Human Rights
Impact Tech | August 15, 2023
The De-Carceration Fund raises $8.5 million to invest in ‘justice tech’
ImpactAlpha, August 15 — Extractive products and services that have grown up around the US criminal justice system cost families billions of dollars …
Human Rights | April 17, 2023
Managing human rights risk rises up the agenda of venture capitalists
Governance is the new big thing for tech investors, since the FTX fraud and investigations by the SEC have brought it out on …
Climate 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 …
Human Rights | January 11, 2023
A human rights approach in impact investing
Overcoming today’s global challenges and creating positive change requires collaboration and innovative solutions from every sector and corner of society to enable all …
Impact Investing | October 20, 2022
Development finance institutions face calls for reform in the face of cascading climate and energy crises
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 21 – Embattled World Bank chief David Malpass made an about-face last week, copping to manmade global warming and the need …
Catalytic Capital | August 4, 2022
How UNICEF’s Bridge Fund is speeding the delivery of aid to Ukraine and other crisis zones
It took Yulia, a mother from Kharkiv, Ukraine, seven days to reach the Polish border with her one-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son. They …
Impact Investing | November 23, 2021
A climate investor looks ahead to COP27 in Egypt (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 23 – Only two weeks after the COP26 global climate summit, Stephan Nicoleau of climate investment firm Full Cycle is looking …
Dealflow | February 1, 2021
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative spins off criminal justice reform activities
ImpactAlpha, February 1 – Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the mission-focused company launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, is allocating $350 …
Dealflow | September 29, 2020
Insurer QBE backs Save the Children’s impact fund
ImpactAlpha, September 29 – Save the Children, best known for its humanitarian aid work, has reached a $6 million first close for an …
Dealflow | September 24, 2020
MacArthur Foundation commits $25 million to COVID recovery and election integrity
ImpactAlpha, September 24 – MacArthur Foundation has made grants totaling $10 million to organizations supporting Black, Native and other under-represented groups disproportionately affected …
Human Rights | June 23, 2020
Investors push stakeholder protections with shareholder resolutions
ImpactAlpha, June 23 – This season, shareholder resolutions involving human rights and worker rights made up the largest category for the first time, …
Beats | June 1, 2020
Agents of Justice: The social mobilization is on
ImpactAlpha, June 1 – Agents of justice are agents of impact. The anger in the streets this weekend is an expression of the …
Beats | November 19, 2019
Putting the activist in impact investor
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 19 – It’s time for impact investors to speak more like activists. The Global Steering Group on Impact Investment’s abrupt relocation …
Agents of Impact | November 1, 2019
The Popular Uprisers
Impact Alpha, Nov. 31 – Social protests are spreading across the globe. The protests, from Santiago to Beirut, are sparked by local grievances: …
Faith-Based Investing | September 11, 2019
On guns, faith-based investors provide an object lesson in shareholder engagement
ImpactAlpha, September 11 – Just after the mass shooting at an El Paso in Walmart that killed 22 people, David Schilling sent his condolences …
Dealflow | June 17, 2019
NeedsList raises $1 million for nonprofit crowdfunding platform
ImpactAlpha, June 17 – North Carolina-based NeedsList is a crowdsourcing platform for nonprofits humanitarian organizations in need of money, goods, and volunteer hours. The …
Catalytic Capital | April 15, 2019
Luminate injects $4 million in anti-corruption organization Global Witness
ImpactAlpha, April 15 – U.S. and Europe-based Global Witness undertakes investigations in transnational corruption, covering abuses in everything from oil and mineral extraction to …
Human Rights | March 6, 2019
Activists – and activist investors – force JP Morgan Chase and private prisons to break up
ImpactAlpha, March 6 – JPMorgan Chase will cease lending to private operators of prisons and immigrant detention centers. “We will no longer bank the …
Creative Economy | November 15, 2018
Building the handworker economy
ImpactAlpha, November 15 – Work done with hands is the second-largest employer of women in developing economies. The “handworker economy” accounts for 300 million …
Entrepreneurship | October 25, 2018
A growing community of investors steers capital to solutions that benefit refugees
The 70 million forcibly displaced people around the world represent a growing global challenge. But behind the images of border conflicts and crowded …
Dealflow | September 11, 2018
Working Capital closes ethical supply chain fund at $25 million
ImpactAlpha, September 10 – Venture fund Working Capital has raised $2.5 million in new capital from European e-commerce company Zalando and the Children’s Investment …
Dealflow | July 26, 2018
OpenInvest closes $10.4 million for digital social investing
ImpactAlpha, July 26 – The socially responsible auto-investment advisor raised its Series A round led by QED Investors. Andreessen Horowitz, which backed OpenInvest’s previous …
Dealflow | March 24, 2018
Jay-Z and Kapor Capital join $3 million financing of “de-carceration” startup Promise
On any given day more than 450,000 people, innocent until proven guilty, are in jail awaiting trial in the US. Those that face …
Good Business | March 7, 2018
‘Labor-lens investors’ are disrupting exploitative supply chains
Working to end forced labor and poor conditions in global supply chains in not new. What’s new are the growing number of “labor-lens” …
Beats | January 31, 2018
Humanity United launches $23 million fund to combat forced labor, other supply chain problems
Humanity United, part of the Omidyar Group, has raised $23 million to invest in early-stage technology companies fighting human trafficking and other abusive …
Catalytic Capital | January 19, 2018
Bezos donates $33 million to DACA scholarship fund
The Amazon CEO and his wife MacKenzie committed the funds to TheDream. US, a scholarship program for undocumented immigrants in the Deferred Action …
Dealflow | January 10, 2018
Jana wants to add ‘impact’ to activist hedge fund
The $8.5 billion hedge fund is looking to raise billions of dollars to target companies that are doing well and could also be …
Dealflow | December 9, 2017
John Legend helps launch startups for and by former inmates
Unlocked Futures, a 16-month accelerator started by singer John Legend and the philanthropic fund New Profit, supports entrepreneurs who are former inmates or …
Human Rights | September 27, 2017
Building evidence on modern slavery
If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist. That’s the theme of the week. When it comes to modern slavery, human trafficking and child …
Blockchain/AI/IoT | September 20, 2017
Rise Fund invests in Dharma to simplify data management during crises
TPG Growth’s Rise Fund has invested Washington D.C.-based Dharma to simplify data management during crises. The data platform is already used by responders …
Dealflow | August 3, 2017
OpenInvest adds human trafficking robo-investment theme
The new filter features 20 companies that “demonstrated the highest commitments to fighting forced labor in their supply chains,” as identified by non-profit …
2030 Finance | July 18, 2017
People on the move: Perry Teicher
Orrick, a global law firm focused on tech, energy and infrastructure and finance, has appointed Perry Teicher as its first Impact Finance Attorney. …
Education Tech | June 15, 2017
Breaking the link between child labor and poverty
This week’s World Child Labor Day quietly came and went. Child labor fell by one-third between 2000 and 2012. But about 1 in 10 …
Dealflow | May 27, 2017
Salt Lake City launches pay-for-success bond to help ex-offenders stay out of prison
Salt Lake County is the home of one-quarter of all social impact bonds launched in the U.S. That’s only a dozen total, but …
Catalytic Capital | May 9, 2017
Making social progress to restore trust. Restoring trust to make social progress.
The Global Philanthropy Forum jumped its usual schedule of two convenings in Silicon Valley followed by one in Washington, D.C., in order to …
2030 Finance | April 27, 2017
Renewable energy investments face human rights scrutiny
How solar, wind and other renewable energy projects are implemented matters to local communities — and to investors, says a new report from Transform Finance, …
Dealflow | March 15, 2017
Google.org stakes $11.5 million on criminal justice reform
Google.org has staked $11.5 million on criminal justice reform. Ten organizations tracking police data and providing support services for former and juvenile offenders will …
Dealflow | February 9, 2017
How investors can help rebuild communities with muni bonds
Municipal bonds are a $3.7 trillion market, and lately, they’re attracting record investment dollars. But what’s the impact? HIP Investor offers impact scoring for …
africa | February 8, 2017
Will blood diamonds (and cell phone minerals) make a comeback?
Conflict minerals never fully went away, of course, but concerns rose when Michael Piwowar, the acting SEC chairman, said the agency’s rule that …
2030 Finance | February 3, 2017
University of California breaks with Wells Fargo over values
The University of California is the latest to tell Wells Fargo it is taking its banking business elsewhere. UC canceled $475 million in …