Impact Voices | Brian Vo
Community finance can close the digital divides federal programs keep leaving open
Residents of East Carroll Parish, Louisiana did everything they could. For six years, a coalition of faith leaders and local organizers ran door-to-door surveys, mapped unserved homes, and built partnerships in an effort to bring better internet to the parish,…
community broadband financing
Signals | Erik Stein
Investors learn to design nature-based investments around natural cycles
Impact Voices | George Ashton
A Juneteenth challenge: Political freedom requires economic freedom, too
George Ashton is a partner at Candide Group, an impact investment and advisory firm focused on driving capital toward social justice.
Agents of Impact | Jessica Pothering
Impact experts ‘words of wisdom’ on landing an impact career (video)
Impact Voices | Delilah Rothenberg
Designing broad-based ownership of AI to share power along with wealth

Dealflow

Latest impact investments across asset classes and geographies

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

Impact Investing | Kusi Hornberger

Style or substance? What an AI analysis of 90 impact funds suggests about reporting
Impact Investing | Maulik Doshi and Alanna McCargo

Reimagining America’s CDFIs using a global blueprint
Clean Energy | Shaun Donovan and Krista Egger

Housing and energy costs are together fueling one affordability crisis
Community Finance | Brian Vo

Community finance can close the digital divides federal programs keep leaving open

The Brief

Read by thousands of impact pros daily

The Brief | June 23, 2026
The Brief: Investing in broadband for inclusive AI 

Greetings Agents of Impact! In today’s Brief: Featured: Power in Place Community finance can close the digital divides federal programs have left open. …

Today’s brief

Featured: Power in Place

Community finance can close the digital divides federal programs have left open. Federal broadband funding was supposed to bring high-speed internet to all Americans. Yet some 26 million Americans have no high-speed home internet access. Purpose-driven providers are cropping up across the country to close connectivity gaps. “This work needs lenders that can structure financing around the realities of each place, with flexible terms, patient capital and covenants that hold providers accountable,” writes Connect Humanity's Brian Vo in a guest post. “It screams community development finance.” The San Francisco-based nonprofit partners with community and local broadband providers. Its pilot fund has deployed $3 million to catalyze $47 million in public and private financing for five projects. In Plumas County, Calif., Connect Humanity invested in Peak to Peak Communications to bring fiber to remote mountain communities in the Sierra Nevada. In Alabama, it structured a $500,000 loan that helped Rural LISC, the Macon County Economic Development Authority and Point Broadband advance a $3.9 million fiber build. The bigger goal, says Vo, is “to catalyze an ecosystem that sustains broadband lending perpetually so communities aren’t forever exposed to the boom-and-bust cycle of public grants.”

Dealflow: Investing in Health

June Health snags early funding to improve women’s healthcare. The Toronto-based company pairs clinician-trained AI with physicians, nurse practitioners, psychotherapists and dietitians, to give women faster access to better care. “Women’s health has been underserved, underfunded and unnecessarily difficult to navigate for far too long,” said Lori Casselman, who launched June Health last year after more than 20 years in the healthcare and insurance industry. June Health partners with employers and insurers to help women navigate preventative care, hormonal and sexual healthcare, chronic conditions, and family planning. It raised C$2.4 million (US$1.7 million) in a round led by Toronto-based insurer Securian Canada. “June Health is building a thoughtful and differentiated approach to women’s healthcare that reflects both the complexity of women’s health needs and the growing demand for more connected care experiences,” said Securian’s Nigel Branker. AgeTech Capital, a Montreal-based investor in aging-focused tech startups, also participated, alongside several Canadian tech founders.

Signals: Investing in Nature

Investors learn to design nature-based investments around natural cycles. Natural systems don't always adhere to traditional investment expectations. Nature-focused investors are increasingly designing their investments to align with natural cycles. More than half of nature-related deals in the last decade were designed to generate multiple income streams, encouraging long-term commitments from investors, according to "Gaining ground: the state of private investment in nature," a new report from Forest Trends and The Nature Conservancy. North Carolina-based Aurora Sustainable Lands, for example, established a permanent capital vehicle to invest in sustainable timberland management, rather than applying the fixed-exit timelines that most timber funds use. The joint venture between Anew Climate and Oak Hill Advisors provides regular payments to investors through timber sales and carbon credit sales. Investors include Temasek-backed GenZero, Microsoft and TotalEnergies. "The movement toward multiple revenue models brings manager business models into closer alignment with how ecosystems actually work – as a bundle of diverse and mutually connected ecosystem functions," the authors write. That should create "greater incentives for more holistic management."

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Ira Goldstein will step down as Reinvestment Fund’s senior advisor of policy solutions to launch IJG Urban Advisors, an impact consulting firm… Angeles Toledo-van den Bogaard, formerly with Achmea Investment Management, joins Columbia Threadneedle Investments as responsible investments director… ResponsAbility brings on Iain Macdonald, previously with M&G Investments, as chief risk officer.

EDGE · NEW

Actionable intelligence for Agents of Impact

Built to help you raise, allocate, and co-invest with confidence.

  • Investor database: Thousands of LPs, GPs & decision-makers
  • Allocation tracker: 3000+ fund allocations, updated daily
  • Dealflow: Historic and in-market funds
  • Network access: Warm intros via Agents of Impact
Explore Edge

Previous Briefs

Subscribe to ImpactAlpha

Find the alpha in impact.

  • What comes with a subscription?
    • The Brief: Award-winning daily newsletter
    • Full Access: Unlimited, ad-free articles on ImpactAlpha.com
    • Community: Exclusive Slack channels, calls and events
    • Career Hub: Job board and career-building resources
    • Data and tools: Open funds database, climate deal mapping, and more.
Start Here

Shaping the Algorithm

The deals, people and strategies optimizing AI for the public interest. In partnership with Siegel Family Endowment.

LP / GP

Inside the big business of impact investing.

Impact Voices

Provocative opinions and insightful analysis from the community

Career Hub

Build your impact career on ImpactAlpha

Careers | Aunnie Patton Power and Ashley Lewis
10 tips to speed your transition to an impact finance career

There is no denying that impact finance is one of the most sought after spaces in finance right now, but what does it …

An image of a red flag and a green flag illustrate an op-ed on how to spot authentic impact jobs.
Careers | Avary Kent and Priya Fremerman
Avoiding toxic workplaces: A guide for impact job seekers

Job Board

    • Full Time

    Grants & Operations Manager

    • Nathan Cummings Foundation
    • New York, NY (Remote)
    • View Role
    • Full Time

    Blackstone Energy Transition Partners – Senior Associate

    • Full Time

    Manager, Environmental and Social Risk

Search the Job Board

More Stories