Features
The Brief | March 23, 2023
The Brief: Proxy season opener, Pepsico’s regenerative shift, flexible electric grids, Nigeria’s creative economy, the real price of water
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Shareholder Engagement This season’s shareholder resolutions are proxies in the ESG culture war. Votes on climate action, corporate …
Corporate Impact | March 23, 2023
This season’s shareholder resolutions are proxies in the ESG culture war
ImpactAlpha, March 23 – Votes on climate action, corporate political influence and reproductive rights will liven up this spring’s corporate annual general meetings. …
The Brief | March 22, 2023
The Brief: Metrics and mood music in impact reporting, embedded finance in emerging markets, urban resilience in Africa, social cost of carbon, electrify everything
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Next week’s Call: Metrics Madness. In partnership with the Southern Reconstruction Fund, ImpactAlpha is identifying key metrics for assessing …
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 …
Photo credit: Aliados
The Brief | March 21, 2023
The Brief: Biden’s veto, tree-planting redux, conservation easements, agribusiness in Kenya, disability-friendly travel, outcomes and levers for racial equity
Greetings, Agents of Impact! President Biden exercised his first veto to protect a Department of Labor rule allowing pension plan managers to consider …
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 …
Image by Freepik
Impact Management | March 21, 2023
Ten outcomes and three levers for investors in racial and economic equity
ImpactAlpha, March 21 — Moral imperative? The threat of economic instability? Or the unrealized economic potential of our nation’s diversity? Whatever their motivations, …
ImpactAlpha Open | March 21, 2023
ImpactAlpha Open: Metrics madness + social cost of carbon
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Welcome to the latest ImpactAlpha Open, a weekly roundup of news, trends and opportunities in impact investing. In this week’s newsletter: …
Photo credit: Aqua for All
The Brief | March 20, 2023
The Brief: Metrics for racial wealth-building, safe drinking water, solar for small businesses in India, innovations in climate finance, human capital disclosure
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Metrics Madness Q&A with Napoleon Wallace: Tracking investment theses against the promise of Reconstruction. Napoleon Wallace has a …
Impact Investing | March 20, 2023
Global Innovation Lab develops new financial models to tackle climate challenges in emerging markets
ImpactAlpha, March 20 – Global finance is not keeping up with the urgent challenge of decarbonizing the economy and helping communities adapt to …
Impact Management | March 20, 2023
Just Capital and Ford Foundation set a research agenda for human capital management
ImpactAlpha, March 20 – As much as 90% of the value of S&P 500 companies comes from “intangible” assets, most importantly talent. Yet …
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 …
Wikimedia Commons
The Brief | March 17, 2023
The Week in Impact Investing: Madness
TGIF, Agents of Impact! Banking impact. March madness, indeed. The annual basketball tournament in the U.S. has so far been overshadowed by the …
Impact Careers | March 17, 2023
The Week’s Impact Jobs: March 17, 2023
ImpactAlpha, March 17 — Employers in the fast-growing global impact investing market are hunting for talents. From impact associates and analysts to impact …
The Brief | March 16, 2023
The Brief: Metrics Madness, Fink’s fine line on ESG, embedded finance in emerging markets, climate tech in Los Angeles, solar recycling, top impact CEOs
Greetings, Agents of Impact! It’s time for Metrics Madness. ImpactAlpha, in partnership with the Southern Reconstruction Fund, is kicking off a tournament to …
photo: World Economic Forum
Institutional Impact | March 16, 2023
In Larry Fink’s letter to investors, ESG is the business imperative that dare not speak its name
ImpactAlpha, March 16 – Don’t expect BlackRock to back off from ESG any time soon. Even if the acronym appears nowhere in chairman …
Impact Investing | March 16, 2023
At these companies, CEOs focus on stakeholders to drive growth
ImpactAlpha, March 16 – Steve McDougal of climate consultants 3Degrees, Scott Jacobs of green infrastructure owner/investor Generate Capital, and Russell Diez-Canseco of organic …
Features | March 15, 2023
Freada and Mitch Kapor write the book on startup investing to close gaps of equity and opportunity
ImpactAlpha, March 15 — Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein have spent more than a decade betting on diverse founders with lived experience …
The Brief | March 15, 2023
The Brief: Investing in gap-closing startups, flexible growth capital in Uganda, affordable housing in West Africa, reversing biodiversity loss, deinfluencers
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Returns on Inclusion Freada and Mitch Kapor write the book on startup investing to close gaps of equity …
Image credit: Elevar Equity
The Brief | March 14, 2023
The Brief: Elevar’s strategy for low-income customers, water infrastructure in Africa, green bond in Jordan, biomass to biofuel, ImpactAssets 50
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Emerging Markets From India to Latin America, Elevar Equity invests in better livelihoods and products for low-income customers …
Image credit: Elevar Equity
Features | March 14, 2023
From India to Latin America, Elevar Equity invests in better livelihoods and products for low-income customers
ImpactAlpha, March 14 – In a volatile global economy, Elevar Equity has found a safe, or at least safer, harbor: low-income customers. There …
Impact Investing | March 14, 2023
The ImpactAssets 50 – er, 163 – is the biggest and most diverse ever
ImpactAlpha, March 14 – This year’s showcase of impact investment fund managers highlights bigger funds and increasing diversity as well as a focus …
ImpactAlpha Open | March 14, 2023
ImpactAlpha Open: Banking impact + regenerative economy
Hi there, Agents of Impact! Welcome to this week’s ImpactAlpha Open, your weekly guide to the impact economy. 👋 Upgrade to all-access. If you like ImpactAlpha Open, …
Banking Impact | March 13, 2023
Climate tech and other startups exhale after the U.S. backstops Silicon Valley Bank depositors
ImpactAlpha, March 13 – At the end of a nervous weekend, disaster was averted for Silicon Valley’s ecosystem of climate tech, health tech …
The Brief | March 13, 2023
The Brief: Systemic risks at Silicon Valley Bank, women-led businesses in LatAm and Asia, SPAC deal on deadline, catalytic capital grants, US SIF’s new chief
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Systemic Risk Climate tech and other startups exhale after the U.S. backstops Silicon Valley Bank depositors. At the …
The Brief | March 10, 2023
The Week in Impact Investing: Gender+
TGIF, Agents of Impact! 🗣 Through the looking glass. Sometimes a lens isn’t wide enough to take in the entire landscape. On this …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The Brief | March 9, 2023
The Brief: Catalytic capital for systems-change in Africa, resilient smallholder farmers, accessible virtual power plants, 8 ways to transform asset management
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Impact Voices: Catalytic Capital Leveraging catalytic capital to transform economic systems in Africa. The Small Foundation has seen too …
The Brief | March 8, 2023
The Brief: International Women’s Day edition: Gender and climate, inclusive diligence, leadership parity, digital literacy, Macro’s diverse voices
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: International Women’s Day Frontline communities hold the keys to inclusive gender and climate finance. Good green jobs. Better …
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 …
The Brief | March 7, 2023
The Brief: Women lead The Liist, infrastructure in emerging markets, heat pumps in Maine, cutting solar soft costs, ESG standards explained
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: The Liist Venture funds zero in on women’s health, while women-led funds tackle education, social equity and regeneration. …
ImpactAlpha Open | March 7, 2023
ImpactAlpha Open: March’s Liist of impact funds + climate alpha in public markets
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Welcome to this week’s ImpactAlpha Open, a weekly cheat sheet to investing in the impact economy. 👋 All-access ImpactAlpha. Enjoying ImpactAlpha Open? Upgrade to an …
The Brief | March 6, 2023
The Brief: India’s energy transition, digital upskilling in Mexico, small-business financing in Kansas City, purpose trusts for stakeholder governance
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Climate Impact in India India poised to lead – and test – the just energy transition. India is …
Climate Finance | March 6, 2023
India poised to lead – and test – the just energy transition
ImpactAlpha, March 6 – India is fast becoming the focus of efforts to super-charge climate funding into the Global South. Under Prime Minister …
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 …
The Brief | March 3, 2023
The Week in Impact Investing: Grounded
TGIF, Agents of Impact! 🗣 Taking root. Technology took a backseat to natural assets like land, farms and people at this week’s Latin …
Impact Careers | March 3, 2023
The Week’s Impact Jobs: March 3, 2023
ImpactAlpha, March 4 — From interns and associates to executive directors and board members, impact firms are on the hunt for your talent. Just …
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, …
The Brief | March 2, 2023
The Brief: Regeneration and risk-taking at FLII, decarbonizing food, green hydrogen, Egyptian fintech, clean energy acquisition
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Conference Circuit Regeneration and risk-taking: Overheard at the Latin American Impact Investing Forum. Some 800 agentes de impacto …
Signals | March 2, 2023
Regeneration and Risk-Taking: Overheard at the Latin American Impact Investing Forum
ImpactAlpha, March 2 – Some 800 agentes de impacto turned out for the forum, known as the FLII, in Mérida, Mexico this week. …
Photo by Vista Wei on Unsplash
Sponsored | March 2, 2023
California Clean Energy Fund Innovations seeks proposals for a China climate ETF or mutual fund
California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) Innovations, is requesting proposals from sustainable financial advisors and fund management companies that specialize in the development of …
The Brief | March 1, 2023
The Brief: ESG in muni markets, BlocPower’s big raise, Serena stakes SoLo, disability x tech, valuing workers in the care economy
Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Muni Impact The winding road to ESG standards in the municipal bond market. A paper manufacturer in Kalamazoo, …