For pension fund managers, Department of Labor puts ESG back on the table – again. Cannot! Can so! Just as some states are trying to block ESG investing, the U.S. Department of Labor has given its blessing to the consideration of environmental, social and governance factors in selecting investments for pension fund beneficiaries. The Labor Department’s final rule, more than a year in the making, reverses Trump-era guidance limiting the ability of retirement plan managers subject to ERISA (short for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) to consider ESG factors in selecting investments. The guidance has whipsawed with every change of administration since President Bill Clinton. The now-superseded 2020 rules, along with a period of uncertainty while the Biden administration formulated the new guidance, chilled allocations to ESG-labeled investment options. “Given the recent wave of misinformed political attacks seeking to undermine the validity of ESG investing strategies, this rulemaking comes at an important time and provides much needed clarity for investors and fiduciaries that ESG factors are indeed material,” says Fran Seegull of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance.
C3 provides catalytic capital to accelerate the deployment of… catalytic capital. The Catalytic Capital Consortium, or C3, awarded nearly $1.4 million in grants to Village Capital, Pacific Community Ventures, Opportunity International, the Impact Investing Institute and five other organizations to expand the use of the patient, risk-tolerant, concessionary and flexible capital that is often needed for high-impact ventures and markets. “We are focusing on action-oriented projects that can translate into stronger deployment of capital while addressing deeply-embedded capital gaps and the needs of local communities,” said MacArthur Foundation’s Urmi Sengupta. Chicago-based Opportunity International will use the grant to de-risk micro and small loans for farmers and schools in low-income countries in Latin America, Africa and India. Village Capital will use the grant to create a digital matching platform for venture founders and investors for different types of financing. “These infrastructure projects are advancing solutions that support more efficient and effective delivery of catalytic capital,” said Chris Jurgens of Omidyar Network.
Five insights into the future of social entrepreneurship. As it marks 25 years of cultivating social entrepreneurship, the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University asked the field about transformation in the next quarter-century. A common aspiration: evolving beyond the need for the modifier “social.” “All entrepreneurship should ultimately create positive externalities—both financial and social,” says Geoff Davis of Sorenson Impact Center. Davis' views are among the responses that Miller Center’s Brigit Helms rounds up in a guest post for ImpactAlpha. Helms says she dreams of a day “when all entrepreneurs will understand that their job is to apply innovation and business principles to solve intractable social and environmental problems around the world.”
Sir Ronald Cohen will chair the new International Foundation for Valuing Impacts, established to advance “impact-weighted accounts.” Harvard Business School’s George Serafeim will chair the IFVI's valuation technical and practitioner committee (for background, see, “Big banks take on the challenge of accounting for their impact”)... JBG SMITH seeks a sustainability associate in the Washington, D.C. area.
ImpactAlpha, September 30 – Capital to support women’s economic growth and financial inclusion is flowing – finally! – in many advanced economies. In emerging …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 19 – Investors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives and world leaders have descended on New York for Climate Week, the annual gathering alongside the …
ImpactAlpha, June 27 – ImpactAlpha’s spring season of Agents of Impact Calls spanned a period of tumult in the financial markets: instability in …
ImpactAlpha, June 3 – Just as investment in financial inclusion in Africa was really ramping up, a market downturn threatens to slow progress. Or …
ImpactAlpha, May 13 – One defining outcome of the pandemic: a boom in entrepreneurship. A record five million businesses were started in the …
ImpactAlpha, April 22 – The Ukraine crisis risks tipping up to 1.7 billion people — over one-fifth of humanity — into poverty, destitution …
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 1 – High-impact investments in fragile countries invariably entail political risk. And impact investments in a free press, humanitarian tech, financial inclusion …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 11 – It’s one thing for a corporation to set environmental or social goals. It’s another to shift executives, employees and supply …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 25 – Bottom-up policies for access to capital in divested communities. Top-down strategies to reshape capitalism to work for all stakeholders. “We …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 11 – ”$100 a ton?” exclaimed CDP’s Paula DiPerna on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact Call this week. “I should be popping champagne.” …
‘Tis the season for our lookaheads to 2022 and, thanks to ImpactAlpha subscribers, we are able to make the roundups freely available. So …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 3 – The New Capitalism Project has over the past two years dissected the failings of the current system and crafted a …
Amy Cortese catches up with FullCycle’s Stephan Nicoleau who is at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, to talk methane, governance and catalytic …
Host Brian Walsh is joined by Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, to chat about how climate …
Jon Hale, director of sustainability research at Morningstar, joins host Monique Aiken to talk about what is at stake for impact investors in …
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 31 – The municipal bond market has been called the original impact investment asset class, a source of capital for water, housing, …
Host Brian Walsh has the headlines and Amy Cortese chats with Oxford’s Bob Eccles about why the distinction between ESG and impact in …
Host Monique Aiken is live and in person with Rodney Foxworth, CEO of Common Future, and ImpactAlpha’s David Bank at SOCAP22 in San …
Host Brian Walsh is joined by Acumen’s Daniel Waldron to discuss lessons from the nonprofit investor’s two decades of deploying “patient capital” in …
ImpactAlpha’s David Bank catches up with Zach Stein, CEO of Carbon Collective, to talk about how average investors with 401(k) retirement accounts can …
On this week’s podcast, Dennis Price joins host Brian Walsh to talk about new opportunities in “refugee lens investing,” and Brian shares takeaways …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 27 – On this week’s podcast, Monique Aiken has the headlines and ImpactAlpha’s Dennis Price chats with Havell Rodrigues of New Majority …
Host Brian Walsh welcomes back roundtable regulars Imogen Rose-Smith and David Bank to dissect the anti-ESG backlash and the Inflation Reduction Act. Plus, …
ImpactAlpha’s Zuleyma Bebell and Realize Impact’s Luni Libes join host Brian Walsh to discuss the motivation behind The LIIST, our new monthly sampling …
In some ways, a quarter of a century is a long time to be at the forefront of social entrepreneurship. But in other …
“E,” for environmental, gets most of the love in ESG investing. Investments in the “S” and “G,” for social and governance, particularly in …
The Sustainable Development Goals need rescuing, a global sustainable investors group warned recently. The SDGs are a collection of 17 interlinked goals ranging …
Editor’s Note: The Social Impact Advantage, the new book from Tynesia Boyea-Robinson of CapEQ, walks readers through a step-by-step process for what it …
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP27) that began a few days ago will allow the world to …
Innovative financial services and blockchain/Web3 solutions are a passport to greater climate resilience, writes Scott Onder, Mercy Corps’ chief investment officer
ImpactAlpha, November 3 – On a panel I recently moderated at the GIIN Investor Forum, I baited the participants with a statement that I …
The Inflation Reduction Act is a historic investment in marginalized communities on the frontlines of climate change. However, the bill also links renewable …
The Land of ESG is embroiled in a two-front war. Identifying the combatants and their arguments may help practitioners keep track of the …
Terms like “small” and “local” have become shorthand for “ethical” – a way for consumers and businesses to signal virtue. Meanwhile, having large …
Like many people, the summer of 2020 was a moment of personal and professional reckoning for me. The uprising that followed the murder …
General Secretary Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev stepped down from his post as leader of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The national treasury was …
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 4 – Barbados is an island nation of just 166 square miles and less than 300,000 inhabitants. But its leader, Mia …
Blake Jones is “a cooperative geek.” After co-founding four co-op enterprises, including Namaste Solar and Clean Energy Credit Union, he has brought the …
ImpactAlpha, October 7 – Regina Kline has seen the state of labor and employment for disabled Americans up close, as a lawyer representing workers …
ImpactAlpha, September 23 – Women are hot… investments. So declared ImpactAlpha back in 2014, when we used quote marks for investors unfamiliar with “gender …
Within the next few weeks, if everything goes according to plan, the first customers will make deposits in New Hampshire-based Walden Mutual Bank, …
ImpactAlpha, August 5 – In the roller coaster climate bill negotiations with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, Brandon Dennison brought something to the table …
ImpactAlpha, Jul. 29 – Patagonia vests and khakis ain’t gonna cut it, says Taj Eldridge. To spread the word on climate action, the PhD …
ImpactAlpha, Jul. 8 – Amy Bell’s early work as a financier and advisor to impact funds and social enterprises helped establish the nascent field …
If the rise of a Black former maid to vice president was once unthinkable in Colombia, so too was the idea that the …
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 10 – Payday loans. Car loans. Student loans. “One way to describe our economy is that it’s about draining every ounce of …
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 7 – Where you stand on the incipient tech slowdown may depend on where you sit. Investors and executives in climate …
ImpactAlpha, May 27 – Five years ago, Olu Oyinsan felt an urgent pull back to his native Nigeria while working in the early-stage practice …
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