- Beats
- The Brief
January 31, 2023
The Brief
Featured: Muni Impact
Activest’s FIRE strategy seeks to bend the arc of municipal finance toward ‘fiscal justice.’ It’s distressingly easy to find places where city finances are distorted by systemic racism or outright bigotry. It’s harder to spot projects that are using financial tools to redress social harms and advance racial equity. Activest, the investment research and analytics firm, made its reputation by calling out credit risks in cities that, for example, are reliant on excessive fees and fines on their residents of color. To finance solutions, Activest is preparing to become an investment advisor itself. With Florida-based Community Capital Management, Activest later this year plans to launch the FIRE Fund, for "fixed-income racial equity," to help investors back municipal bonds and other fixed-income products that move capital to what it calls “fiscal justice.” “FIRE addresses the way that debt in the form of fixed-income products has been inaccessible, extractive and harmful for Black residents,” Activest’s Ryan Bowers tells ImpactAlpha. “FIRE provides a different model of investing that centers the voice and perspective of Black people and communities and takes a regenerative approach to community wealth-building.”
Dealflow: Regeneration Finance
Obvious Ventures backs Senken to finance reforestation through ‘carbon forwards’. Berlin and Cape Town-based Senken is a blockchain-based carbon credit trading platform. Its next offering is a form of advance-purchase carbon credits to support reforestation and ecosystem restoration projects in development. The carbon credit “forwards” provide investors with discounted carbon credits in return for financing environmental projects upfront. Senken plans to test the concept with a verified mangrove restoration project in Kenya. Obvious Ventures led the $7.5 million financing round. Offline Ventures, Inflection, Kraken Ventures and Climate Capital participated.
Impact Voices: Community Capital
How Fair Food Network is reshaping investment norms to fight wealth inequity. New place-based funds that take a community-first approach are helping shift power dynamics and investing norms that have led to wealth inequity. “Capital is an expression of relational, structural and personal power,” write Anjali Deshmukh of Make Justice Normal and Fair Food Network’s Noah Fulmer and Kate Krauss. “Though often made invisible, these power dynamics are root causes of wealth gaps.” The Fair Food Network, an Ann Arbor, Mich-based nonprofit, is helping stand up the Michigan Good Food Fund, which is raising grant and catalytic capital to unlock $40 million for mission-driven and diverse-led food enterprises. A community board made up of local food entrepreneurs, nonprofits, government, and financial and technical assistance providers sets direction and performance targets for the collaborative.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
ImpactAlpha partner event: New Ventures is hosting the Latin America Impact Investing Forum, or FLII, Feb. 28-March 2 in Mérida, Mexico. ImpactAlpha subscribers get 35% off with the code IMPACTALPHA35.
- The Call
Photo by Tamarcus Brown on Unsplash
Muni Impact | November 18, 2022
Mispriced risks, investor demand and community power center racial equity in municipal bonds (video)
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 18 – Cities around the U.S. are raising low-cost capital in the municipal bond markets by highlighting intentional efforts to address long-standing …
Call Recording | September 30, 2022
Agents of Impact Call No. 45: Creative capital for gender-smart investments (video)
ImpactAlpha, September 30 – Capital to support women’s economic growth and financial inclusion is flowing – finally! – in many advanced economies. In emerging …
Climate Finance | September 19, 2022
New momentum and stubborn challenges as Climate Week kicks off (Call No. 44)
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 19 – Investors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives and world leaders have descended on New York for Climate Week, the annual gathering alongside the …
photo: PixabayOriginals | June 27, 2022
Seven Calls: Agents of Impact on carbon pricing, political risk, climate adaptation, responsible fintech and more
ImpactAlpha, June 27 – ImpactAlpha’s spring season of Agents of Impact Calls spanned a period of tumult in the financial markets: instability in …
Call Recording | June 3, 2022
Call No. 43: How responsible fintech in Africa provides resilience in a downturn (video)
ImpactAlpha, June 3 – Just as investment in financial inclusion in Africa was really ramping up, a market downturn threatens to slow progress. Or …
Impact Investing | May 13, 2022
Call No. 42: Business financing beyond venture capital to fuel the boom in entrepreneurship (video)
ImpactAlpha, May 13 – One defining outcome of the pandemic: a boom in entrepreneurship. A record five million businesses were started in the …
Inclusive Economy | April 22, 2022
Call No 41: How investors are catalyzing climate capital for adaptation and equity (video)
ImpactAlpha, April 22 – The Ukraine crisis risks tipping up to 1.7 billion people — over one-fifth of humanity — into poverty, destitution …
Frontier and Growth Markets | April 1, 2022
Call No. 40: How impact investors embrace political risk to keep progress flowing (video)
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 1 – High-impact investments in fragile countries invariably entail political risk. And impact investments in a free press, humanitarian tech, financial inclusion …
Capitalism Reimagined | March 11, 2022
Call No. 39: Moving from ESG talk to action at major corporations (video)
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 11 – It’s one thing for a corporation to set environmental or social goals. It’s another to shift executives, employees and supply …
Policy Corner | February 25, 2022
Call No. 38: Inside the generational opportunity to reshape rules of corporate disclosure
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 25 – Bottom-up policies for access to capital in divested communities. Top-down strategies to reshape capitalism to work for all stakeholders. “We …
Call Recording | February 11, 2022
Call No. 37: Ramping up the supply of carbon reduction to meet the urgent demand (video)
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 11 – ”$100 a ton?” exclaimed CDP’s Paula DiPerna on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact Call this week. “I should be popping champagne.” …
Looking Ahead to 2022 | December 17, 2021
The Reconstruction in 2022: Seizing the moment to build multiracial prosperity and democracy
‘Tis the season for our lookaheads to 2022 and, thanks to ImpactAlpha subscribers, we are able to make the roundups freely available. So …
- Podcasts
Catalytic Capital | January 27, 2023
Why development finance institutions are being pressed to ‘publish what you fund’
Development finance institutions are essential to the mobilization of capital to slow climate change and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. So why …
Agents of Impact | January 20, 2023
Demetric Duckett, Living Cities: New decision-makers for the new majority (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 20 – Building wealth for women and people of color is about numbers as well as equity. By mid-century, there will be …
Impact Investing | January 13, 2023
Impact Briefing: How the Milken Institute is connecting disadvantaged communities with critical project development financing
The historic buildout of low-carbon and sustainable infrastructure is on. Spurring this climate action is hundreds of billions in federal spending in the …
Podcasts | December 16, 2022
Why early Tesla investor Kristin Hull sees Elon Musk as an ESG risk (podcast)
Host Brian Walsh is joined by Kristin Hull of Nia Impact Capital, a long-time Tesla investor who says Elon Musk’s Twitter escapades threaten …
Jigar Shah (Photo: David Deal/Redux)Climate Finance | December 13, 2022
Jigar Shah on building a $140 billion ‘bridge to bankability’ for the energy transition (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 13 – Talk about catalytic capital. With a fresh $100 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act boosting its financing capacity …
Podcasts | December 9, 2022
Building Community Wealth with Aisha Weeks
Host Monique Aiken has the headlines and David talks with Aisha Weeks of the Dearfield Fund for Black Wealth about narrowing the racial …
Fifty Years' Seth BannonAgents of Impact | December 2, 2022
Seth Bannon, Fifty Years: Big swings at big challenges (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 2 – Back in 1931, Winston Churchill predicted we’d grow real meat without the animals. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug …
Podcasts | December 2, 2022
Ownership trusts to close the wealth gap with Zoe Schlag (podcast)
Host Brian Walsh catches up with Common Trust’s Zoe Schlag, who is taking aim at U.S. wealth gaps by helping employees become owners …
Return on Inclusion | November 29, 2022
Toussaint Bailey, Uplifting Capital: Bringing ‘the quietly bothered’ into impact investing (podcast)
Between the true believers in investing for impact and those that, for whatever reason, have their heels dug in, there are the “quietly …
Return on Inclusion | November 21, 2022
VC Include’s Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson on three drivers of inclusion alpha (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, November 21 – Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson is nearly one-third of the way toward her goal of seeding 100 women and historically underrepresented fund …
Podcasts | November 18, 2022
Stephan Nicoleau shares an update from COP27
Amy Cortese catches up with FullCycle’s Stephan Nicoleau who is at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, to talk methane, governance and catalytic …
Podcasts | November 11, 2022
Ceres’ Steven Rothstein on the midterm elections and COP27
Host Brian Walsh is joined by Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, to chat about how climate …
- Opinion
Impact Voices | January 31, 2023
How Fair Food Network is reshaping investment norms to fight wealth inequity
Despite the good intentions and creative strategies of impact investors, extreme wealth inequity persists. The climate crisis will only deepen the divide, unless …
Oklahoma on the map of USAImpact Voices | January 30, 2023
Is ESG an emergency from which the public needs protection? Oklahoma legislators ride to the rescue.
Scores of anti-ESG bills were introduced in Republican-led states in January. The onslaught continues despite the more than $1.1 billion in financial costs …
Investing in Health | January 30, 2023
Trust, not technology, bonds patients and providers
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 …
Policy Corner | January 25, 2023
The state of impact investing public policy – and opportunities for 2023
The past year has been one of both exciting growth and unexpected challenges for the impact investing industry. Amid an uncertain macroeconomic forecast …
Muni Impact | January 24, 2023
Market hypocrisy, political opportunism, and the common good
The attorney general of Texas earlier this month accused Citigroup of running afoul of a state law that “bars most government contracts with …
KAMPALA, UGANDAScaling Impact | January 23, 2023
How to get more international money flowing in local currency
When considering catalytic capital investments in emerging markets and specifically Africa, a persistent and material challenge is the need to increase local currency participation …
Climate Finance | January 23, 2023
Variations on a theme: Securitizing fees and taxes to finance climate adaptation
Ghana securitized an education tax to improve access to education and a petrol tax to pay off legacy debts in the banking sector. …
Impact Voices | January 18, 2023
CEOs are signaling their corporate impact – with their political contributions
There are many important metrics that can be used to measure a company’s impact. But none are more important than the company’s and …
Scaling Impact | January 12, 2023
Indispensable growth factor for impact funds, strategies and fund managers: catalytic capital
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Scaling Impact” series, authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Scaling Learning Labs. Key insights …
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 …
Impact Investing | January 5, 2023
Three ways product resale is making the circular economy sexy
You and me baby, we’re nothing but animals trying to deny our preternatural reuse instincts by confining ourselves to linear economy rules. And …
Climate Finance | January 4, 2023
Investing in climate entrepreneurs who think like project developers
Progress is as much about implementation as it is about invention. I wish I could lay claim to these profound words. They were …
- Agents of Impact
Agents of Impact | January 27, 2023
Gary Forster, Publish What You Fund: Holding development finance institutions accountable for impact
ImpactAlpha, January 27 – Gary Forster left his job in logistics at Procter & Gamble to volunteer in Zambia, inspired by the 2005 …
Agents of Impact | January 20, 2023
Demetric Duckett, Living Cities: New decision-makers for the new majority (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 20 – Building wealth for women and people of color is about numbers as well as equity. By mid-century, there will be …
Agents of Impact | January 13, 2023
Laurie Spengler, Courageous Capital Advisors: Structuring and designing finance for impact
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 13 – A small-business lender in the Mississippi delta. A microfinance bank in Uganda. A global development finance institution in London. Laurie …
Napoleon Wallace, Southern Reconstruction FundAgents of Impact | December 16, 2022
Napoleon Wallace, Southern Reconstruction Fund: Restorative capital for Black wealth
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 16 – Napoleon Wallace’s presence was all over the recent Mission Investors Exchange conference in Baltimore. …As the co-founder of Activest, which …
Agents of Impact | December 9, 2022
Eric Berlow, Vibrant Data Labs: Visualizing the flows of climate finance
“I love complexity,” says Berlow, founder of Vibrant Data Labs, a “social impact data science” group. An ecologist and data nerd, Berlow spent …
Fifty Years' Seth BannonAgents of Impact | December 2, 2022
Seth Bannon, Fifty Years: Big swings at big challenges (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 2 – Back in 1931, Winston Churchill predicted we’d grow real meat without the animals. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug …
Agents of Impact | November 4, 2022
Mia Mottley, Barbados: Shaping the global finance agenda.
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 4 – Barbados is an island nation of just 166 square miles and less than 300,000 inhabitants. But its leader, Mia …
photo credit: Jim Hill/CPR NewsAgents of Impact | October 28, 2022
Blake Jones, Kachuwa Impact Fund: Making co-ops work for investors, too.
Blake Jones is “a cooperative geek.” After co-founding four co-op enterprises, including Namaste Solar and Clean Energy Credit Union, he has brought the …
Agents of Impact | October 7, 2022
Regina Kline, Enable Ventures: Closing the disability gap
ImpactAlpha, October 7 – Regina Kline has seen the state of labor and employment for disabled Americans up close, as a lawyer representing workers …
Agents of Impact | September 23, 2022
Suzanne Biegel, GenderSmart: Making markets work for women and the world
ImpactAlpha, September 23 – Women are hot… investments. So declared ImpactAlpha back in 2014, when we used quote marks for investors unfamiliar with “gender …
Agents of Impact | August 19, 2022
Charley Cummings, Walden Mutual Bank: Sustainable lending for sustainable food
Within the next few weeks, if everything goes according to plan, the first customers will make deposits in New Hampshire-based Walden Mutual Bank, …
Photo credit: Annie O'NeillAgents of Impact | August 5, 2022
Brandon Dennison, Coalfield Development: Forging a path for Appalachia’s green economy
ImpactAlpha, August 5 – In the roller coaster climate bill negotiations with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, Brandon Dennison brought something to the table …
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