Lenders face a steep learning curve in deploying capital for green community infrastructure. Green project development and project finance skills have always been in short supply. Now, with $27 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards teed up for community solar, building electrification and local EV charging projects, those skills will be in even greater demand. “There's going to be a huge need for talent and resources to make this all work,” says Trenton Allen of Sustainable Capital Advisors, a financial advisory and consulting firm that worked with the Justice Climate Fund on its winning proposal for GGRF funding. Allen is launching what he calls the Sustainable Infrastructure Finance Academy to offer resources and advice to community lenders, local governments and developers. “When you're cranking along on these projects and trying to deploy this capital, you're going to need to call someone to gain some perspective or support,” explains Allen. “That knowledge may not be deep in these organizations. They may not have two or three expert climate folks like they do for housing and small business.”
IDB Lab backs small businesses in Paraguay and health access in Ecuador. The experimental venture funding arm of the Inter-American Development Bank inked two investments in markets with little available venture or impact capital. IDB Lab provided a $3 million anchor investment for iThink VC, an investment firm that supports early stage tech startups in Latin America, focusing on Paraguay and Bolivia. iThink VC was co-founded in 2021 by Jazmin Gustale Gill, Paraguay’s former vice minister of inclusive economic growth and founder of the country’s national innovation strategy, and Juan Cruz Valdez Rojas, who previously worked with Bayer and Monsanto. They have made 10 investments, including Bolivia-based Koban, a neobank, and DeltaX, an Uber-like service for heavy cargo shipments and deliveries. “I see how Latin startups are transforming our region's problems into business opportunities,” said Gill. iThink VC is looking to raise $20 million for its fund.
Mission investing to improve children’s lives at the Kellogg and Annie E. Casey foundations. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich., and the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore share a common mission: to improve the lives of American children. To deliver on that mission, the institutions have added debt and equity investments to their grantmaking toolkits. Over 17 years, the $8 billion Kellogg Foundation has committed more than $310 million through mission-related investments, or MRIs and catalytic program-related investments, or PRIs. Annie E. Casey has committed 3% of its $3.4 billion endowment to impact investments. Roughly 70% was committed as PRIs and 30% as MRIs.
Nick Moon, previously with LeapFrog Investments, joins Circulate Capital as its new chair… Arctaris Impact Investors seeks an investor relations analyst in the Boston area… One Acre Fund is hiring a US operations associate in New York… Impact Finance Center is hosting its national community foundation impact investing landscape scan, Thursday, May 30… Applications are open for the Urban Future Prize Competition, a competitive prize for early-stage climate tech startups to win cash prizes and admission into NYU Urban Future Lab’s ACRE Incubator.
In New Orleans, the city’s housing finance agency has become a “green bank” to underwrite community solar, water treatment projects, and resilience hubs. …
Private equity fund managers looking for value-creation opportunities are increasingly finding their way to impact themes like climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, employee engagement …
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Impact investors have for years debated the need for embedded structures to incentivize impact outcomes for impact fund managers. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The $4 trillion muni market is so big that small movements in the pricing of bonds can mean shifts of …
ImpactAlpha, November 17 – That women are more adversely affected by climate change is well established (in impact and development circles at any …
This week’s Agents of Impact Call continued a tradition started nearly a decade ago by Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 29 – It’s the age-old struggle: labor vs capital, workers vs. owners. But what happens when employees get a stake in the …
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – A growing ecosystem of Native-led entrepreneurs, lenders, financial intermediaries and nonprofits are driving Indian Country’s emerging economy. “It’s kind …
ImpactAlpha, July 28 – Most historically Black colleges and universities were formed during the Reconstruction era. In the more than a century since, Spelman, …
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 22 – Even as some politicians ramp up anti-ESG rhetoric, asset owners and allocators are signaling an appetite for investment strategies …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – The search for a universal metric to guide investments in racial justice and equitable wealth-building was…aspirational. “We are still a …
ImpactAlpha. Feb. 24 – “A labor market where workers have more opportunities and have more power and have more leverage is a good …
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: federal funds to …
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
Host Brian Walsh dives into ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. Up this week: Tracking the players building the US’s …
ImpactAlpha podcasts are back! We’re pleased to share our revamped interview show, Agents of Impact, hosted by David Bank and Sherrell Dorsey, founder …
Impact(ed) is part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network, a set of shows hosted and produced by leading voices in impact and sustainable investing, …
On This Week in Impact, Brian Walsh dives into some of ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. This week: the …
Venture capital invested nearly $500 billion in 2022. By investing into startups seeking transformational scale, successful venture-backed companies have the potential to change …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 29 – “Net zero is not going to get us anywhere,” Ariane Mahler of Veridien Global Investors told David Bank of ImpactAlpha …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 22 – Diverse innovators building for all customers in large industries like digital health, fintech and the future of work have been …
The numbers tell the story: overall attendance at COP28 is up threefold from last year – and the number of fossil fuel lobbyists …
Private foundations collectively control more than a trillion dollars of capital invested across a variety of traditional asset classes. A small portion of …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
In the realm of AI discourse, much attention is directed towards fostering responsible development of the technology itself (e.g. Is it free from …
Developing an investment strategy that meets our fiduciary requirements as resource stewards, embodies our racial justice values, and prioritizes the communities we serve …
(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 …
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 …
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
The way housing is financed and constructed in the United States has experienced little change in decades, leading to skyrocketing costs, barriers to …
“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 Frontier’s Impact Reporting Norms target a leverage point in the impact investing system: impact reporting. They promise to provide greater clarity and …
Ashish Kumar is a long-time climate investor and a market / ecosystem builder. He is a strategic advisor to Mati Carbon. This month, …
The winner of a contest to sharpen the impact lens of students through deal sourcing and diligence was a team from London Business …
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – Ines Schiller got the idea for seaweed tampons while training in South Africa to be a marine environment guide. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline we’ve used for the dozens of Agents of Impact we profiled …
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished …
Sustainable development? “More of the same.” Forest carbon credits? “Outside-imposed extraction.” Impact investing? “Are we really going far enough? Or are we just …
ImpactAlpha, September 8 — In 15 years in impact investing, Christopher Bentley noticed “a lot of for-profit companies focused on the criminal justice …
ImpactAlpha, August 18 – Monica Brand Engel’s advice to impact investors is this: Imperfect execution is ok. “Authentic impact is about accepting imperfection …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 11 – Samuel Yeboah isn’t discouraged by the economic storm battering his home country of Ghana and many other emerging economies. “As …
Many investors look at promising new climate solutions and say, ‘Great, come back to me when you have traction.’ Azolla Ventures is more …
ImpactAlpha, June 30 – The first thing that Katherine Stodulka does when you meet her is suggest you meet someone else. Then she’ll …
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – A decade ago, investors pushed back against the loan products Jessica Espinoza was designing for female business owners as …
ImpactAlpha, May 12 – Nigeria-born climate entrepreneur and “professional nomad” Aina Abiodun is bullish on place-based climate innovation. “There is nothing more urgent than …
Lenders face a steep learning curve in deploying capital for green community infrastructure. Green project development and project finance skills have always been in short supply. Now, with $27 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards teed up for community solar, building electrification and local EV charging projects, those skills will be in even greater demand. “There's going to be a huge need for talent and resources to make this all work,” says Trenton Allen of Sustainable Capital Advisors, a financial advisory and consulting firm that worked with the Justice Climate Fund on its winning proposal for GGRF funding. Allen is launching what he calls the Sustainable Infrastructure Finance Academy to offer resources and advice to community lenders, local governments and developers. “When you're cranking along on these projects and trying to deploy this capital, you're going to need to call someone to gain some perspective or support,” explains Allen. “That knowledge may not be deep in these organizations. They may not have two or three expert climate folks like they do for housing and small business.”
IDB Lab backs small businesses in Paraguay and health access in Ecuador. The experimental venture funding arm of the Inter-American Development Bank inked two investments in markets with little available venture or impact capital. IDB Lab provided a $3 million anchor investment for iThink VC, an investment firm that supports early stage tech startups in Latin America, focusing on Paraguay and Bolivia. iThink VC was co-founded in 2021 by Jazmin Gustale Gill, Paraguay’s former vice minister of inclusive economic growth and founder of the country’s national innovation strategy, and Juan Cruz Valdez Rojas, who previously worked with Bayer and Monsanto. They have made 10 investments, including Bolivia-based Koban, a neobank, and DeltaX, an Uber-like service for heavy cargo shipments and deliveries. “I see how Latin startups are transforming our region's problems into business opportunities,” said Gill. iThink VC is looking to raise $20 million for its fund.
Mission investing to improve children’s lives at the Kellogg and Annie E. Casey foundations. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich., and the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore share a common mission: to improve the lives of American children. To deliver on that mission, the institutions have added debt and equity investments to their grantmaking toolkits. Over 17 years, the $8 billion Kellogg Foundation has committed more than $310 million through mission-related investments, or MRIs and catalytic program-related investments, or PRIs. Annie E. Casey has committed 3% of its $3.4 billion endowment to impact investments. Roughly 70% was committed as PRIs and 30% as MRIs.
Nick Moon, previously with LeapFrog Investments, joins Circulate Capital as its new chair… Arctaris Impact Investors seeks an investor relations analyst in the Boston area… One Acre Fund is hiring a US operations associate in New York… Impact Finance Center is hosting its national community foundation impact investing landscape scan, Thursday, May 30… Applications are open for the Urban Future Prize Competition, a competitive prize for early-stage climate tech startups to win cash prizes and admission into NYU Urban Future Lab’s ACRE Incubator.
In New Orleans, the city’s housing finance agency has become a “green bank” to underwrite community solar, water treatment projects, and resilience hubs. …
Private equity fund managers looking for value-creation opportunities are increasingly finding their way to impact themes like climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, employee engagement …
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Impact investors have for years debated the need for embedded structures to incentivize impact outcomes for impact fund managers. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The $4 trillion muni market is so big that small movements in the pricing of bonds can mean shifts of …
ImpactAlpha, November 17 – That women are more adversely affected by climate change is well established (in impact and development circles at any …
This week’s Agents of Impact Call continued a tradition started nearly a decade ago by Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 29 – It’s the age-old struggle: labor vs capital, workers vs. owners. But what happens when employees get a stake in the …
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – A growing ecosystem of Native-led entrepreneurs, lenders, financial intermediaries and nonprofits are driving Indian Country’s emerging economy. “It’s kind …
ImpactAlpha, July 28 – Most historically Black colleges and universities were formed during the Reconstruction era. In the more than a century since, Spelman, …
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 22 – Even as some politicians ramp up anti-ESG rhetoric, asset owners and allocators are signaling an appetite for investment strategies …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – The search for a universal metric to guide investments in racial justice and equitable wealth-building was…aspirational. “We are still a …
ImpactAlpha. Feb. 24 – “A labor market where workers have more opportunities and have more power and have more leverage is a good …
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: federal funds to …
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
Host Brian Walsh dives into ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. Up this week: Tracking the players building the US’s …
ImpactAlpha podcasts are back! We’re pleased to share our revamped interview show, Agents of Impact, hosted by David Bank and Sherrell Dorsey, founder …
Impact(ed) is part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network, a set of shows hosted and produced by leading voices in impact and sustainable investing, …
On This Week in Impact, Brian Walsh dives into some of ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. This week: the …
Venture capital invested nearly $500 billion in 2022. By investing into startups seeking transformational scale, successful venture-backed companies have the potential to change …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 29 – “Net zero is not going to get us anywhere,” Ariane Mahler of Veridien Global Investors told David Bank of ImpactAlpha …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 22 – Diverse innovators building for all customers in large industries like digital health, fintech and the future of work have been …
The numbers tell the story: overall attendance at COP28 is up threefold from last year – and the number of fossil fuel lobbyists …
Private foundations collectively control more than a trillion dollars of capital invested across a variety of traditional asset classes. A small portion of …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
In the realm of AI discourse, much attention is directed towards fostering responsible development of the technology itself (e.g. Is it free from …
Developing an investment strategy that meets our fiduciary requirements as resource stewards, embodies our racial justice values, and prioritizes the communities we serve …
(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 …
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 …
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
The way housing is financed and constructed in the United States has experienced little change in decades, leading to skyrocketing costs, barriers to …
“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 Frontier’s Impact Reporting Norms target a leverage point in the impact investing system: impact reporting. They promise to provide greater clarity and …
Ashish Kumar is a long-time climate investor and a market / ecosystem builder. He is a strategic advisor to Mati Carbon. This month, …
The winner of a contest to sharpen the impact lens of students through deal sourcing and diligence was a team from London Business …
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – Ines Schiller got the idea for seaweed tampons while training in South Africa to be a marine environment guide. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline we’ve used for the dozens of Agents of Impact we profiled …
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished …
Sustainable development? “More of the same.” Forest carbon credits? “Outside-imposed extraction.” Impact investing? “Are we really going far enough? Or are we just …
ImpactAlpha, September 8 — In 15 years in impact investing, Christopher Bentley noticed “a lot of for-profit companies focused on the criminal justice …
ImpactAlpha, August 18 – Monica Brand Engel’s advice to impact investors is this: Imperfect execution is ok. “Authentic impact is about accepting imperfection …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 11 – Samuel Yeboah isn’t discouraged by the economic storm battering his home country of Ghana and many other emerging economies. “As …
Many investors look at promising new climate solutions and say, ‘Great, come back to me when you have traction.’ Azolla Ventures is more …
ImpactAlpha, June 30 – The first thing that Katherine Stodulka does when you meet her is suggest you meet someone else. Then she’ll …
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – A decade ago, investors pushed back against the loan products Jessica Espinoza was designing for female business owners as …
ImpactAlpha, May 12 – Nigeria-born climate entrepreneur and “professional nomad” Aina Abiodun is bullish on place-based climate innovation. “There is nothing more urgent than …
The $4 billion plant-based alternative meat market is heating up, with two recent exits. Maple Leaf Foods in Canada bought a stake in Lightlife …