Impact Voices
Editorials and guest essays from impact professionals
Blockchain/AI/IoT | April 23, 2024
How impact investments in Anthropic can strengthen responsible innovation in tech
In the realm of AI discourse, much attention is directed towards fostering responsible development of the technology itself (e.g. Is it free from …
Impact Voices | April 21, 2024
Unpacking the experiments, barriers, and pivots: exploring community banking with Kataly Foundation
Developing an investment strategy that meets our fiduciary requirements as resource stewards, embodies our racial justice values, and prioritizes the communities we serve …
Macro Impact | April 17, 2024
Good economy actually is good news as impact investors adjust to new realities
(Editor’s note: In this conclusion to ImpactAlpha’s four-part Macro Impact series, contributing editor Rob Brown parses the economic signals for public and private …
Sponsored | April 17, 2024
Innovative startups are changing the landscape of health impact everywhere. Are investors aware?
Editor’s note: This guest post is sponsored by Impact Ventures by J&J Foundation, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with …
Return on Inclusion | April 16, 2024
The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Impact Voices | April 16, 2024
How innovative financing structures can help close California’s housing gap
The way housing is financed and constructed in the United States has experienced little change in decades, leading to skyrocketing costs, barriers to …
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
Elevating impact reporting to raise the performance of impact fund managers
“One million lives touched.” “800 jobs created.” “50,000 acres of land restored.” Capital allocators often see these types of punchy headlines in the …
Impact Management | April 15, 2024
Six impact performance reports that go beyond the basics to give investors needed insights
Impact Frontier’s Impact Reporting Norms target a leverage point in the impact investing system: impact reporting. They promise to provide greater clarity and …
Impact Voices | April 15, 2024
How Mati Carbon is using the carbon markets to address farmers’ adaptation finance gap and boost their incomes
Ashish Kumar is a long-time climate investor and a market / ecosystem builder. He is a strategic advisor to Mati Carbon. This month, …
Catalytic Capital | April 9, 2024
The impact investing opportunity in Puerto Rico’s economic comeback
In one of Puerto Rico’s poorest neighborhoods, you can find what economists might call a “green shoot.” The plan for Oasis, a six-acre, …
Emerging and Growth Markets | April 9, 2024
How and why British International Investments directs capital to small businesses
Development finance institutions like to style themselves as the original impact investors. It was Lord Reith, the first chairman of the UK’s development …
Muni Impact | April 5, 2024
Billions to trillions: How municipal bonds can multiply the reach of the US ‘green bank’
To achieve stated climate goals, the U.S. government is embarking on what should be the largest coordination of private and public capital aimed …
SDGs | April 3, 2024
Blending Billions: Lessons from more than three dozen big blended finance transactions
In a world in which the UN SDG financing gap continues to grow, we face a double hurdle: blended finance is still struggling …
Sponsored | April 3, 2024
Seven red flags institutional investors should avoid when evaluating impact fund managers
As more investment firms launch impact funds, it has become increasingly difficult for institutional allocators to identify the most qualified fund managers to …
ESG | April 1, 2024
Why I love ESG regulation… and tell VC funds to forget about it as quickly as possible
Measure what matters. Disclosures are key. Transparency leads to accountability. Which investor, and in fact regulator, wouldn’t agree with these common-sense business mantras …
Impact Voices | March 27, 2024
Investing in life vs. tech: Lifting up nature-based solutions for ecosystems and communities
“We need to invest in life, rather than expensive infrastructure investments,” Anne van Leeuwen, a founding farmer from the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture, pleaded …
Impact Voices | March 26, 2024
Why Beta Impacto combined venture capital and an NGO to scale impact in Latin America
Over the past 15 years, my personal journey has been dedicated to making the world a better place, navigating through various stages of …
Catalytic Capital | March 25, 2024
Smarter targeting of capital gaps can make catalytic capital more effective
(Editor’s note: The insights in this article reflect the work of a diverse array of Catalytic Capital Consortium partners. The outputs of this …
Sponsored | March 25, 2024
Elevating Outcomes Beyond Clinics: Investing in diverse-led startups to advance health equity in the US
Editor’s note: This guest post is sponsored by Impact Ventures by J&J Foundation, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with Impact Ventures, ImpactAlpha is exploring the …
Impact Voices | March 20, 2024
Three ways impact investors can help CDFIs provide stability in a high-cost environment
Even as inflationary pressures begin to subside, affordable housing and community-based organizations continue to operate on thin margins. That means they’re less able …
Impact Voices | March 14, 2024
How loan guarantees and catalytic capital can amplify federal ‘green bank’ funds
Much like the broader financial system, green lending in the US has primarily focused on higher-income, White borrowers with higher credit scores. The …
Impact Voices | March 13, 2024
US Export-Import Bank bucks the green finance agenda – to its own detriment
Should the US government really be allocating public funds to support oil drilling in the Middle East? This question comes sharply into focus …
Impact Management | March 12, 2024
A case study in private equity’s role in realizing impact
Essential insights: The core of the debate Recent discussions have raised critical questions about the role of private equity in fostering resilient, inclusive …
Muni Impact | March 11, 2024
To scale the IRA’s “green bank,” community lenders should engage muni finance markets
When the University of Virginia issued the first Build America Bond ($250 million) in April of 2009, it was just about three months …
Muni Impact | March 11, 2024
Scoring municipal bonds on racial equity and social impact
Municipal (muni) bond financing is as influential for communities as it might be invisible to many. It is the driving source of funding …
Impact Investing | March 8, 2024
Rachel Robasciotti, Adasina Social Capital: Climate justice is social justice
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Impact Voices | March 8, 2024
Sonya Dreizler, CHOIR: Build a bigger table
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Impact Voices | March 8, 2024
Lakota Vogel, Four Bands Community Fund: Rewriting the rules
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
exclude from paywall | March 8, 2024
Beth Bafford, Calvert Impact Capital: Everyone deserves a chance to fly
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Inclusive Economy | March 8, 2024
Tanay Tatum-Edwards, FreeCap Financial: We Can’t Change What We Don’t Measure
Editor’s Note: On this International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share important moments in the lives and careers of five women in impact …
Impact Tech | March 7, 2024
VilCap and IBM propel new technologies as a catalyst for life-improving services
The explosion of new technology and AI solutions promising improved efficiency, creativity, and sustainability coincides with record inflation, pessimism around economic resilience, and …
Impact Voices | March 5, 2024
Wrestling with the greedy, predatory, wealth-hoarding history of the financial system
The financial history of extraction, enslavement, and predatory greed have been heavy on our minds when designing the new investment strategy for the …
Impact Voices | February 29, 2024
How three investors are measuring their impact on climate resilience
2023 closed with a flurry of new climate finance commitments announced at COP28. These commitments–notably including $30 billion from the UAE and $12.8 …
Impact Investing | February 27, 2024
Impact value-creation playbooks provide X’s and O’s for generating alpha
Limited partners are becoming more adept at asking their impact-oriented managers a key question: Does it matter to financial performance if an impact-aligned …
Impact Voices | February 26, 2024
How Estímulo is blending finance for Brazil’s small businesses
Estímulo’s story stands as a compelling testament to the transformative power of blended finance in addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing …
Impact Voices | February 26, 2024
Designing catalytic loan products for impact companies in Latin America
When we set off to invest our first fund in 2019, we developed an investment strategy which we believed filled a gap in …
Impact Voices | February 26, 2024
Five reasons Latin America and the Caribbean are attracting impact investors
Investing in Latin America and the Caribbean’s impact ecosystem represents an opportunity to generate financial returns and make a meaningful difference by addressing …
Catalytic Capital | February 21, 2024
Multi-donor funds emerge as a creative architecture for collaborative, catalytic capital
A new model is coming into vogue that enables impact investors and philanthropists to collaborate easily in a light, fast and community-oriented manner. Multi-donor funds which …
Impact Voices | February 21, 2024
We invest for the common good. So let’s call it ‘Common Good Investing.’
Any time two people come together, they have two choices. They can give priority to the common good of the two of them, …
Blockchain/AI/IoT | February 20, 2024
Notes on AI and education for impact investors and social entrepreneurs
What is a tsunami? Imagine a cubic meter of seawater. Imagine the weight of it. It weighs more than you probably think it …
Muni Impact | February 15, 2024
How ‘community-benefit bonds’ can help scale mortgage assistance programs
Editor’s Note: Community Finance Brief is a weekly newsletter from Matt Posner of Court Street Group, occasionally syndicated on ImpactAlpha. Democratizing access to …
Sponsored | February 15, 2024
Sophisticated financing and smarter partnerships: How investors are forging new roadmaps for health impact
Editor’s note: This guest post is sponsored by Impact Ventures by J&J Foundation, which supports ImpactAlpha’s Investing in Health coverage. In partnership with Impact Ventures, ImpactAlpha is exploring the …
Impact Voices | February 14, 2024
A spend-out foundation asks, ‘What is enough?’
What is enough? This is a radical question to ask within modern day philanthropy. The dominant thinking could make one believe that philanthropy …
Ownership Economy | February 13, 2024
This sustainable investment firm is now governed by a perpetual purpose trust
As one of the earliest registered investment advisors exclusively dedicated to socially responsible, sustainable and impact investments since 1985, our financial advisor-owners of …
Return on Inclusion | February 11, 2024
How Kataly Foundation is divesting from Wall Street to reinvest in communities
Is it possible to fully divest from Wall Street and invest in community with hundreds of millions of dollars? When I started my …