Login Subscribe

Cathy Clark, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business

September 24, 2021

The Brief - Daily Insights into Impact Investing

Read more Read the Brief
Sponsored by Morgan Stanley

Innovations selected for Sustainable Solutions Collaborative. Learn how Morgan Stanley is helping to advance breakthrough innovations for global sustainability. Meet the cohort.

The Week’s Agent of Impact

Cathy Clark, Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Before she began teaching 20 years ago, Clark helped her father run a summer program in Philadelphia that gave low-income, mostly immigrant high school students a taste of college. Her father had been a union negotiator and civil rights activist before becoming a community college English teacher. “Only a decade later did I realize he was, in fact, a social entrepreneur,” Clark says. “My social consciousness comes from him.” Her father paid it forward in Clark, who as faculty director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Fuqua, estimates she has influenced the careers of more than 100,000 learners. Clark and CASE’s Impact Investing Initiative, or i3, have been key field builders, pushing out hundreds of partnerships, fellows, case studies and reports. When COVID hit last year, Clark stepped up quickly with Covid Cap, a database to help entrepreneurs, nonprofits and businesses find grants, loans and cash help to weather the pandemic. Most recently, Clark, with the U.N. Development Programme, created a free online training to help enterprises and investors measure and manage their progress toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Clark will preview the course in a special workshop on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact Call No. 31 on Tuesday, Sept. 28 (RSVP).

The Week’s Big 6

1. Commitments, tools and deals from Climate Week NYC. The annual event coinciding with the UN General Assembly was meant to spur action from world leaders ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow in November. Highlights from ImpactAlpha’s coverage from New York:

The Week’s Dealflow

Spotlight: Workforce tech. The pandemic has “given a boost to the digitization of recruitment and training processes,” says Madhav Krishna of India-based Vahan, which raised capital this week. India is a hotbed of workforce tech innovation, with as many as 450 million gig- and blue-collar workers and labor shortages in key fields. Apna and BetterPlace, which connect workers to available work opportunities, also scored significant funding. In Egypt, digital bank Dopay raised $18 million to recruit businesses to its platform – and sign up their workers for personal accounts and debit cards.

The Week’s Talent

ImpactAssets has promoted Sandra Osborne Kartt to managing director of investments, Nick Peters to director of investments, and Deb Parsons to managing director of business development… Hannah Schiff, ex- of Nuveen, joins Developing World Markets as director of impact… Josh Adeoye, ex- of University Teaching Hospital in Kano, Nigeria, joins Adjuvant Capital as an associate.

The Week’s Jobs

Cisco is hiring a (remote) climate impact portfolio manager... Rally Assets seeks an impact data analyst in Toronto… Local Enterprise Assistance Fund is recruiting a loan officer and a loan associate in Boston… Social Finance is looking for a director of advisory… Project Drawdown is looking for a (remote) climate finance senior research fellow… Blue Earth Capital seeks a head of funds and co-investments in London… The Bezos Earth Fund is hiring for a number of positions. 

Editor's Picks
Podcasts | September 24, 2021

Impact Briefing: Week of September 24

ImpactAlpha, Sept. 24 – On this week’s podcast, host Monique Aiken is joined by FullCycle’s Stephan Nicoleau to talk about Climate Week, climate action …

Top Stories

The sky-high value of cutting methane emissions is attracting policymakers – and investors
Climate and Clean Tech | September 23, 2021

Uganda’s gnuGrid pivots from solar data to financial data
Africa | September 23, 2021

Africa’s eco start-ups seek to turn the tide on plastic pollution
Africa | September 23, 2021

Big-name investors donate their stakes as Change.org converts to nonprofit ownership
Dealflow | September 23, 2021

Microsoft and Truist Financial anchor federal fund for community banks with $120 million
Community Finance | September 23, 2021

Investment opportunities in expanding access and ownership in the creator economy
Creative Economy | September 22, 2021

Blockchain music streaming service Audius raised $5 million from Nas, Katy Perry and other creators
Blockchain/AI/IoT | September 22, 2021

Dopay raises $18 million to bank Egypt’s businesses and their workers
Africa | September 22, 2021

China pledges to end (foreign) coal financing
Climate and Clean Tech | September 22, 2021

Bezos Earth Fund commits $1 billion in grants to nature conservation
Conservation | September 21, 2021

Citi Impact Fund adds seven new investments
Clean Energy | September 21, 2021

On climate action, private investors urge governments to jump in (the water is warming)
Catalytic Capital | September 21, 2021

Capitalism Reimagined
Call Recording | September 1, 2021

RSVP for Call No. 30: Capitalism Reimagined

 If you thought this spring’s ExxonMobil proxy fight was dramatic, just wait ’til next year. Join Engine No. 1’s Michael O’Leary, The Shareholder Commons’ Sara Murphy, Illinois …
Capitalism Reimagined | July 26, 2021

The case for a ‘Volcker Shock’ for climate

Contemporary efforts to grapple with the climate crisis almost all come with mid-twentieth century branding: a ‘Green New Deal,’ a ‘climate moonshot,’ a …

See More

The Reconstruction
Agents of Impact | September 3, 2021

Jessica Brooks, Sunwealth

ImpactAlpha, Sept. 3 – On neighborhood strolls, Jessica Brooks sees schools, churches, apartment buildings – and unused rooftops. Such “infill” spaces represent a …

See More

Catalytic Capital

See More

Explore ImpactAlpha

Join 70,000 professionals and influencers with exclusive ad-free access to series, special reports, deals, articles, podcasts, and more...

Subscribe Now