ImpactAlpha Open | November 12, 2024

ImpactAlpha Open: Taking stock of the new political landscape + sustainable luxury fashion

Dennis Price
ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

Hi there, Agent of Impact! Welcome to ImpactAlpha Open, your free weekly edge in impact investing. Go daily, and join thousands of market leaders, with an all-access subscription – take 25% off.

🗣️ Agents of Impact Call No. 65: New realities, new narratives. As Steve Jobs might have said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” So, rather than a post-mortem, let’s come together for the pre-vita, or “pre-birth,” of what comes next after last week’s US election (h/t to The Ink’s Anand Giridharadas). Next week’s Call will stake out the new landscape and emerging efforts to protect hard-fought gains, expand the Ownership Economy, rally leadership for climate action (see below), make common cause around green jobs and entrepreneurial revival, design AI for good and seize the coming disruptions for positive change – if possible. Join other Agents of Impact and David Bank and the ImpactAlpha team to begin to write the new story, Monday, Nov. 18, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. Please RSVP today.

In this week’s Open:

  • Agents of Impact take stock of the new political landscape
  • Climate and biodiversity funds actively raising capital
  • Plugged In: In fashion, sustainability is luxury
  • Building resilience in Asheville

Let’s dig in. – Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • Strategies for change in Trump’s second term. Impact investors and entrepreneurs may not have fully contemplated the possibility of a decisive Trump victory. ImpactAlpha surveyed our networks to chart a path forward. The results “are a shock to the system – not just to our political system, but also in how our economy operates and our society functions,” Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance told ImpactAlpha. Social Capital Partners’ Jon Shell suggested, “Maybe it’s time to take the gloves off, and to start building our own economic populist narrative.” Survey the reactions.
    • Moving forward. Policy reversals from the Trump administration may touch every aspect of the impact agenda. “We know how much Americans are hurting in an economy never designed to serve them. And that means we have the ability to see more deeply the political impact we can have by helping to build and broaden economic power,” Candide Group’s Morgan Simon wrote in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Three post-election invitations.
  • November’s LIIST of funds actively raising. Capital does not easily flow to where it’s most needed, as shown by the the failed negotiations at last week’s COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia. This month’s Liist of impact funds that are open for investment features managers that are blending capital to shift risk perceptions and redirect capital to under-tapped climate opportunities in adaptation, biodiversity and water solutions, write Jessica Pothering and Lucy Ngige. See who is raising.
  • The Coalition for Green Capital is just getting started. The Coalition for Green Capital’s outgoing leader Reed Hundt tells Amy Cortese in a Q&A that there will be a fierce fight against any attempts to claw back funding for green lending through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The coalition of green banks has inked its first two GGRF deals, totaling $175 million for green building loans and electric school buses. The group is now building a nationwide network to deploy $2 billion; the rest of the coalition’s $5 billion mandate will be invested directly. Read the conversation.
  • Mutual aid for community resilience. With parts of Asheville, North Carolina, still without water or power six weeks after Hurricane Helene, Neighborhood Economics’ Kevin Jones describes the demonstration of “neighborhood-scale resilience” in response to needs for water, electricity, food and Internet connectivity. “The key to this local resilience is the social capital ties that create an interdependent economy,” Jones says, “one that functions with an assumption of abundance to be shared and where relationships are about reciprocity rather than commodification.” Learn more.

Agents of Impact

🏃🏽‍♀️ On the move

  • Julianne Zimmerman was promoted to co-CEO at Adasina Social Capital, alongside Rachel Robasciotti.
  • Ebony Perkins, previously with UnitedHealthcare, joined NeighborWorks Capital to lead investor relations and capital aggregation.
  • Diane Damskey from DC Damskey Global Consulting joined Ocean Us as strategic development director and advisory board member.

The Week’s Podcast

🎧 This Week in Impact: US election reactions

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Initial reactions from Agents of Impact to the election of Donald Trump; what’s next for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund; and how a mutual aid network in Asheville, NC, is helping overlooked entrepreneurs rebuild after Hurricane Helene.

  • Listen to the new episode of This Week in Impact. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple or Spotify.

📈 The Market Makers: Responsibly investing at Trinity Church with Bhakti Mirchandani (video). Trinity Church’s Bhakti Mirchandani joins the Milken Institute’s Troy Duffie and Bright Ventures’ Lenore Champagne Beirne to discuss the institution’s “sustainable investing plus advocacy and field building.”

The Week’s Call

💃🏾 Plugged In: The future of sustainable luxury is being sewn by BIPOC Designers (video)

In fashion, sustainability is luxury. The embrace by luxury brands of sustainable and ethical practices isn’t a trend; it’s a fundamental shift in how luxury goods are designed, produced and consumed. And it’s Black, Indigenous and other designers of color who are driving innovation and ethical practices. “It’s really about diversifying the language, but also diversifying the experience of what luxury could mean to a wider audience,” said designer Jacques Agbobly, who joined RAISEFashion’ Felita Harris on the latest Plugged In with host Sherrell Dorsey. 

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • Nonprofit Finance Fund is seeking a chief financial officer in New York for a flexible work from home role.
  • Community Investment Management is searching for a director of investments in Mexico City.
  • Systemiq is hiring a sustainable finance strategy manager in Amsterdam.

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