Featured: World Cup 2026

A ‘sportswashing’ bonanza, brought to you by Saudi Aramco. Football (soccer to us Yanks) is “the beautiful game.” The sport’s best players combine physical grace, mental agility, and joy on the field, just like the Brazilian legend Pele, who helped popularize the term. But the beauty can’t mask the ugliness of the climate politics behind the 2026 World Cup. It’s not just that when Mexico and South Africa meet in Mexico City for the first match this week, they will kick off the most polluting football tournament in history. What has millions of fans, including contributing editor Dmitriy Ioselevich, even more up in arms is FIFA’s four-year, $400 million lead sponsorship deal, announced in 2024, with Saudi Aramco, the Saudi national oil company, one of the world’s biggest and most profitable oil companies. “FIFA could use football’s incredible reach to help promote the solutions that keep us safe, from solar panels to train travel to a more plant-based diet,” Fossil Free Football’s Frank Huisingh told ImpactAlpha. “Instead it has chosen to promote the world’s biggest polluter and support its efforts to keep the world hooked on oil. It’s time for FIFA to drop Aramco.”

Sponsored by Broadstreet

Dealflow: Social Entrepreneurship

Anara Impact Capital to run €45 million fund for social entrepreneurs and refugees in the Middle East and North Africa. Anara Impact Capital, spun out from UK-based Alfanar Venture Philanthropy last year, will act as fund manager for the Social Entrepreneurship Fund, an $80 million vehicle to support social enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa region. KfW Development Bank, on behalf of the European Commission, and BMZ, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, provided anchor funding totalling €45 million ($52 million), with participation from Dara Holdings, the family office of Saudi billionaire Lubna Olayan, the $98 million Jordan-based Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund, and other private investors. The fund will also include a €35 million debt tranche to be launched later in the year and technical assistance facility. “There is a depth of entrepreneurial talent across the region that is often underestimated," said Olayan. “This talent can generate not only strong and sustainable returns, but also meaningful and lasting impact.” The fund wants to impact over 136,000 people and unlock over €67 million in additional capital.

Impact Voices: Affordable Housing

Housing and energy costs are together fueling one affordability crisis. The word on every politician’s lips (with the exception, perhaps, of one living in the White House) is affordability. Just last month, an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the US House of Representatives passed a housing affordability bill that aims to unlock more loans for construction, loosen local permitting requirements and limit Wall Street’s ability to purchase single family homes. “We need to build more and build smarter,” Enterprise Community Partners’ Shaun Donovan and Krista Egger write in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “As we seek to maintain aging housing stock and add new supply, energy efficiency and sustainability must be built in.” American families spend more than half their income on housing and transportation, more than one in six households are behind on utility bills, and AI data centers are projected to drive energy demand, and prices, significantly higher in the coming years. “Homes designed for efficiency and resilience can help stabilize utility costs and protect households from the growing volatility of both energy and insurance markets,” they explain.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Parity Homes welcomes Cayden Hercules as a real estate development associate… Jordin Metz, previously with the US Department of Energy, joins Ceres as senior manager of investor network and policy engagement… The Rainforest Alliance is hiring a senior director for growth and impact… FMO is looking for an agribusiness, food and forestry associate to join its Africa team… Revalue is recruiting a chief of staff and a carbon finance lead… Eurazeo is on the hunt for a senior data analyst in sustainability and impact.