Impact Management
Frontiers in Social Innovation | June 23, 2022
New corporate forms to protect your investment in impact
Editor’s note: This post is part of ImpactAlpha’s series, “Frontiers in Social Innovation,” the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford’s Graduate School of …
Impact Management | June 23, 2022
Overheard at GSG’s Global Impact Series
Regulators, CEOs, and investors the world over welcome enhanced disclosures. That was the message at the The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment’s …
Policy Corner | June 22, 2022
Pricing carbon could succeed where Scope 3 falls short in accounting for emissions
ImpactAlpha, June 22 – As the Securities and Exchange Commission mulls new rules for climate disclosure, investors are weighing in on what could …
Frontiers in Social Innovation | June 15, 2022
Three practices to help make ESG metrics as reliable as financial metrics
This post is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Frontiers in Social Innovation” series with Stanford GSB Center for Social Innovation. The posts in the series …
ESG | June 14, 2022
“Greenwashers” on notice as global crackdown on ESG mislabeling continues
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 14 – Another day, another bank under investigation over misleading ESG claims. Goldman Sachs is the latest financial institution to come under …
Photo by Bridges Fund Management.
Impact Management | June 13, 2022
Bridges Fund Management closes £350 million property fund
ImpactAlpha, June 13 — U.K.-based impact investor Bridges Fund Management has raised £350 million ($425 million) for its fifth property fund. The fund …
Frontiers in Social Innovation | June 9, 2022
Five metrics to help investors point their investments toward impact
This post is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Frontiers in Social Innovation” series with Stanford GSB Center for Social Innovation. The posts in the series …
Impact Management | June 2, 2022
To understand the impact of microfinance, ask the borrowers directly
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 2 – Critics of microloans to the poor have often lacked a crucial perspective: comprehensive feedback from borrowers. “Billions of dollars are …
SEC Chair Gary Gensler | Photo credit: Getty Images
Policy Corner | May 26, 2022
S.E.C. rules would require funds to back up their ESG claims
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – The $1.5 million fine levied on BNY Mellon this week by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over misleading ESG …
Impact Voices | May 4, 2022
How impact investors can maximize the value of impact management – for their portfolio ventures
Even experienced impact investors struggle with impact measurement and management, or IMM, within their portfolios. They recognize that there is often untapped value …
Impact Management | May 4, 2022
How CDFIs can adopt carbon accounting to lead on climate disclosure
Know what you own. A group of community development financiers is taking the lead on climate disclosure to clean up their loan portfolios. …
Image credit: Greenly
Climate Finance | April 26, 2022
Greenly secures $23 million to help small businesses cut carbon emissions
ImpactAlpha, April 26 – Small businesses’ small carbon footprints add up. And as suppliers and distributors for larger corporations, measuring and managing their …
Impact Voices | April 20, 2022
Putting ventures at the helm of impact measurement and management
We thought ventures’ impact measurement and management would start simple and get more complex as they scaled. Turns out it’s more complicated than …
Impact Management | April 12, 2022
Benchmarks for impact performance promise to help investors drive ‘impact alpha’
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 12 – Financial benchmarks such as the S&P 500 give investors something to beat in their own portfolios. “We want investors around …
Labor unions demonstrations in Jakarta, Indonesia | Photo credit: Adam Erlangga
Impact Management | April 12, 2022
If you like the alpha in ‘E,’ you’ll love the S-factor
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 12 – Perhaps it’s the urgency of the climate crisis. Or the relative simplicity of counting tons of carbon or gallons of …
Photo credit: LeapFrog Investments.
Signals | March 31, 2022
LeapFrog’s ‘launchpad’ helps companies serve low-income consumers in emerging markets
ImpactAlpha, March 31 — The challenges of delivering essential products and services to customers in low-income and rural areas has kept many companies …
Colored heat map for temperature
Impact Voices | March 31, 2022
Tipping points of volatility: The case for climate-Sharpe ratios
Investors today are grossly overlooking one critical category of volatility: climate change. When investors seek targeted risk budgets and returns by diversifying portfolios …
Photo credit: Brogan Abroad.
Impact Management | March 24, 2022
Tikehau Capital impact debt fund secures $110 million from Dutch pension fund
ImpactAlpha, March 24 — Paris-based Tikehau Capital has received a $110 million allocation from Pensioenfonds Detailhandel, which has a commitment to invest 1% …
photo: Third Way Think Tank
Policy Corner | March 22, 2022
SEC disclosure rules signal the arrival of climate accountability
ImpactAlpha, March 22 – Better than expected. That was the consensus among advocates for greater transparency for corporate climate-related risks and impacts after …
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Capitalism Reimagined | March 22, 2022
How the SEC’s rules will – and won’t – solve climate change
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed landmark climate-related disclosure requirements for public companies to inform investors about the risks a changing …
Institutional Impact | March 15, 2022
Divestment gets a reboot as global investors dump Russian assets
The scenes of brutal shelling and bombardment, along with heroic resistance and popular protests, have triggered a global response of solidarity and support. …
Impact Management | March 14, 2022
Listening to community voices to combat ‘impact washing’ and promote good governance
Many who worry about impact washing have touted better Impact Measurement & Management (“IMM”) practices as the solution. Until recently, however, IMM standards …
Impact Management | March 7, 2022
Incentivizing corporate executives and suppliers to move the needle on climate and diversity
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 7 – From tech giants to global retailers, corporations are rewarding executives and suppliers for delivering on environmental, social and governance, or …
Impact Management | February 24, 2022
Memo to the Impact Task Force: Break down silos to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals
“And let it be noted that there is no more delicate matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful in …
Screenshot from actualhq.com
ESG | February 24, 2022
Actual raises $5 million to simulate the impact of ESG strategies
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 24 – Regulatory and stakeholder pressures have C-suites scrambling for ESG strategies, net zero goals, impact reports and carbon spreadsheets. More challenging: …
Impact Voices | February 10, 2022
Building beyond an ESG baseline to invest with an impact lens
Barely two months into this new year, concerning echoes of 2021 are already showing up in 2022. The ongoing pandemic disruption remains top-of-mind …
Photo credit: Peoples Bank.
Impact Management | February 9, 2022
Rosemont takes a minority stake in Veris to secure employee ownership
ImpactAlpha, February 9 — Conshohocken, Penn.-based Rosemont will acquire a 24.9% equity stake in Veris Wealth Partners. The San Francisco-based wealth management firm, …
BlueMark's Christina Leijonhufvud
Agents of Impact | February 4, 2022
Christina Leijonhufvud, BlueMark: Creating a benchmark for impact integrity
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 4 – Of the nine “Operating Principles for Impact Management,” arguably the most important is the last one: “publicly disclose alignment” and …
Christina Leijonhufvud, CEO of BlueMark.
Impact Management | January 27, 2022
BlueMark raises $3.8 million for impact verification and assessment
ImpactAlpha, January 27 — New York-based BlueMark, part of the consultancy Tideline, has assessed dozens of asset managers and owners under the Operating …
Impact Management | January 25, 2022
How one fund manager tech’ed up its data management in search of ‘impact alpha’
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 25 – SJF Ventures believed better, faster and smarter impact data could set them apart. The Durham, N.C.-based impact venture capital fund …
Impact Management | January 13, 2022
60 Decibels raises $8.8 million to measure stakeholder impact at the source
ImpactAlpha, Jan 13 – 60 Decibels deploys more than 800 researchers in 67 countries to collect data directly from customers and suppliers. U.K. …
Impact Management | January 11, 2022
Long-term investors cotton to firms scoring high on ESG, and vice versa
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 11 – It makes sense that pension funds with long time horizons would gravitate to portfolio companies that take seriously the environmental, …
Impact Investing | January 4, 2022
Where impact funds are looking to deploy $73 billion in dry powder
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 4 – Real assets. Emerging markets. Early stage impact tech. The financial data provider Pitchbook picked out nearly 700 active impact investment …
Policy Corner | December 21, 2021
Tipping Point Fund for Impact Investing promotes impact transparency and accountability
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 21 – The half-dozen grantees of the Tipping Point Fund for Impact Investing will split $950,000 to advance impact investing market infrastructure …
Impact Investing | December 14, 2021
Eight ways investors are going beyond ESG risk-mitigation to drive real-world impact
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 14 – The recent takedown of MSCI by a team of Bloomberg Businessweek reporters was the latest knock on environmental, social …
Impact Investing | December 13, 2021
Impact brain trust delivers proposals for mobilizing capital for a just transition
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 13 – Mandatory impact accounting. Harmonized sustainability standards. And broadened powers for multilateral development banks and development finance institutions to absorb …
Impact Voices | December 13, 2021
Here’s how we can mobilize private capital for a green and just transition
In July this year, at the invitation of the UK’s G7 Presidency, the Impact Taskforce was formed to answer the pressing question: “How …
The cover of Capricorn Investment Group's 2021 impact report
Impact Management | December 8, 2021
‘Tis the season… for impact reports from fund managers and wealth advisors
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 8 – For all the clamor for greater disclosure and transparency in impact investing, few investors are likely to digest all …
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
Impact Voices | December 8, 2021
Shifting power, redefining risk, and advancing justice: A model for investors to advance racial equity
Over 100 million people in America live in economic insecurity, which includes half of all people of color. As we become a more …
Impact Management | December 7, 2021
Veris presses its managers to report on impact and diversity
Veris Wealth Partners, which recently crossed the $2 billion mark in assets under management, considers itself a “100% impact-focused wealth management firm.” But …
Signals | November 30, 2021
The great impact measurement and reporting convergence
ImpactAlpha. No. 30 – Broad financial accounting standards were pushed forward over decades by professional associations and standard-setting organizations. A similar process is …
Impact Voices | November 29, 2021
ESG data is a public good. Let’s open it up.
There is a lot of confusion about how to implement climate as well as environmental, social and governance, or ESG, analysis in finance. …
Impact Voices | November 22, 2021
Adopting impact performance standards to hold sustainable investing accountable for real-world outcomes
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure” is a now familiar trope in sustainable investing circles, reflecting the belief held by some that …
Impact Management | November 8, 2021
B to Small B: Four ways small businesses can manage their greenhouse gases
ImpactAlpha, November 8 – Small businesses in advanced economies contribute to 60-70% of total industrial pollution. Yet only 9% are able to quantify …
Impact Management | November 4, 2021
Optimizing for Impact: How investors can manage for impact on the SDGs
Optimizing for Impact. Want to learn more about Optimizing Impact for the Sustainable Development Goals? Over the next few weeks, ImpactAlpha will offer a …