The Brief

The Brief: Reclaiming the narrative of American capitalism

ImpactAlpha · May 18, 2026
Philadelphia, Pa. | Credit: Dylan Sauerwein on Unsplash

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Reclaiming the narrative of American capitalism
  • Financing student loan alternatives
  • Carbon Equity’s infrastructure fund of funds

In Philadelphia, Agents of Impact reclaim the narrative of American capitalism. Two hundred and fifty years after the US’s founding, 1803 Fund’s Rukaiyah Adams has a thesis for how the American experiment gets finished. The people who were once treated as capital are the ones who can reclaim American capitalism, she says. “In this moment, the work we’re doing isn’t just trading capital or moving money faster, it’s creating defensible economies that allow for permanence.” Adams founded 1803 Fund to reclaim land, enable community ownership and anchor economic opportunity in Portland’s once-bustling Black community of Albina (see “In Portland, the 1803 Fund is rebuilding Black neighborhoods, zip code by zip code”). Adams, a lawyer who has managed investments for Meyer Memorial Trust and Oregon’s public employees pension fund, called on attendees at last week’s Total Impact Summit in Philadelphia to flex their agency as investors and community members to regain control of the American economy. “Don’t treat your investment portfolio like a risk-mitigation machine, where you diversify to the point that you have no meaning in what you’re doing,” said Adams. “Choose the thing that will move the needle and have the ovaries to invest in that.”

  • Thinking bigger. The fraught political moment demands not caution, but creative capital structures, unlikely partnerships and collaboration at a scale the industry has rarely attempted. “Every region, every institution, needs a leader who calls us to think bigger,” said Adair Mosley of Minneapolis-based Groundbreak Coalition. Groundbreak was featured in the teaser for Power in Place, a multimedia series launched at Total Impact Summit by ImpactAlpha, ImpactPHL and MacArthur Foundation showcasing places building ecosystems to invest in their own futures (drop us a note to nominate your place). Groundbreak has raised $1 billion in catalytic commitments to build wealth in disadvantaged communities in the Twin Cities. “We are trying to create a more visible Black middle class through assets that appreciate,” Mosley said. Deborah Frieze, through the Unlock Ownership Fund, is tapping into some of the $300 billion parked in donor-advised funds to invest in employee and community ownership. Frieze has also launched a new fund called the Palestinian Impact Initiative to invest in small businesses in the capital-constrained West Bank.
  • People vs. robots. Impact investors have a new system to take on: the AI models that increasingly determine societal outcomes such as who gets hired, who gets capital, and who gets care. AI ethicist Ravit Dotan wants to shift the narrative from “jobs apocalypse” to worker-led empowerment. Dotan works with individuals and groups to envision how their jobs can evolve and helps them create AI tools to enable that vision. “We can start thinking about what we want to create,” she said. So can investors. Majority Action, which advocates for shareholders to use their power to hold Big Tech firms accountable, is diving deep into data centers – the most tangible way that AI is impacting communities. The nonprofit brought a group of pension fund trustees to Memphis to see firsthand the effect of Elon Musk’s Colossal data center, which was initially powered by dozens of unpermitted gas turbines and has continued a legacy of environmental injustice in the Black community of Boxtown. Majority Action’s Whitney Shepard sees an opportunity to build bridges and make common cause. “There is this moment of bringing a greater ‘us’ together,” she said.
  • Stewards of direction. A theme that emerged over the two-day conference was that impact is a constantly-evolving process with few hard-and-fast rules. Impact “was always meant to be the pursuit of solutions, which means a journey,” said Rey Ramsey of the Nathan Cummings Foundation. “You’re supposed to continue to learn, you’re supposed to continue to grow, and you’re always supposed to be in pursuit.” Or, as ImpactPHL’s Kafi Lindsay put it in her closing remarks, the future “is practiced into existence, day by day, by people willing to act before certainty appears.” She told the assembled impact investors, “Every allocation you make is a signal. Every mandate carries values. And every time-horizon reveals what, and who, truly matters.”

Dealflow: Youth Employment

Chancen International’s Future of Work Fund lands $29 million for student loan alternatives. Educating and upskilling Africa’s large population of young people requires an estimated $40 billion per year. Rwanda-based Chancen International offers African students income-share agreements, an alternative to student loans that ties repayment to students’ income after graduating. The form of education financing is meant to ensure students in high-demand fields aren’t saddled with debt if they don’t have stable or adequate income (see, “Income-share funds expand college finance options for low-income students”). “Ethical education finance can become a scalable solution to one of the world’s largest barriers to opportunity,” Chancen’s Batya Blankers told ImpactAlpha. “We are not simply financing seats in classrooms – we are financing pathways into dignified work, economic mobility and long-term livelihoods.” The nonprofit has raised $29 million for its planned $33 million Future of Work Fund, which provides the income-share agreements, or ISAs, via university and vocational training program partnerships in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa.

  • Fund LPs. The Future of Work Fund’s roster of LPs includes the SDG Outcomes Fund, a joint initiative of UBS Optimus Foundation and Bridges Fund Management that invested $10 million. UBS Optimus Foundation separately reupped with $4.6 million after investing in the fund’s first close in 2022. Other backers include Ceniarth, Tsao Family Office, German education company Klett Gruppe, and nonprofit ADA. Chancen is part of the UBS-backed 100x social impact accelerator (see, “Accountability for outcomes can spur impact investments in educational income share agreements”).
  • Employment track. Chancen’s partnerships focus on programs with high employability potential or which cater to underprivileged youth, women and people with disabilities. “Young people should not bear the full risk of poor-quality education,” Blankers said. Almost 10,000 young people have accessed its income-share agreements; most are from rural and low-income communities. The organization says its ISAs require no upfront payments, no collateral or guarantors, and have a 97% repayment rate. Chancen pauses or adjusts repayments if students earn less than specified local income thresholds or they lose their job or experience other hardships, said Blankers. “The contract has a fixed duration, providing clarity and predictability.”
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Carbon Equity provides debt, too, with €15 million infrastructure fund of funds. Carbon Equity launched in 2020 to drive more private capital into climate solutions by mobilizing investors with relatively modest sums to invest. The Amsterdam-based investment manager is now expanding its portfolio with an infrastructure debt fund for individual investors and family offices. Infrastructure projects are known for their large capital requirements. Carbon Equity’s planned €15 million ($17.5 million) fund will accept checks starting at €100,000. The firm will invest in funds that provide debt for solar parks, wind farms, battery storage and biomethane plants in Europe. “We want to be a one-stop shop where people can go to find sustainable solutions and where they can put their savings to work,” Carbon Equity’s Wiebe Visser told ImpactAlpha. 

  • Debt gap. Since launching, Carbon Equity has raised €500 million for climate equity strategies, including venture capital, buyouts and infrastructure. It has invested the capital in 30 funds, which collectively have backed more than 400 companies. “But we don’t have anything that’s more credit-related,” said Visser. Despite Europe’s aggressive push to green its economies, Visser notes a “persistent funding gap” in European infrastructure debt that specialist debt funds are well-placed to fill. Debt, he added, offers “all sorts of protection that you don’t get on the equity side.”
  • Equity exit. Carbon Equity celebrated an exit from portfolio company Fervo Energy, a Houston, Texas-based geothermal energy company that went public last week on the Nasdaq. Fervo raised more than $1.8 billion on its first day of trading. Visser called the company a “breakthrough” in its portfolio. “This is the first major exit in five years,” he said. “The whole ecosystem needs an exit like this. It is really important to show that clean technologies can deliver strong returns.” 
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Togo-based Ecobank issued a sustainable agriculture and natural capital bond on the London Stock Exchange. The bond was oversubscribed by nearly four times its original target of $350 million. (Ecobank)
  • Lightrock closed its Accelerate7 fund at $500 million to invest in growth-stage clean energy and mobility companies in Asia and Africa. Equinor, Shell, TotalEnergies and LGT backed the fund. (Lightrock)
  • Tanzania’s NMB Bank secured $80 million in hard and local currency from Norfund and British International Investment for lending to small and agri-businesses. (Norfund)

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Don’t miss these ImpactAlpha partner events:

Wavemaker Partners has a growth internship opening in Singapore… Nuveen is recruiting a clean energy infrastructure asset manager for the Asia-Pacific region… Uprose is looking for a just transition coordinator in New York… Voya Investment Management is hiring an emerging markets corporate research analyst… The Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences seeks a senior advisor for international coordination of carbon footprint in New York… Invenergy has an opening for strategy associate. 

The Bipartisan Policy Center is recruiting a senior policy analyst for its energy program… Blue Owl Capital has an opening for responsible investing and ESG senior associate or vice president… CalPERS is on the hunt for a sustainable investments associate investment manager. 

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

Thank you for your impact!

– May 18, 2026