The Brief

The Week in impact investing: Making noise

ImpactAlpha ¡ September 5, 2025

TGIF, Agents of Impact! 

  • Roundup: Green shoots
  • Podcasts from Community Capital Live, Criterion Institute and ImpactAlpha
  • Spotlight: Nature-based opportunities for family offices in Asia

🗣 Green shoots. What if, instead of the US government taking 10% of Intel, or claiming a “golden share” of US Steel, or insisting on 15% of some of Nvidia’s chip sales, it helped finance employee ownership trusts to give employees meaningful stakes in those companies? Calling Zoe Schlag and Common Trust, which helps structure such conversions. Beyond the productivity, retention and wealth-creation advantages, broad worker ownership could become a tool in the reshoring and retention of US manufacturing capacity. Intel is down to about 100,000 employees, less than the 135,000 in-home caregivers in 14 states employed by Consumer Direct Care Network, who, with Common Trust’s help, now hold a 30% ownership stake in the company, as Roodgally Senatus reported this week.

Instead of such expansive thinking, the daily deluge of distraction and destruction seems to have left many investors speechless. The farm equipment maker John Deere, the kind of company that did make America great, is reeling from tariff-induced cost increases and reduced demand from farmers that have lost their export markets. Ørsted, a Danish company, is on the ropes (and is suing) after the Trump administration cancelled its 80%-completed Revolution Wind project, which would have produced more than 700 megawatts of electricity, enough for more than 350,000 homes in Connecticut and Rhode Island (and it would come online much sooner than fusion power, as Amy Cortese noted in her report on the vast sums of capital that will be required to commercialize it). Investors are alarmed at the compounding national debt, the power grab at the Federal Reserve, a softening labor market, and what hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio called a drift toward 1930s-style autocratic rule. “During such times, most people are silent because they are afraid of retaliation if they criticize,” Dalio told the Financial Times.

Agents of Impact are gamely trying to conserve the seed banks of promising ideas and talent. In Canada, the government-funded Social Finance Fund is seeding an investment ecosystem with “wholesale” impact capital, as Amy, Roody and Erik Stein detailed. Black-led venture capital firms raised more money than ever before in 2024, but are writing fewer checks, contributing editor Tony Lawson reported. Gender-lens investors are beginning to look beyond simple metrics to listen to women and collect data on what’s truly driving impact, wrote 60 Decibels’ Venu Aggarwal and Dalberg Advisors’ Rachna Saxena. And the coalitions of community lenders that came together to jumpstart a distributed “green bank” for the US are scrambling to preserve their pipelines of projects as they fight the Trump administration in court. “We will continue to press on for communities across the country that stand to benefit from clean, abundant and affordable energy,” said Climate United’s Beth Bafford. “This is not the end of our road.” – David Bank

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: ​​How Climate United and other green lenders are scrambling to salvage investable deals after a federal appeals court ruling upheld a freeze on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Employee ownership takes a big leap forward, with 135,000 in-home caregivers getting a 30% equity stake in their company. And we look at the commercialization of nuclear fusion, which has attracted the attention and billions of dollars in very patient capital from family offices and other investors.

🏘️ Community Capital Live: The Hudson Valley’s green community investment fund. Rosalie Fransen of Mid-Hudson Energy Transition’s HELP Fund shares how the fund is addressing housing displacement, health inequity and climate vulnerability by financing energy efficiency upgrades for low-income families. The HELP Fund, she says, is out to “address this issue from the side of financing, and break down some of the financial and systemic barriers that keep low-income families from accessing energy-efficient housing.”

📯 The Criterion Institute Podcast: Financing solutions to gender-based violence. Criterion leverages finance as a tool to reduce gender-based violence. In this episode, Joy Anderson charts the progress in building evidence, creating tools and training investors and social change leaders. Next up: Amplifying success stories, providing advanced education for investors and practitioners, and creating spaces for collaboration, such as next February’s conference on gender violence. 

The Week’s Spotlight

Meeting the demand of family offices for nature-based projects in Indonesia. A partnership between Indonesian impact investment advisor Supernova Equatora Capital and Swiss advisory firm Clarmondial homes in on the kind of nature-based investments that top the wish list of many Asian family offices. Both organizations have worked to build investing ecosystems around biodiversity, regenerative practices and natural resources. “We are seeing particular interest from Indonesian family offices transitioning from grant-making to impact investments, as well as from Asian impact investors seeking opportunities that combine social and environmental outcomes with financial returns,” Clarmondial’s Tanja Havemann tells ImpactAlpha (see related, “How ‘catalytic warehousing’ can help stand up emerging fund managers and accelerate climate investing”). 

Deforestation, urbanization and climate change are jeopardizing the natural ecosystems of Indonesia, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Clarmondial and Supernova will engage individual investors and fund managers to drive capital to sustainable agriculture, agroforestry and ecosystem restoration in Indonesia. Clarmondial will also build deal out pipelines for its Food Securities Fund, an open-ended debt fund for emerging market agribusinesses launched in 2021, and its Biosphere Integrity Fund to be launched next year. Havemann says the fund “will prioritize opportunities that combine corporate engagement with outcomes for livelihoods, biodiversity, watershed health and climate resilience.”

  • Family priorities. Nature-based solutions, biodiversity and regeneration are the top interests driving impact investing among Asia’s family offices, according to the Sustainable Finance Initiative, which surveyed 144 such offices. Also a priority: food and agriculture. Most families see impact investments as a way to nurture new business services and opportunities, often close to home: 42% of family office impact capital is staying in Asia. Their biggest challenge is finding deals with clear pathways to exit.
  • Collaborative approach. Supernova Equatora Capital advises investors and vets natural capital deals throughout Indonesia. Its Value Chain Fund engages stakeholders around seafood, coffee, coconut and other products. The partnership with Clarmondial expands funding channels for Indonesian agri-businesses while boosting Clarmondial’s activity in the country. “Many Indonesian businesses have strong potential to drive nature-positive transformation, but they need the right kind of support,” said Supernova Equatora Capital’s Inez Stefanie. The new partnership “is about unlocking that potential through collaboration, not control,” she says.
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The Week’s Talent and Jobs

💼 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. 

Generate Capital appointed David Crane, former under secretary for infrastructure at the US Department of Energy, as CEO and board chairman. He replaced co-founder Scott Jacobs… Greenbacker Renewable Energy named Daniel de Boer, formerly head of renewables at Allianz Capital Partners of America, as CEO. Carl Weatherley-White was promoted to CFO… Swedfund International added Siongo Kisoso, previously with BK Capital, as East Africa regional director… The Skillman Foundation promoted Lenise McWhorter to vice president of organizational design and development, and Mariah Woodruff-Wright to chief operating officer. 

Octopus Investments appointed Erin Platts, previously with HSBC Innovation Banking UK, as CEO… Flourish Ventures added Reon Cloete, previously with Google Ventures, as global head of legal… Social Investment Managers and Advisors tapped Paul Kingsley, previously with Northern Arc Capital, as senior ESG officer… California Community Foundation welcomed Celina Santiago, previously with YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, as chief philanthropy officer and Erin Watkins, previously with Claremont Investment Management, as chief financial officer. 

The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance welcomed five new members to its Pre-Seed Capital Facility investment committee: ClimateWorks Foundation’s Shilpa Patel, Peter Sweatman of Climate Strategy Partners, Climate Investment Fund’s Matthieu Pegon, Kome Ajegbo of Africa Finance Corp., and Ariane Pevide of MUFG Bank… Nadia Nikolova took on the role of CEO of responsAbility Investments… Eric Meissner stepped down as head of investment services of ImpactAssets to advise the impact organization through his new consulting firm. 

LeapFrog Investments welcomed Anna Robertson, formerly with Australia’s Sefa, as strategy manager. Cindy Chen and Joel Bird will step into her former role at Sefa as impact and engagement managers… Big Issue Invest promoted Holger Westphely to managing director… Ownership Works added Garrison Turner, previously with SecondMuse Capital, as a senior manager on its client advisory services team… Rachel Eva Merfalen, previously with San Diego Workforce Partnership, joined the Tennessee Center for Employee Ownership as interim executive director.

That’s a wrap. Have a wonderful weekend. 

– Sep. 5, 2025