In Cleveland, stakeholders mobilize to deploy climate funds for community infrastructure. Chances might have seemed slim for a state-wide green bank to finance local green infrastructure in economically challenged, Republican-led Ohio. Over the course of a year, the Cleveland and Gund foundations, with dozens of local stakeholders, incubated and launched one of the nation’s first Black-led green banks. The Go Green Energy Fund is now vying to manage key pieces of the $27 billion federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. That’s part of once-in-a-generation federal funding to stand up a locally led green revival and rebuild community infrastructure for the 21st century. “Our goal is to catalyze the market and push as much economic benefit as we can into these households, communities and businesses that ultimately can benefit,” Go Green Energy’s Michael Jeans tells ImpactAlpha. The GGRF provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act will create a distributed green bank, with historic levels of capital deployed through community development financial institutions and other local lenders. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce the first GGRF awards as soon as this week. (Meet Jeans this Wednesday on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact Call.)
HeavyFinance raises €20 million to help farmers regenerate Europe’s agriculture. Lithuania’s HeavyFinance offers credit to help farmers and small agri-businesses adopt regenerative practices to improve soil health and sequester carbon. The crowdfunding platform, which accepts amounts as small as €100, gives institutions and retail investors access to HeavyFinance's portfolio of farmers and businesses. The agri-investment startup has directed €53 million ($57.7 million) through nearly 1,800 loans. The model is similar to US-based Steward, which provides loans to regenerative and sustainable food businesses. HeavyFinance also links farmers to voluntary carbon markets.
From executive pay to stock buybacks, corporations favor the peak of the pyramid. Reining in executive pay. Quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks. A minimum income tax of 25% on billionaires. President Biden’s latest budget proposes tough new checks on runaway wealth inequality. But corporate wealth is growing so quickly, the rules may be outdated before they kick in, if they are enacted at all. Billionaires? We may be talking about trillionaires before the decade is out. Goldman Sachs sees surging corporate stock buybacks topping $1 trillion for the first time next year. And the average ratio of 300:1 for CEO compensation to worker pay is sounding downright quaint. A new report from the anti-poverty group Oxfam highlights companies paying their chief executives 1,500 times more than their lowest paid workers. “The problem now is that the largest corporations are actively concentrating power and money in the hands of the already wealthy, while actively limiting the power of workers, consumers and suppliers and lobbying for policies that cut taxes and regulation,” Oxfam’s Irit Tamir tells ImpactAlpha. Some highlights from “Inequality, made in America: How corporate America is fueling our inequality crisis”:
Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:
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 …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – The fatal beating by police of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month exposed risks to the city’s finances that have …
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 …
ImpactAlpha’s Amy Cortese speaks with Full Cycle’s Stephan Nicoleau at the start of COP 28 to hear what he’s expecting – and hoping …
Pension funds, with hundreds of billions in long-term assets, can be a key source of capital for impact investors and entrepreneurs. Black, Indigenous, …
The Wilmington coup of 1898 is not as well known as the Tulsa massacre of 1921. But the events of that day changed …
ImpactAlpha’s Dennis Price catches up with María Hollan, a second-generation steward of her family’s assets at Timke Ventures in Mexico City. Hollan was …
David Bank catches up with Courageous Capital Advisors’ Laurie Spengler to talk about what the mainstreaming of impact investing means for smaller impact …
Graham Singh shares the financing mechanisms that Trinity Centres Foundation is developing for repurposing churches. And, David Bank shares ImpactAlpha’s big news. Plus, …
Unicef USA’s Cristina Shapiro joins David Bank to introduce child-lens investing, a framework for considering investment harms and benefits to children, who have …
Much like the broader financial system, green lending in the US has primarily focused on higher-income, White borrowers with higher credit scores. The …
Should the US government really be allocating public funds to support oil drilling in the Middle East? This question comes sharply into focus …
Essential insights: The core of the debate Recent discussions have raised critical questions about the role of private equity in fostering resilient, inclusive …
When the University of Virginia issued the first Build America Bond ($250 million) in April of 2009, it was just about three months …
Municipal (muni) bond financing is as influential for communities as it might be invisible to many. It is the driving source of funding …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The explosion of new technology and AI solutions promising improved efficiency, creativity, and sustainability coincides with record inflation, pessimism around economic resilience, and …
The financial history of extraction, enslavement, and predatory greed have been heavy on our minds when designing the new investment strategy for the …
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 …
ImpactAlpha, May 5 – John Moore quit his corporate gig and moved to Philadelphia two decades ago. He found a city rich in …
In Cleveland, stakeholders mobilize to deploy climate funds for community infrastructure. Chances might have seemed slim for a state-wide green bank to finance local green infrastructure in economically challenged, Republican-led Ohio. Over the course of a year, the Cleveland and Gund foundations, with dozens of local stakeholders, incubated and launched one of the nation’s first Black-led green banks. The Go Green Energy Fund is now vying to manage key pieces of the $27 billion federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. That’s part of once-in-a-generation federal funding to stand up a locally led green revival and rebuild community infrastructure for the 21st century. “Our goal is to catalyze the market and push as much economic benefit as we can into these households, communities and businesses that ultimately can benefit,” Go Green Energy’s Michael Jeans tells ImpactAlpha. The GGRF provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act will create a distributed green bank, with historic levels of capital deployed through community development financial institutions and other local lenders. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce the first GGRF awards as soon as this week. (Meet Jeans this Wednesday on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact Call.)
HeavyFinance raises €20 million to help farmers regenerate Europe’s agriculture. Lithuania’s HeavyFinance offers credit to help farmers and small agri-businesses adopt regenerative practices to improve soil health and sequester carbon. The crowdfunding platform, which accepts amounts as small as €100, gives institutions and retail investors access to HeavyFinance's portfolio of farmers and businesses. The agri-investment startup has directed €53 million ($57.7 million) through nearly 1,800 loans. The model is similar to US-based Steward, which provides loans to regenerative and sustainable food businesses. HeavyFinance also links farmers to voluntary carbon markets.
From executive pay to stock buybacks, corporations favor the peak of the pyramid. Reining in executive pay. Quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks. A minimum income tax of 25% on billionaires. President Biden’s latest budget proposes tough new checks on runaway wealth inequality. But corporate wealth is growing so quickly, the rules may be outdated before they kick in, if they are enacted at all. Billionaires? We may be talking about trillionaires before the decade is out. Goldman Sachs sees surging corporate stock buybacks topping $1 trillion for the first time next year. And the average ratio of 300:1 for CEO compensation to worker pay is sounding downright quaint. A new report from the anti-poverty group Oxfam highlights companies paying their chief executives 1,500 times more than their lowest paid workers. “The problem now is that the largest corporations are actively concentrating power and money in the hands of the already wealthy, while actively limiting the power of workers, consumers and suppliers and lobbying for policies that cut taxes and regulation,” Oxfam’s Irit Tamir tells ImpactAlpha. Some highlights from “Inequality, made in America: How corporate America is fueling our inequality crisis”:
Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:
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 …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – The fatal beating by police of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month exposed risks to the city’s finances that have …
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 …
ImpactAlpha’s Amy Cortese speaks with Full Cycle’s Stephan Nicoleau at the start of COP 28 to hear what he’s expecting – and hoping …
Pension funds, with hundreds of billions in long-term assets, can be a key source of capital for impact investors and entrepreneurs. Black, Indigenous, …
The Wilmington coup of 1898 is not as well known as the Tulsa massacre of 1921. But the events of that day changed …
ImpactAlpha’s Dennis Price catches up with María Hollan, a second-generation steward of her family’s assets at Timke Ventures in Mexico City. Hollan was …
David Bank catches up with Courageous Capital Advisors’ Laurie Spengler to talk about what the mainstreaming of impact investing means for smaller impact …
Graham Singh shares the financing mechanisms that Trinity Centres Foundation is developing for repurposing churches. And, David Bank shares ImpactAlpha’s big news. Plus, …
Unicef USA’s Cristina Shapiro joins David Bank to introduce child-lens investing, a framework for considering investment harms and benefits to children, who have …
Much like the broader financial system, green lending in the US has primarily focused on higher-income, White borrowers with higher credit scores. The …
Should the US government really be allocating public funds to support oil drilling in the Middle East? This question comes sharply into focus …
Essential insights: The core of the debate Recent discussions have raised critical questions about the role of private equity in fostering resilient, inclusive …
When the University of Virginia issued the first Build America Bond ($250 million) in April of 2009, it was just about three months …
Municipal (muni) bond financing is as influential for communities as it might be invisible to many. It is the driving source of funding …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The explosion of new technology and AI solutions promising improved efficiency, creativity, and sustainability coincides with record inflation, pessimism around economic resilience, and …
The financial history of extraction, enslavement, and predatory greed have been heavy on our minds when designing the new investment strategy for the …
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 …
ImpactAlpha, May 5 – John Moore quit his corporate gig and moved to Philadelphia two decades ago. He found a city rich in …