“We like to lean in and over the impact cliff, but only when we are sure that we are harnessed and roped in,” Ceniarth’s Diane Isenberg and Greg Neichin wrote in one of our best-read guest posts of the year.
Along with our own reporting, ImpactAlpha this year published nearly 150 guest contributions from Agents of Impact around the globe. Practitioners shared their views, from the lessons of billion-dollar blended finance deals to investing in historically black universities and colleges and social determinants of health. Catch up on some of their most provocative insights.
✍️ Submit your own guest post to demonstrate your thought leadership or issue a compelling call to action.
1. Scaling blended finance
Billion-dollar deals make up less than 3% of blended finance transactions, but recent developments like Allianz Global Investors’ $1.1 billion SDG Loan Fund suggest that is changing. Dalberg’s Kusi Hornberger and Marcos Paya analyzed 39 such deals to provide insights for scaling blended finance.
- Read, “Blending Billions: Lessons from more than three dozen big blended finance transactions,” by Kusi Hornberger and Marcos Paya.
2. Challenger technologies
As president-elect Donald Trump looks to slap steep(er) tariffs on imports from solar panels to EVs, TDK Venture’s May guest post on “challenger technologies” seems prescient. Challenger technologies, such as sodium-ion batteries and fusion energy, don’t rely on imported materials and, with investment, could leapfrog incumbent solutions, the VC firm’s Anil Achyuta and Tina Tosukhowong argue.
- Read, “As trade wars heat up, climate investors look to back homegrown ‘Challenger technologies’,” by Anil Achyuta and Tina Tosukhowon.
3. Balancing impact and diligence
Family office Ceniarth has never shied away from the provocative. “Being an impact-first investor should not mean being an undisciplined or undiscerning investor,” wrote the firm’s Diane Isenberg and Greg Neichin in a September guest post that shared some hard truths about how they balance impact and diligence. Some insights from their dozen years of work: Market-based models impose discipline, investees should seek professional financial help, and the lowest-cost capital is not always the best capital.
- Read, “And I thought you were an impact investor,” by Diane Isenberg and Greg Neichin.
4. Disinvesting from Wall Street
What is enough? That is the question that sent Kataly Foundation, a San Francisco-based foundation co-founded by Regan Pritzker, on a journey to rethink its investment strategy as a spend-out foundation with a mission to redistribute wealth within a span of ten years. Kataly’s Lynne Hoey detailed that bumpy journey over a series of guest posts for ImpactAlpha this year, as she attempted to align the foundation’s $450 million endowment with its non-extractive values. (Cheat sheet: where they landed).
- Read, “A spend-out foundation asks, ‘What is enough?’,” by Kynne Hoey.
5. Innovative ‘warehousing’ for emerging fund managers
“Warehousing”— or, making and temporarily holding a private investment with the intention of later transferring it into an investment fund—can help emerging fund managers gain traction and credibility. The authors argue for the creation of an SDG Warehouse Facility funded by catalytic capital. “Catalytic capital has the potential to use the warehouse model to accelerate the traction and credibility of emerging managers and products that seek to address the SDGs, especially if it can be used efficiently through a dedicated facility.”
- Read, “How ‘catalytic warehousing’ can help stand up emerging fund managers and accelerate climate investing,” by Tanja Havemann of Clarmondial AG; Adam Wolfensohn of Encourage Capital; Edward Marshall of Developing World Markets; John Simon of Total Impact Capital; Daniel Wanjira of Blue Haven Initiative; and Suzanne Bagert of Suzanne Bagert Law.
6. Investing in HBCUs
Historically Black colleges and universities are engines of economic mobility, with benefits that reach far beyond the institutions. But they operate with more precarious revenue, pay more for debt, and hold up to 79% less in their endowments than non-HBCU institutions, explains Erika Brice of The Krege Foundation. The HBCU Brilliance Fund, spearheaded by Reinvestment Fund and anchored by a $750,000 grant from Kresge, provides critical capital to HBCUs, enabling them to expand their academic programs, upgrade infrastructure, and enhance student services.
- Read, “The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs,” by Erika Brice
7. Investing in social determinants of health
Ibrahim Rashid, a Chicago:Blend VC fellow and impact investing consultant, explored the opportunity for nonprofit hospitals to invest in the social determinants of health. Just 10-20% of health outcomes stem from clinical care; 80% is shaped by social and environmental factors. “By investing strategically in areas like housing, nutrition, and workforce stability, hospitals can reduce healthcare costs, meet regulatory requirements, and address community health needs,” writes Rashid. One path: Partnering with local community development financial institutions.
- Read, “How hospitals are partnering with CDFIs to invest in the social determinants of health,” by Ibrahim Rashid.
8. Diversifying asset classes in Latin America
Some 70% of impact investments in Latin America are concentrated in private equity, compared with 20% or so globally. “This shows not only the need but also the opportunity of diversification in Brazil,” and across Latin America, argue Daniel Izzo and Daniel Brandão of São Paulo-based Vox Capital, one of Brazil’s earliest impact asset managers. Vox has evolved from a VC-only firm to include a fixed-income fund and a structured regenerative agriculture bond in the region. By integrating asset classes, Vox “helps investors achieve their impact goals while mitigating market fluctuations,” they write.
- Read, “How Vox Capital diversified across asset classes to meet impact investor demand,” by Vox Capital’s Daniel Izzo and Daniel Brandão.
