Impact Management
Sponsored | November 30, 2022
How shared accountability can increase the social impact of healthcare investing
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with J&J Impact Ventures, ImpactAlpha is exploring the …
SMEs in a learning workshop at Ashesi University in Ghana | Photo by C3.
Catalytic Capital | November 23, 2022
C3 provides catalytic capital to accelerate the deployment of… catalytic capital
ImpactAlpha, November 23 — The Catalytic Capital Consortium, or C3, has awarded nearly $1.4 million in grants to Village Capital, Pacific Community Ventures, …
Climate Finance | November 17, 2022
From carbon counting to carbon accounting: The case for Emissions Liability Management
“There does not yet exist the capacity,” Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith warned at last month’s Breakthrough Energy Summit in Seattle, for almost any …
CapEQ’s Tynesia Boyea-Robinson
Impact Voices | November 16, 2022
A moonshot mindset for social-impact advantage
Editor’s Note: The Social Impact Advantage, the new book from Tynesia Boyea-Robinson of CapEQ, walks readers through a step-by-step process for what it …
New York City housing
Muni Impact | November 14, 2022
Managing social risks and addressing racial inequities in the muni bond market
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 14 – “Elevate and Rise” bonds in Denver. ESG-labeled bonds in Chicago. Social bonds in New York. Cities that issue hundreds of …
Dealflow | November 11, 2022
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Oversubscribed impact funds
ImpactAlpha, November 11 — In a challenging year for raising capital, impact funds are bucking the trend. Impact-focused climate funds from large private …
Impact Voices | November 3, 2022
Have we reached the tipping point for impact-linked compensation?
ImpactAlpha, November 3 – On a panel I recently moderated at the GIIN Investor Forum, I baited the participants with a statement that I …
Image by diana.grytsku on Freepik
Impact Management | November 1, 2022
Orchard Street’s Social and Environmental Impact Partnership fund secures £90 million
ImpactAlpha, November 2 — U.K.-based commercial real estate investor Orchard Street Investment Management has raised $103.3 million in a first close from investors …
Impact Voices | October 27, 2022
Can’t tell the players without a scorecard: Sorting out ESG, impact and sustainability
The Land of ESG is embroiled in a two-front war. Identifying the combatants and their arguments may help practitioners keep track of the …
Impact Management | October 27, 2022
How private equity can unlock impact alpha with ESG data from portfolio companies
Terms like “small” and “local” have become shorthand for “ethical” – a way for consumers and businesses to signal virtue. Meanwhile, having large …
Impact Management | October 17, 2022
To ESG or not to ESG? Politicization complicates messaging, but trendlines are clear
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 17 – Politicians, or rather, ex-pols, were on the hustings last week with seemingly opposite advice for executives and investors trying to …
Return on Inclusion | October 17, 2022
In tough times, corporate leaders must double down on diversity, equity and inclusion
History has shown that our nation’s most vulnerable workers tend to be hit hardest during economic downturns. During the height of the pandemic, …
Photo by Evisort.
Dealflow | October 14, 2022
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Impact M&A
ImpactAlpha, October 14 — The year has seen an uptick in impact mergers and acquisitions, including Mirova’s purchase of SunFunder to expand clean …
Impact Management | October 13, 2022
Overheard at the GIIN: As impact investing assets cross $1 trillion, investors eye a larger opportunity
ImpactAlpha, October 13 – Impact investing assets under management surpassed $1 trillion as funds, foundations, development finance agencies and other investors have sought impact …
Dealflow | October 10, 2022
Common Future shifts from investee to investor and takes a stake in SOCAP
ImpactAlpha, Oct, 11 – Common Future, the Oakland-based nonprofit focused on economic inequality, has taken a stake in SOCAP, the venerable impact investing …
QED portfolio company RestLess is fighting ageism in the U.K. Photo: Shutterstock
Impact Voices | October 6, 2022
How venture firm QED Investors is embracing ESG to strengthen its fintech portfolio
As a concept, ESG is nothing new. The idea of explicitly looking at environmental, social and governance issues as a holy trinity of …
Impact Management | October 6, 2022
VCs ♥️ ESG
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 6 – Red state politicians are fanning the flames of an anti-ESG backlash. Venture capitalists are embracing environmental, social and governance …
Impact Management | October 3, 2022
Societe Generale takes a stake, as impact ratings-agency impak raises €4.5 million
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 3 – Ratings by the Montreal and Paris-based impak emphasize the impact of a company’s products and services, not just how …
SunColombia
Impact Management | September 29, 2022
To understand the impact of electrifying schools in Colombia, ALIVE Ventures listens to parents and teachers
At Acumen Latam Impact Ventures (or ALIVE Ventures), one of our solar energy investments has reached over 100,000 beneficiaries with their solar installations …
Image by standret on Freepik
Women Rising | September 26, 2022
African Women Impact Fund secures initial $60 million for gender-lens investments
ImpactAlpha, September 26 — South Africa’s Standard Bank Group and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa are looking to raise $1 billion …
Impact Management | September 13, 2022
Seven ways organizations can foster personal, organizational, and social well-being
We recently engaged a consultant to help us examine and ultimately overhaul our internal governance and decision making systems. One of the exercises …
ESG | September 7, 2022
Dow Jones raises stakes in ESG data competition with news-driven ratings
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 7 – The opinion page of The Wall Street Journal has proudly championed the campaign to discredit environmental, social and governance, or …
Impact Voices | August 25, 2022
Tips for strengthening ESG investing from emerging market fund managers
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – Environmental, social and governance, or ESG, investing is dogged by inconsistent, and sometimes conflicting, reporting criteria and ratings that make …
Frontier and Growth Markets | August 25, 2022
Three lessons impact investors can offer venture capitalists looking for deals in Africa
At the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan earlier this summer, a striking consensus emerged: Africa is at a new investment crossroads. Venture capital …
Impact Investing | August 9, 2022
How four institutional investors use climate action plans to map their paths to net zero
New York State’s $279 billion pension fund understands the importance of planning. When the New York State Common Retirement Fund announced in 2020 …
M-Pesa | Photo credit: Vodafone
Frontiers in Social Innovation | August 8, 2022
Catalyzing new markets with early-stage impact investments
This post is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Frontiers in Social Innovation” series with Stanford GSB Center for Social Innovation. The posts in the series …
Investing in Health | August 2, 2022
How to set social impact targets in an uncertain world
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with J&J Impact Ventures, ImpactAlpha is exploring the …
Impact Management | August 1, 2022
How one climate tech fund counts – and reports – the impact of its portfolio
At Energy Impact Partners, we just released our 2022 Impact and ESG report, our fourth consecutive public accounting for our environmental and ESG …
Frontiers in Social Innovation | July 21, 2022
As recession looms, pandemic lessons for sustainable investing
Editor’s note: This post is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Frontiers in Social Innovation” series with Stanford GSB Center for Social Innovation. The posts in …
Seeding Impact | July 20, 2022
Assessing impact and risk when deploying catalytic capital
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s series, “Seeding Impact,” authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Seeding Learning Labs. …
Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash
Impact Management | July 19, 2022
New impact funds build their portfolios and scratch their way to a first close
ImpactAlpha, July 19 — Launching a fund is easy. Raising one is harder. Making it a success takes years. As a result, ImpactAlpha …
Frontiers in Social Innovation | July 14, 2022
Six strategies for crossing the valleys of death and scaling social innovations
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 | July 12, 2022
Five investors that are driving a “race to the top” in impact management
ImpactAlpha, Jul. 12 – Stockholm-based Trill Impact, an impact investment firm with more than $1 billion in assets under management, has set itself apart …
Policy Corner | July 7, 2022
The S.E.C.’s new rules (Part Two): Five features of the ESG proposal that warrant attention from investors
I recently wrote about the transformational pair of proposed rules from the SEC that would, at long last, lend clarity and comparability to …
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. …