The Brief: 1803 Fund is going big to rebuild Black neighborhoods in Portland

Greetings Agents of Impact!

☎️ Today’s Call: Tackling advisor roadblocks. There’s still time to RSVP for today’s call with CapShift’s Liz Sessler, ImpactPHL’s Cory Donovan, Westfuller’s Randall Strickland, and Glenmede’s Julia Fish about the strategies that wealth advisors are using to deliver impact for their clients. See below and join us today at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP for login details.

📞 Next Week’s Call: Muni impact investing for shared prosperity. Family offices, foundations and other investors are on the hunt for credible, place-based strategies that channel capital into resilient infrastructure and shared prosperity. Innovation, meanwhile, is helping rural and small jurisdictions expand access to municipal bonds and integrate impact investments directly into their public finance strategies. Join Lourdes Germán of Public Finance Initiative, Michael Gaughan of the Vermont Bond Bank, Damon Burns of Finance New Orleans, Eric Glass of Clarion Call Capital, and Brian Boland of Delta Fund, with ImpactAlpha’s David Bank, Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP here.

In today’s Brief:

• Going big to rebuild Black neighborhoods in Portland
• Seeding a circular economy in Europe
• Rolling out electric school buses
• Deploying recoverable grants for year-end giving 

Featured: Ownership Economy

In Portland, the 1803 Fund is rebuilding Black neighborhoods, zip code by zip code. The restoration of Portland’s once-bustling Black community of Albina is moving from vision to action. The 1803 Fund, seeded two years ago with $400 million from Nike billionaires Phil and Penny Knight, is deploying capital to reclaim land, enable community ownership and anchor economic opportunity in an area long scarred by displacement. The Black woman-led fund last week invested $70 million to purchase close to a dozen acres of land and real estate in historically Black Portland that will be redeveloped into mixed-used centers of business, affordable housing and community spaces. The acquisition of Albina Riverside, a three-acre former grain silo site on Portland’s east bank, along with seven acres of property in the city’s Low End district, will anchor a billion-dollar “impact infrastructure” initiative to create lasting value and ownership for Black communities. 1803 Fund is looking to raise an additional $600 million from philanthropic, institutional and impact investors. “The ambition we have isn’t to redevelop a geography or create a commonwealth through infrastructure investing,” says 1803 Fund’s Rukaiyah Adams, a seasoned investor who grew up in the neighborhood. “It’s to demonstrate a new way of doing capitalism.” 

• Rich uncle. Adams, a lawyer who has managed investments for Meyer Memorial Trust and Oregon’s public employees pension fund, accepted an invitation from Knight two years ago to lead Albina’s rebuild. Adams’ family has been in Portland for generations; she grew up on Northeast Roselawn Street in government-subsidized public housing. Knight, who was raised in Portland’s white working-class neighborhood of Eastmoreland, funded youth sports programs that Adams joined growing up, as well as scholarships for students like Adams to attend one of Oregon’s most prestigious private schools. Adams wouldn’t meet Knight until she returned to Stanford for business school, where he had graduated in 1962. “It gave me a chance to say, ‘Thank you, and if you wonder what the present value of all of that money is, it’s me, and this is what I’m doing with my life.’” Adams says Knight feels like a rich uncle, and sometimes like a sports coach offering a pep talk. “He said to me, ‘I want you to go big and go big before I die. Anybody gets in your way, run them over. Go for it,’” Adams says. “And, oh my gosh, we are going for it.”

• Exit to community. The 1803 Fund takes its name from the year York, an African American member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, set out on the two-year mission that took him to the site of present-day Portland. The fund’s newly-acquired projects are projected to create hundreds of jobs and close to $700 million in economic impact in the Portland metropolitan area. Adams plans to hire Black developers and other contractors for the projects and to share ownership of the assets with the Albina community, through the publicly-listed REIT owned by local residents. “We’re trying to buy a whole zip code and demonstrate that we can build a community for Black people and children, and that the endeavor can be profitable,” Adams says, “but profitable in a bond-return framework, not in an equity-return framework.”
  
• Keep reading, “In Portland, the 1803 Fund is rebuilding Black neighborhoods, zip code by zip code,” by Roodgally Senatus. Catch up on all of our coverage of the Ownership Economy, produced with support from the Sorenson Impact Foundation.

Sponsored by J&J Impact Ventures

Measuring what matters: The evolving role of impact measurement and management. Impact measurement and management is moving from “nice to have” to core infrastructure for impact investors. Since 2021, the impact advisory firm The Good Economy has partnered with J&J Impact Ventures, an investment fund within the J&J Foundation, to refine an impact framework that prioritizes outcomes, integrates data collection into business processes, and supports investees with practical, capacity-appropriate measurement tools. “Measuring what matters most ensures that impact investments remain accountable, effective and aligned with their impact goals,” writes The Good Economy’s Samantha Curtis in a sponsored post on ImpactAlpha. Through a case study from the collaboration, Curtis offers recommendations for impact investors who want to raise their measurement and management game.

• Keep reading, “Measuring what matters: The evolving role of impact measurement and management,” by J&J Impact Ventures’ Samantha Curtis.

Dealflow: Circular Economy

Makesense raises €15 million to invest in circular essential goods and services. French nonprofit Makesense’s third fund will make pre-seed investments in European companies reducing waste and supporting circularity in food, healthcare and housing. The organization is aiming to raise at least €25 million ($29 million) to cut equity checks up to €500,000, along with debt financing. “We are one of the very few pre-seed impact funds in France and Europe,” Makesense’s Marion Schuppe told ImpactAlpha. “We are building the ecosystem for larger impact funds.” The European Investment Fund, Mirova and French fund-of-funds Revital’Emploi invested in the fund, along with a dozen business angels and family offices. True to its circular mission, Makesense recycles its carried interest back into its investment and operational work.

• Early-stage. To support Europe’s impact startup ecosystem, Makesense has backed 40 companies across the three vehicles, a third of which are circular economy businesses. Its second and newest pre-seed fund invested in Netherlands-based United Repair Center, a clothing repair company for Patagonia, Decathlon and The North Face that is helping keep textiles out of landfills. “They focus on training and supporting people very far away from employment, especially migrants in Europe,” Schuppe said of United Repair. “We believe that if you don’t take into account your social ecosystem and environmental ecosystem, you won’t be able to create economic value.”
  
• Keep reading. 

Highland Electric Fleets secures $150 million from Aiga Capital to roll out electric school buses. Massachusetts-based Highland Electric Fleets offers electric buses and charging solutions to school districts looking to cut pollution and save costs. With projects in 30 states, from Compton in Southern California to Dixie County, Florida, it is one of the largest such providers in the US. Highland will also supply 500 electric buses for the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. To fuel its expansion, the company secured $150 million in equity from Aiga Capital Partners, a diverse-led firm that provides flexible financing for sustainable infrastructure companies. “Highland’s electrification-as-a-service model, supported by long-term contracts and a high-quality asset base, positions the company to lead the next chapter of fleet electrification,” said Aiga Capital’s Angel Fierro. Aiga last year raised $240 million for its debut sustainable infrastructure fund.

• Greening communities. Electric school buses were poised to take off with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion program created by the Biden administration to stand up a network of lenders for green projects in low-income communities. That GGRF program is mired in legal battles, but many states, including California, Texas and New York, offer grants and subsidies for electric buses. And the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Act allocated $5 billion for electric school buses. Last November, before the GGRF funds were frozen by the Trump administration, the Coalition for Green Capital announced a $75 million loan to Highland to help finance the rollout of 1,300 e-buses in US school districts (see, “Coalition for Green Capital commits $175 million for green real estate and electric buses”).
  
• Gift this article. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

• B Capital led a $462 million Series E equity round for geothermal energy producer Fervo Energy. Fervo’s production plant in Beaver County, Utah, is slated to begin delivering 100 megawatts of power to the electricity grid next year. (Fervo Energy)
  
• Norrsken Evolven and HTGF led Fion Energy’s €1.4 million ($1.6 million) pre-seed round to automate industrial battery energy storage. (HGTF)
  
• Ghana-based CarePoint secured a $3 million loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to acquire underperforming health clinics and give them a tech upgrade to treat patients in person and virtually. (Launch Base Africa)
  
• Scotland-based Orbital Marine Power raised €8 million ($9.4 million) from Scottish Enterprise and PXN Ventures to harness energy from tidal streams. (EU-Startups)

Impact Voices: Advisors Corner

How to solve three common year-end giving challenges for your clients. The end of the year is crunch time for wealth advisors, as clients rush to meet tax deadlines, finalize charitable donations and square away plans for the coming year. In a new Advisors’ Corner post on ImpactAlpha, CapShift’s Liz Sessler offers practical advice for common end-of-year challenges and strengthening client relationships. “Introducing strategies like donor-advised funds, recoverable grants and impact investments can help clients turn their year-end efforts into a foundation for lasting impact,” she explains. Check it out.

• Recoverable grants. Recoverable grants can be a key tool for clients rushing to get donations out the door, says Sessler, as well as for those who’ve met their philanthropic goals but want to do more. In a separate Advisors’ Corner post, CapShift’s Jordana Pleat outlines how these flexible, impact-first structures enable donors to support catalytic work now while preserving the potential to recycle capital. “What clients value most is not technical mastery in every giving model, but guidance that helps them connect their resources to what matters to them.” Read more.
  
• Answer the Call. Financial advisors who offer credible impact strategies can deepen client relationships and prepare themselves for generational transfers of wealth. Sessler will join today’s Agents of Impact Call, along with ImpactPHL’s Cory Donovan, Westfuller’s Randall Strickland and Glenmede’s Julia Fish to explore strategies that wealth advisors are using to deliver impact for their clients. Zoom in today at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London.  There’s still time to RSVP. Click here for login details.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

JPMorgan Chase taps Karen Purcell, previously with Bank of America, as head of community development banking… Nuveen is looking for a senior director and stewardship and ESG integration lead for public equities… JPMorgan seeks an environmental and social due diligence associate… The American Heart Association is recruiting a senior principal for its social impact funds… The British High Commission of South Africa is on the hunt for an impact investment lead. 

The Northpine Foundation has an opening for an impact manager for investments focused on formerly-incarcerated individuals… Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott revealed $7.2 billion in donations this year. Among the nearly 200 recipients: ClimateWorks Foundation, Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, Invest in Our Future, Just Transition Fund, Thousand Currents, Camelback Ventures, Blue Meridian Partners, Climate Justice Resilience Fund, Restore Local, Oceans 5, Pillars Fund and dozens of educational institutions, including Blackfeet Community College, College of the Muscogee Nation, Howard University and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– Dec. 11, 2025