Democracy and Power
Katni, INDIA
Impact Voices | September 26, 2023
Investing in ‘meaningful connectivity’ to a better internet in Africa, Asia and Latin America
Heads of state from around the world gathered at the UN Headquarters in New York last week to review the implementation of the …
Photo: Eman Mohammed, Survival Media Agency
Impact Investing | September 10, 2023
Climate protestors step up their game as climate action falters
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 11 – Tomato soup on Van Gogh’s sunflowers. A blockade of Burning Man. This weekend, climate protestors staged their latest stunt …
Chris Bentley and Lawrence Williams. Photo by The De-Carceration Fund.
Impact Tech | August 15, 2023
The De-Carceration Fund raises $8.5 million to invest in ‘justice tech’
ImpactAlpha, August 15 — Extractive products and services that have grown up around the US criminal justice system cost families billions of dollars …
Photo credit: Gram Vaani
Dealflow | July 14, 2023
Deal spotlight: A social media platform for India’s poor
ImpactAlpha, July 14 – The founders of Delhi-based Gram Vaani had a vision for giving India’s rural poor a greater voice and agency. …
Photo credit: Gram Vaani
Dealflow | July 12, 2023
Acumen invests in Gram Vaani to increase accountability in India’s ‘media dark’ communities
ImpactAlpha, July 12 – If “democracy dies in darkness,” as the Washington Post says, there’s cause for concern in India, the world’s largest …
Image credit: CTVC
News and Information | May 21, 2023
CTVC secures $1.8 million to ramp up climate-tech data insights
ImpactAlpha, May 21 – Climate investor Kim Zou launched Climate Tech VC in 2020 to track trends in climate tech investing. The free …
Human Rights | April 17, 2023
Managing human rights risk rises up the agenda of venture capitalists
Governance is the new big thing for tech investors, since the FTX fraud and investigations by the SEC have brought it out on …
Photo credit: MDIF
Europe | March 29, 2023
MDIF and partners democratize impact investing in independent media
ImpactAlpha, March 29 – Media Development Investment Fund has for 23 years invested in independent media outlets in places where a free press …
The production of lithium from brine extracted from the Clayton Valley basin
Climate and Clean Tech | February 13, 2023
EV supply chains are riddled with human rights abuses. Tech can help eliminate them.
More electric vehicles (EVs) were sold each week of 2022 than in all of 2011. Analysts expect this explosive growth to remain unabated …
Human Rights | January 11, 2023
A human rights approach in impact investing
Overcoming today’s global challenges and creating positive change requires collaboration and innovative solutions from every sector and corner of society to enable all …
ESG | November 8, 2022
Anticipating election wins, conservative politicians escalate attacks on ESG ‘collusion.’
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 8 – Republicans are feeling emboldened as Americans head to the polls for today’s midterm elections. Just days ago, a group …
Impact Investing | November 2, 2022
What’s at stake for climate, ESG and impact investors in the U.S. midterm elections
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 2 – The annual global climate summit known as COP27, this year in Egypt, will coincide with next week’s midterm elections …
Impact Investing | October 20, 2022
Development finance institutions face calls for reform in the face of cascading climate and energy crises
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 21 – Embattled World Bank chief David Malpass made an about-face last week, copping to manmade global warming and the need …
Photo by MDIF.
Democracy and Peace | September 28, 2022
Nearly a dozen independent news organizations in Nigeria get support from Media Development Investment Fund
ImpactAlpha, September 28 — Last year’s youth-led uprising against police brutality spurred Nigeria’s biggest anti-government protests in a generation. MDIF launched a three-year …
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 …
Photo credit: UNICEF Ukraine
Catalytic Capital | August 4, 2022
How UNICEF’s Bridge Fund is speeding the delivery of aid to Ukraine and other crisis zones
It took Yulia, a mother from Kharkiv, Ukraine, seven days to reach the Polish border with her one-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son. They …
Signals | July 14, 2022
Is a green transition the cause – or the solution – in Sri Lanka’s crisis?
ImpactAlpha, July 14 – It was an irresistible meme: A crash transition to organic farming tanked Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector and sent the country …
Democracy and Power | July 6, 2022
Aristata Capital raises £40 million for impact litigation fund to close the ‘justice gap.’
ImpactAlpha, July 7 – London-based Aristata launched in 2020 to carve out a slice of the booming litigation funding space for cases that deliver …
Ukrainian families flee the war across the Hungarian border. Photo: Janossy Gergely
Catalytic Capital | March 24, 2022
How Open Road helps providers of essential services carry on in conflict zones
ImpactAlpha, March 24 – In Syria, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in a decade-long civil war, an advance warning …
Democracy and Peace | March 11, 2022
How Media Development Investment Fund calculates political risk to back press freedom (Q&A)
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 9 – Western investors in Russia are running away from political risk. For more than two decades, Media Development Investment Fund …
Impact Investing | March 1, 2022
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine delivers a dose of green shock therapy
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 1 – The “shock therapy” that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago was intended to speed the …
The Reconstruction | January 8, 2022
On anniversary of Capitol attack, stakeholders hold corporations accountable for democracy
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 6 – Add political stability to the list of systemic risks that keep investors up at night. ‘Political risk’ has historically …
Democracy and Power | December 15, 2021
Turning pandemic profits into ‘democracy dividends’
Even as the recent discovery of the Omicron variant drags out the Covid pandemic, the richest Americans are still doing incredibly well. The …
Photo credit: European Journalism Observatory.
Dealflow | November 30, 2021
Media Development Investment Fund backs Pluralis to invest in independent media in Europe
ImpactAlpha, November 30 — The decline of independent global news outlets has accelerated with rising news censorship and danger for journalists. MDFI’s Emerging …
Impact Investing | November 23, 2021
A climate investor looks ahead to COP27 in Egypt (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 23 – Only two weeks after the COP26 global climate summit, Stephan Nicoleau of climate investment firm Full Cycle is looking …
Photo by Guilherme Cunha on Unsplash
Capitalism Reimagined | October 26, 2021
Expanding employee ownership to empower workers and strengthen small businesses
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has made the already unpredictable futures of working and middle class Americans even more fragile. Impact investors are turning …
Dealflow | October 19, 2021
Sudan’s first foreign venture capital investment in 30 years: $5 million for Alsoug.com
ImpactAlpha, October 19 — Macroeconomic, political and currency risks can make investors wary of infrastructure and private equity in Africa (for context, see …
Photo credit: Workable's Resources.
Capitalism Reimagined | October 12, 2021
Omidyar Network commits $10 million in grants for reimagining capitalism
ImpactAlpha, October 12 — Markets can be, and are being, reshaped by movements, policies and investments. Omidyar Network, which has spun off a …
News and Information | September 28, 2021
Media boomlet in climate and impact investing follows the money
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 28 – Media outlets cite the flow of capital to ESG and climate funds as evidence of the arrival of impact investing. …
Photo credit: Change.org
Dealflow | September 23, 2021
Big-name investors donate their stakes as Change.org converts to nonprofit ownership
ImpactAlpha, September 23 — With its dot-org website and social-activist mission, Change.org was often mistaken for a nonprofit organization. Now it is owned …
Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash
Capitalism Reimagined | September 14, 2021
Disinformation poses systemic risks – so universal owners are pressing media companies to renounce it
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 14 – Talk about negative externalities. False information intended to mislead viewers on climate, COVID-19, racial justice and other issues may drive …
Photo credit: PolicyLink
Capitalism Reimagined | June 24, 2021
Turning pledges into policies to invest in Black Americans and multi-racial prosperity
ImpactAlpha, June 24 – Investors and executives can lead in many ways as they seek to fulfill their often heartfelt pledges to do …
Capitalism Reimagined | June 22, 2021
Turning the renewed power of workers into a lasting pillar of stakeholder capitalism
These days, American workers could well be saying, as Richard Fariña wrote and Nancy Sinatra sang, “Been down so long it looks like …
The Reconstruction | April 20, 2021
Reviving a Black cultural corridor in West Oakland – as a community-led cooperative
In another era, Esther’s Orbit Room helped make West Oakland the “Harlem of the West,” hosting the likes of B.B. King, James Brown …
Impact Voices | March 29, 2021
Georgia is throttling voters. The South’s financial system is doing the same to its entrepreneurs.
The ban on offering snacks and water to people waiting in line to vote that was just passed into law in Georgia really …
NovotMoto raised $418,000 on Wefunder to bring affordable solar power to the Congo.
Impact Voices | March 15, 2021
Rule changes could spur $1 billion in crowdfunded investment
Regulation Crowdfunding allows startup founders to raise capital from unaccredited investors as well as accredited investors, and publicly promote their offerings. Part of the …
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
News and Information | March 10, 2021
Reliable digital media is fertile ground for Media Development Investment Fund
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 10 – The push: Government-backed media outlets and oligarch-vested interests are pushing down trust in journalism around the world. The pull: The …
Photo credit: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Dealflow | February 1, 2021
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative spins off criminal justice reform activities
ImpactAlpha, February 1 – Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the mission-focused company launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, is allocating $350 …
Scenes from the Party to the Polls in Brunswick, GA | Michael Scott Milner
Return on Inclusion | January 5, 2021
How Georgia’s civic mobilization is rallying local efforts to close the racial wealth gap
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 5 – The impact of the massive voter education effort in Georgia may last well beyond today’s runoff election for two seats …
Policy Corner | December 15, 2020
Impact investors are wonking out on policy
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The spate of recommendations greeting the incoming Biden administration is the fruit of years of work in the fields …
Civic Tech | November 25, 2020
Why impact investors should double down on democracy funding
The post-mortem on this election is far from over, but as the news of the past few weeks has unfolded, we are seeing …
Democracy and Power | November 25, 2020
How to stop ‘astroturf’ campaigns and the spread of misinformation
That the network of trade associations and advocacy groups blocking meaningful action on climate change was bankrolled by fossil fuel interests comes not …
Photo credit: Good Work Network
Democracy and Power | November 23, 2020
Grassroots groups are mobilizing communities to take racial justice from protest to progress
With $30 million in grants to 60 local and national racial justice organizations, Kresge Foundation is seeking to harness the power of this …
Dealflow | September 29, 2020
Insurer QBE backs Save the Children’s impact fund
ImpactAlpha, September 29 – Save the Children, best known for its humanitarian aid work, has reached a $6 million first close for an …
Dealflow | September 24, 2020
MacArthur Foundation commits $25 million to COVID recovery and election integrity
ImpactAlpha, September 24 – MacArthur Foundation has made grants totaling $10 million to organizations supporting Black, Native and other under-represented groups disproportionately affected …