chocolate
Beats | September 7, 2017
Uncommon Cacao vs. global commodity markets
To understand the impact that volatile commodity markets have on the “little guy,” just look at the Ivory Coast. The West African country …
- Beats
- The Brief
March 24, 2023
The Brief
The Week’s Impact Briefing
🎧On this week’s podcast. Host Monique Aiken has the headlines and Atlas Impact Partners’ Robert Brown and ImpactAlpha contributing editor Imogen Rose-Smith join David Bank to parse how bank failures and interest rate hikes have changed the dynamics of impact investing – perhaps forever. “There were a lot of great ideas that were lousy businesses, which got funded over the last 10 years in an exceptionally accommodative interest rate environment,” Brown says. “That’s over.”
The Week’s Agent of Impact
Mindy Lubber, Ceres: Making the business case for responsible investing. Hundreds of companies and investors this week urged policymakers to protect their “freedom to invest responsibly,” marking a new level of mobilization to reclaim the narrative from an anti-ESG campaign that refuses to go away. A key orchestrator of the effort was Mindy Lubber, who has, for two decades at the helm of the nonprofit Ceres, worked the levers of power in corporate offices, investor boardrooms and on Capitol Hill in support of climate goals. She helped marshal business buy-in for the 2015 Paris climate accord and the more recent U.S. Inflation Reduction Act. This week, her organization is convening 500 business and government leaders in New York. “A freedom to invest,” she says, “is very definitely a core part of the American way.”
The Week’s Dealflow
Dealflow spotlight: Catalyzing capital for Africa’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Providing access to clean water and sanitation has long been a public-sector responsibility. But lower-income countries struggle to fund and implement critical water and sanitation infrastructure. More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to sanitation services; nearly a billion lack clean drinking water. This week, Belgium-based Incofin rolled out its Water Access Acceleration Fund with €36 million ($38.4 million) in blended financing from development finance institutions, banks, nonprofits and other organizations “to prove that the drinking water sector is investment-ready, even when targeting low-income people,” said Incofin’s Dina Pons. The fund includes a first-loss layer staked by USAID.
The Week’s Talent
James Andrus, ex- of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, joined Franklin Templeton in the new role of sustainability global markets vice president… Claudia Levan, former principal at General Atlantic, joined Lightspeed Venture Partners as fundraising vice president… Josepha Montana, ex- of Turenne Capital, joined Partech as chief sustainability officer, a new role.
The Week’s Jobs
💼 Share the week’s impact jobs. Want to post a job in The Brief? Drop us a note.
- The Call
Memphis skyline
Muni Impact | February 9, 2023
Engaging racial-equity risks and opportunities in municipal finance (video)
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – The fatal beating by police of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month exposed risks to the city’s finances that have …
Photo by Tamarcus Brown on UnsplashMuni 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.” …
- Podcasts
Podcasts | March 24, 2023
How bank failures and interest rate hikes have changed the dynamics of impact investing.
Host Monique Aiken has the headlines and Atlas Impact Partners’ Robert Brown and ImpactAlpha contributing editor Imogen Rose-Smith join David Bank to parse …
agents-of-impact | March 17, 2023
Ben McAdams, Sorenson Impact: Marrying public real estate and private capital (podcast)
What is the net worth of Salt Lake City? It’s a relatively straightforward exercise to total up the balance sheet of a company …
Podcasts | March 10, 2023
Scaling purpose built impact with Priya Parrish
Impact Engine’s Priya Parrish joins David Bank to explain why purpose built investment firms end up with better impact outcomes than purpose driven …
Podcasts | March 3, 2023
Sana Kapadia on the alpha opportunity for investors who are gender smart
2x Global’s Sana Kapadia joins host Monique Aiken to ring in Women’s History Month and talk about the state of gender-lens investing. Plus, …
Podcasts | February 24, 2023
University of California’s rescue of Blackstone’s REIT
The roundtable – that’s Brian Walsh, Imogen Rose-Smith and David Bank – is back together to discuss private equity and, specifically, that $4.5 …
Podcasts | February 17, 2023
How Project Equity is surfing the ‘silver tsunami’ to help turn employees into owners
It’s called the Silver Tsunami. In the United States, baby boomers own half of the privately held businesses with employees. And those boomers …
Policy Corner | February 10, 2023
Finding the opportunities for impact investors in Biden’s SOTU
Fran Seegull of the Impact Investing Alliance joins host David Bank (filling in for Brian Walsh) to talk about jobs, climate and communities …
Podcasts | February 3, 2023
Finding the opportunities in (and the problems with) the municipal bond market
ImpactAlpha’s David Bank joins Host Monique Aiken to to share some takeaways from this week’s Agents of Impact Call on the steps that …
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 …
- Opinion
Impact Management | March 22, 2023
Impact Reporting: Frequently asked questions (and answers!) from impact investors
Impact fund managers are increasingly expected to provide their investors (i.e., institutional investors and allocators) with reporting that offers visibility into their portfolio’s …
Conservation | March 21, 2023
Privately owned working forests are a climate asset
When Fred van Eck, a New York investment manager, purchased 9,400 acres of Northern California and Oregon forest for timber production in the …
Impact Voices | March 21, 2023
Tree planting has gotten a bad name. Here’s how to restore its effectiveness as a climate solution.
What’s not to love about planting trees? Once considered a tried and true solution to the climate crisis, tree-growing has lately been given …
Sustaining Impact | March 9, 2023
Leveraging catalytic capital to transform economic systems in Africa
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s series, “Sustaining Impact,” authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Sustaining Learning Labs. Key insights …
Impact Investing | March 8, 2023
Trillion-dollar opportunity: Tackling women’s digital exclusion in the developing world
For all the optimism contained in International Women’s Day, the reality is that in most places around the world, the gender gap isn’t …
Return on Inclusion | March 6, 2023
Want to wring impact from ESG? Look to governance
If ESG is a foot in the door to an economy built around sustainability, inclusion and equity, then governance is the power that’s …
Photo by Eduardo Barrios on UnsplashInvesting in Health | March 1, 2023
How private investment in the care economy can work for care workers as well
The pandemic heightened awareness of the foundational role that caregiving plays in the US economy. Yet care infrastructure for childcare, eldercare, and other …
Impact Investing | February 28, 2023
Six trust-based practices to help investors shift power to communities
Often within the impact investing landscape, “impact” is defined by who we invest in and what we invest in. To truly create systems …
Impact Investing | February 26, 2023
War on Ukraine One Year Later: Response, Reconstruction, and Recovery
One year ago, the unthinkable happened: history, whose end had been (perhaps academically) proclaimed after the fall of the Soviet Union, came roaring …
Pulled from "Scaling Impact" coverImpact Voices | February 16, 2023
Six financial paradigm shifts needed to scale impact
Over my 20-plus years as a professional working on economic development, development finance, and impact investing, as both an investor and an advisor, …
Sustaining Impact | February 15, 2023
Beyond the fairy tale: Investment strategies that catalyze real impact
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s series, “Sustaining Impact,” authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Sustaining Learning Labs. Key insights …
The production of lithium from brine extracted from the Clayton Valley basinClimate 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 …
- Agents of Impact
Impact Investing | March 24, 2023
Mindy Lubber, Ceres: Making the business case for responsible investing
ImpactAlpha, March 24 – Hundreds of companies and investors this week urged policymakers to protect their “freedom to invest responsibly,” marking a new …
agents-of-impact | March 17, 2023
Ben McAdams, Sorenson Impact: Marrying public real estate and private capital (podcast)
What is the net worth of Salt Lake City? It’s a relatively straightforward exercise to total up the balance sheet of a company …
Agents of Impact | March 10, 2023
Laura Ortiz Montemayor, SVX Mexico and Regenera Ventures: Stewarding capital for Mexico’s regenerative economy
ImpactAlpha, March 10 – Laura Ortiz Montemayor is not on board with decarbonization or its advocates. “Carbon is key to life. It’s a …
Inclusive Economy | February 17, 2023
Rihanna: Shining star power on inclusion in music and business
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 17 – Years before this week’s elegant and understated Super Bowl appearance, Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty turned down the NFL’s invitation to headline …
Agents of Impact | February 3, 2023
Andrew Crosson, Invest Appalachia: Catalytic capital for community impact
ImpactAlpha, February 3 — Andrew Crosson was a decade deep in the work of community economic development in central Appalachia when he got …
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 …
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