Impact Management
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 …
Impact Investing | November 4, 2021
Climate crisis is over (if you want it)
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 4 – Global finance leaders tried to evoke something like John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s hopeful paean at “Finance Day” at …
Impact Management | October 27, 2021
Optimizing for Impact: Develop a data-for-decision-making mindset
Optimizing for Impact. Want to learn more about Optimizing Impact for the Sustainable Development Goals? Over the next few weeks, ImpactAlpha will offer a …
Impact Management | October 20, 2021
Optimizing for Impact: Assign an ABC goal type to each investment
Optimizing for Impact. Want to learn more about Optimizing Impact for the Sustainable Development Goals? Over the next few weeks, ImpactAlpha will offer a …
Impact Management | October 14, 2021
Optimizing for Impact: What are the five dimensions of impact?
Optimizing for Impact. Want to learn more about Optimizing Impact for the Sustainable Development Goals? Over the next few weeks, ImpactAlpha will offer a …
Impact Management | October 7, 2021
Consortium launches Novata to drive ESG reporting in private markets
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 7 – Private companies and private markets represent the majority of the world’s economic activity, but their environmental, social and governance, or …
Impact Management | October 6, 2021
Optimizing for Impact: Where are you on your impact management journey?
Optimizing for Impact. Want to learn more about Optimizing Impact for the Sustainable Development Goals? Over the next few weeks, ImpactAlpha will offer …
Call Recording | October 1, 2021
Call No. 31: Making sense of the ABCs of measurement to optimize for impact
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 1 – Metrics. Standards. Dimensions. Frameworks. SDGs. Cathy Clark of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University’s Fuqua …
Impact Voices | September 29, 2021
Four steps investors can take to move beyond ESG greenwashing and drive real impact
ESG-focused assets — increasingly ubiquitous in the global investment landscape — have grown exponentially over the past 10 years. Currently in the United …
Policy Corner | September 27, 2021
Global standards for sustainability accounting must be holistic and inclusive
When global leaders converge on Glasgow in November for the COP26 climate summit, all eyes will be on the pledges that politicians make …
Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash
Impact Investing | September 27, 2021
Impact Investing 3.0: Measuring impact across all investment and business decisions
Impact is increasingly seen as not only crucial to a just recovery from effects of COVID-19, but also to the creation of stronger, …
Cathy Clark, Duke's Fuqua School of Business
Agents of Impact | September 24, 2021
Cathy Clark, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 24 – Before she herself began teaching 20 years ago, Cathy Clark helped her father run a summer program in Philadelphia that …
Photo credit: UNCF.
Dealflow | September 14, 2021
Black Venture Capital Consortium and Ford Foundation closes $7.5 million for student-led fund
ImpactAlpha, September 14 — The Student Venture Fund is part of BVCC’s two-year venture capital training for students from historically Black colleges and …
Impact Voices | September 13, 2021
Optimizing for Impact: Managing investments to meet goals for impact – and expectations of regulators
NEW: The United Nations Development Programme and CASE at Duke have released a free online training for global enterprises and investors on impact …
Inclusive Economy | August 26, 2021
UK’s Nick Hurd on the “window of opportunity” for a green and inclusive transition
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 26 – Nick Hurd, the former MP and government minister, is heading the Impact Taskforce, created under the U.K.’s presidency of the …
Impact Voices | August 23, 2021
It’s time to integrate children’s issues in ESG frameworks
Interest in ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing has exploded in recent years, as investors look to encourage positive change on the part …
Impact Voices | August 18, 2021
Modeling long-term emissions reductions to drive climate tech investments now
The increasing flow of capital into climate solutions offers a chance to avoid the most catastrophic climate scenarios. Increased investor focus on modeling …
Impact Management | August 16, 2021
You have an impact investing strategy. What to call it?
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 16 – An emerging markets public equities portfolio that actively engages with investees to improve ESG performance. A U.S. environmental commodities strategy …
International Finance Corp.
Signals | August 10, 2021
IFC puts a rosy spin on a tough year for impact fundraising
Investments intended to create, contributing toward and measured for impact reached $636 billion last year, up from $505 billion in 2019, reports the …
Signals | July 29, 2021
Green bonds or greenwashing? Growth of aquaculture poses risks for ocean health.
ImpactAlpha, July 29 – Mowi ASA, the Norwegian fish farming giant, raised €200 million from investors last year in what was the seafood industry’s …
Circular irrigation fields for growing crops | Photo credit: Trismegist San
Frontier and Growth Markets | July 27, 2021
Better economic data can drive inclusive growth in Africa
“In God we trust, everyone else must bring data,” said the statistician W. Edwards Deming. The debilitating effect of Covid19 on the economies …
Impact Management | July 27, 2021
Impact management gets a boost from the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing
ImpactAlpha, July 27 – As the market for impact investments grows, “so too must the metrics, tools, and platforms used to measure and disclose …
Impact Voices | July 22, 2021
Four ways investors can structure financing to incentivize positive impact
The Social Impact Bond made its debut in 2010 with the purpose of aligning initiatives and investors around social impact objectives. Since then, …
Impact Management | July 22, 2021
CFOs turn on sustainability reporting and ESG metrics in enterprise software suites
Ubi concordia, ibi victoria. Where there is harmony, there is victory. This Latin proverb is particularly relevant to my vision for holistic steering …
ESG | July 20, 2021
The numbers may be fuzzy, but the trends are clear when it comes to sustainable investment
ImpactAlpha, July 20 – The top line numbers from the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance’s biennial review back the now-conventional wisdom that interest is …
Impact Voices | July 15, 2021
Bringing transparency to the growing market for sustainability-linked debt
Sustainability-linked debt is gathering momentum globally. The umbrella term, which includes instruments such as sustainability-linked loans (SLLs) and sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs), is one …
Photo credit: Rawpixel.com
Frontier and Growth Markets | July 6, 2021
Scaling impact through nonprofit mergers and acquisitions
The ongoing pandemic and economic uncertainty have led non-profit leaders to contingency plan in creative and unprecedented ways, including strategic partnerships. The sector …
Impact Management | July 1, 2021
Big banks take on the challenge of accounting for their impact
ImpactAlpha, July 1 – By the end of the decade, financial accounting may seem quaint. In its place: a measure of value that …
ESG | June 21, 2021
Europe paves path to standardized ESG disclosure with Sustainability Reporting Directive
ImpactAlpha, June 21 – What a difference a year makes. U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement on the first day …
Corporate Impact | June 21, 2021
‘Buzzword bingo’ and other ways companies are gaming ESG
ImpactAlpha, June 21 – There’s a new game playing out between companies and investors in sustainable finance. Publicly-listed companies know that being seen to …