companies in Latin America
When we set off to invest our first fund in 2019, we developed an investment strategy which we believed filled a gap in …
Impact Voices | February 26, 2024
Five reasons Latin America and the Caribbean are attracting impact investors
Investing in Latin America and the Caribbean’s impact ecosystem represents an opportunity to generate financial returns and make a meaningful difference by addressing …