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TGIF, Agents of Impact! In today’s Brief: 🗣 Fresh look. From Fashion Week in New York to Indigenous villages in Mexico, the ImpactAlpha …
📞 Agents of Impact Call 64: Blending billions. The SDG Loan Fund, which raised $1 billion from German insurance giant Allianz and other institutional investors, could serve as a model for efforts to put private capital to work for inclusive economic growth, reduced income inequality and other Sustainable Development Goals. Blended finance transactions, which leverage guarantees, first-loss reserves and other forms of catalytic capital to crowd in commercial capital, hit a five-year high of $15 billion last year. Billion-dollar-plus deals remain rare. Join MacArthur Foundation’s Debra Schwartz, Nnamdi Igbokwe of Convergence, and other Agents of Impact for practical lessons in blending billions for renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, small business lending, health and education in emerging markets.
🎧 This Week in Impact: A near climate-free debate. Host Brian Walsh takes up some of the week’s top stories with ImpactAlpha’s editorial director Amy Cortese. Up this week: The scant attention to climate change and the Inflation Reduction Act in the US presidential debate, the sustainable side of fashion week in New York, and a look at the rising number of student-led impact funds.
Edgar Villanueva, Decolonizing Wealth Project: Championing Indigenous fashion and finance. Edgar Villanueva is a model – literally – for the principles of reparative finance. On a Soho rooftop at New York Fashion Week, the activist and author of "Decolonizing Wealth" sported a suit made of vegan cactus leather from Mexican retailer Sarelly Sarelly, along with a beaded pendant by Navajo designer Sean Snyder. The fourth annual Celebrating Indigeneity event, hosted by Villanueva and his nonprofit, the Decolonizing Wealth Project, celebrated Indigenous fashion designers including Jantay Kahm, Bethany Yellowtail and Naiomi Glasses, and championed climate sustainability (see, “Ethical and inclusive are in style at New York Fashion Week”). “I see this as a narrative change opportunity,” Villanueva told ImpactAlpha, “but also a wealth building opportunity for Natives in this industry.”
Yes, the fundraising environment is improving, even if it doesn’t feel like it. The ice is starting to thaw for private market fundraising after a frigid couple of years. “While not in the numbers yet, we believe that the decline in 12-month fundraising figures began to turn in Q2 2023,” Hilary Wiek reports in PitchBook’s latest "Global Private Market Fundraising" roundup. Fundraising for real assets stood out, reaching nearly $142 billion in the last four quarters, nearly quadruple the previous period. About 95% of the capital committed to real asset funds so far this year has gone to infrastructure funds. Even underinvested sectors like water are seeing interest: WaterEquity this week snagged $100 million for its Water and Climate Resilience Fund for investments in water delivery, treatment and reuse projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
💼 See and share more than a dozen new impact jobs posted this week on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub and view hundreds of more jobs in impact investing and sustainable finance. Have a job listing to post? Submit it here.
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Provocative opinions and insightful analysis from the community
The consideration of environmental, social and governance factors, or ESG, has stumbled in public-markets investing. Now, venture capital funds and startups are reclaiming …
Among the biggest barriers to plugging Africa’s $100 billion annual infrastructure finance gap are private investors’ risk perceptions, lack of awareness of investable …
Over the last two years, we’ve seen a growing number of largely white male politicians, business leaders, and even journalists calling for the …
The culture of SJF Ventures empowers members of our team to identify new compelling investment themes and work on problems that matter to …
Over the past week, there has been a lot of discussion of policies designed to address price gouging. Some say these are a …
India faces a dual challenge of meeting surging energy demands while combating a climate crisis it’s already feeling acutely. Record-breaking heat waves during …
Annual record-setting in the climate crisis is becoming the new normal. This year is on pace to be the hottest ever recorded. Last …
Disclaimer: Adasina’s team includes experts in capital markets who are also social justice leaders. The opinions shared here reflect that perspective. Nothing in …
Now is a great time for investors to join the growing employee ownership movement, owing to a “silver tsunami” of Baby Boomers retiring, which …
Following the sustainable and renewable energy transition to every community.
For something that underpins virtually every aspect of our lives, water has for too long been “out of sight, out of mind” when …
Droughts, floods and toxic runoff are overwhelming the country’s aging water infrastructure. The $50 billion in funding earmarked for water in the 2022 …
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is a first-of-a-kind effort to stand up a distributed green finance ecosystem that can reach deep into the …
As the EPA releases $27 billion in grants to jumpstart America’s green transition, it’s creating hurdles and challenges for lender and project developers.
When the $27 billion in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund starts rolling out any day now, it will kick off an inclusive green …
How to future-proof federal climate policy? Go local. With an upended election season, the Biden administration’s signature climate policies could come under threat, …
Hurricane Beryl’s recent landfall is a harbinger for the more intense, rapidly escalating storms predicted this season, as warmer ocean temperatures are expected …
The Environmental Protection Agency and dozens of key allies are scrambling to stand up a $27 billion plan to create a major new …
Editor’s Note: Community Finance Brief is a newsletter from Matt Posner of Court Street Group, occasionally syndicated on ImpactAlpha. In the fight against …
Strategies for navigating the ownership economy, wealth-creation and shared prosperity.
Wages won’t bridge yawning racial wealth gaps or reverse income inequality. Ownership might. “The way people can really have a stable economic base …
On her way to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Vice President Kamala Harris stopped in Moon Township, Pa. to talk, among other …
Now is a great time for investors to join the growing employee ownership movement, owing to a “silver tsunami” of Baby Boomers retiring, which …
Editor’s note: In Part 3 of this three-part series on neighborhood revitalization strategies in West Baltimore, ImpactAlpha’s Roodgally Senatus takes us on a …
Editor’s note: In this three-part series on neighborhood revitalization strategies, ImpactAlpha’s Roodgally Senatus takes us on a visual tour of three strategies that …
Editor’s note: In this three-part series on neighborhood revitalization strategies, ImpactAlpha’s Roodgally Senatus takes us on a visual tour of three strategies that …
Worker ownership is becoming more common, as worker-owned cooperatives — and investment funds looking to support them — multiply. Less so: worker-owned holding …
An impact buyout fund is helping aspiring business owners in US cities acquire profitable, cash-flowing small businesses as a pathway to asset ownership. …
A few Colorado home buyers are testing a new approach to making down payments in a state where the average price of a …
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