The chat is hopping whenever Agents of Impact gather for an ImpactAlpha call. Sure, we recruit thoughtful leaders and tease out takeaways from the speakers and guests. But the real value of this year’s calls, once again, were the thousands of Agents of Impact who engaged them. You shared your location and your work, your questions and critiques and made connections that are creating value into the future.
Catch up below on any Agents of Impact calls you may have missed this year – or watch them again. Unfortunately, you can’t see the lively chat in these replays, but we’ve name-checked as many of the introductions and locations as possible. Thank you all for your engagement and enthusiasm. We look forward to seeing you next year!
Call No. 67: Equity and Ownership
Speaking through his text-to-voice “eye pad,” Napoleon Wallace joined the discussion after the exclusive screening of ImpactAlpha’s mini-documentary, “Equity and Ownership: Napoleon Wallace and the Reconstruction of Black wealth” (watch the trailer). Wallace’s collaborators, including Brittany Bennett Weston, Talib Graves-Manns, Wilson Lester, Homero Radway and Keith Beverly, sketched the outlines of what might be called the North Carolina model for economic reconstruction and collective prosperity.
Call No. 66: Share the Wealth: Agents of Impact lean into economic justice
The takeaway after listening to Agents of Impact digest the US election: It’s time to lean hard into economic justice and systemic change (see the pre-read, “Economic populism, disruptive innovation and other impact investing strategies for the era ahead”). “The structure of the economy and ownership is an area of real agreement,” said Jon Shell of Social Capital Partners. Impact investors have long seen wealth and income inequality as systemic risks, said Smitha Das of World Education Services. “Recent events have really seen that play out.” A “patriotic narrative,” said Antony Bugg-Levine, would signal that “we as an impact investing movement are aligned with what the vast majority of Americans want to see in how this economy changes.”
Wins will come by linking shareholder-led corporate accountability to real people’s lives and concerns, said Majority Action’s Bryant Sewell. “I don’t think that we have done enough as a movement to think about how we then parlay building economic power into political power,” said Candide’s Morgan Simon. “We’re not backing off what we’re doing,” Kellogg Foundation’s Cynthia Muller said on a related call hosted by Mission Investors Exchange. “We’re talking about it differently.” That may be a matter of degree. “We’ve been trying to edit these systems and make them better,” said Adasina Social Capital’s Rachel Robasciotti said. “Half of the country has told us that the time for editing is over. It’s not working for them.”
Call No. 65: Putting an ownership lens on the preservation of affordable housing
Much of the public discussion around addressing that gap is focused on the creation of new affordable housing, which is important. The theme of this week’s Agents of Impact Call was preservation of affordable housing, both rental and owner-occupied, which is existential (see, “Unlocking and preserving broad-based ownership to make housing more affordable”). Paul Bradley of Roc USA, Ruth Gao of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Jazmin Segura of Common Counsel Foundation, Devin Culbertson of Grounded Solutions Network and Michael Lohmeier of Impact Community Capital unpacked solutions and financing mechanisms to try to mitigate the risk of losing stock, including transferring ownership to tenants themselves.
Some of the Agents of Impact joining The Call: Thomas Lopez-Pierre of Black Real Estate Forum… David Lidz of StreetWell and WaterBottle Cooperative… Magdi Amin of African Renaissance Ventures… Noveena Padala, masters candidate at Columbia University… Carlos Rincon of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston… Sheree Speakman of Talent First PBC… Joy Marie Smith of Common Roots Housing Trust… Diana Bellizzi of Hudson Valley Property Group.
Marcelo Mainzer of EcoVillage Makers District… Delilah Rothenberg, Raphaele Chappe and Shannon Mullins of Predistribution Initiative… Cindy Holler of Community Housing Capital… Curt Lyon of Transform Finance… Jackie Koney of National Coalition for Community Capital… Johann Wong of JouleWatt… Henry Levy, treasurer of Alameda County… George Spencer of Gregory FCA’s Impact Investing & Sustainable Finance… Kim Griffin of Pluralize Capital.
Sam Chesser of Self-Help… Claude Hendrickson of Community Led Homes… Fred Scott of Red Stone Equity Partners… Karyn Polak of Shift the Prism Advisory… Doug Kiester of Mable Software… Jeremy Kohomban of The Children’s Village… Jeff Malin, consultant… Clint McCoy of GoodRoots… Hala Farid of Texas Community Capital… Katherine Selch of Citi Community Capital… Blair Smith of Milken Institute… Michael Peck of Coalition for Affordable, Cooperative, Mutualist Housing… Ida Rademacher of Aspen Institute Financial Security Program… Tori Tavormina of Texas Housers… Doug Schaeffer of Allivate Impact Capital.
(Disclosure: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsors ImpactAlpha’s coverage of homeownership preservation.)
Call No. 64: How commercial investors are streamlining blended fund structures
Blended deals are on the upswing, hitting a five-year high of $15 billion last year, reported Nnamdi Igbokwe of Convergence. “We’re in the midst of a very punctuated moment where we’re going towards scale,” he said. “We actually see the needle moving” (for context, see “Blending billions: Lessons in catalyzing capital at scale for climate and development”). “Institutions have wanted to put money behind the Sustainable Development Goals, but need investment-grade opportunities to do it at scale,” observed Debra Schwartz of the MacArthur Foundation. Project GAIA, a $1.5 billion debt facility for climate adaptation and mitigation in low-income countries, marked a “turning point,” said Ariane Pevide of Mitsubishi UJF Financial Group. First-loss capital remains essential. Said Climate Fund Managers’ Rajashree Padmanabhi. “There are still areas where it is a high-risk business.”
(Disclosure: MacArthur Foundation is a mainstay of the Catalytic Capital Consortium, which supports ImpactAlpha’s coverage of catalytic capital.)
Call No. 63: Water, long overlooked, is increasingly investable
As head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water office, Radhika Fox of North Star Strategy carved out $50 million to help small communities compete for federal climate and infrastructure funding. “There are 1,000 communities right now that are getting that technical assistance, and for the first time, unlocking these federal funds,” she said (see, “Making impact investments to help communities maximize historic federal funding for water infrastructure”).
“We see a lot of willingness to do things that communities have never done before,” said Rogelio Rodriguez of Water Finance Exchange, which has stood up funds to enhance the credit of disadvantaged communities, make low-cost loans for pre-development project work, and provide grants for disadvantaged communities (see, “Underserved communities get creative in financing to upgrade water infrastructure”). Quantitative Ventures turned up $7 billion worth of water and green infrastructure projects – with a need for $4.5 billion in financing, “the most robust pipeline of investable, nature-based solutions and water-based projects that has been compiled,” said Quantified Ventures’ Shaun O’Rourke.
Among the Agents of Impact on The Call: David Rankin with the Great Lakes Protection Fund, Paige Dickman with Align Impact, Maddie Vann with The Resiliency Company, Chris Larson from Alder Point Capital Management, Laura Mondragon of the Montgomery County Green Bank, Somalisa Sahoo at Cogent Consulting, Holden Lee with Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Shaska Chirinosat the Principles for Responsible Investment.
Ren Robbins with NGO Atma Connect, David Cooper of Mission Driven Finance, Walker Krebs with Sorenson Impact Institute, Diane Schrauth of New Jersey Future, Jackie Logan with Raise Green, Eric Mong with Capricorn Investment Group, Milton Lore at Open Capital, Margot Walker of Lotus Water, and Hubert Danso of the African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank.
(Disclosure: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsors ImpactAlpha’s coverage of water infrastructure)
Call No. 62: Investors fight for the “freedom to invest” after Supreme Court rulings
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, CalSTRS’s Kirsty Jenkinson and Delaware State Treasurer Colleen Davis are among hundreds of investors and business leaders, state financial officers, labor unions, and faith leaders to sign onto the “Freedom to Invest” campaign. Adasina Social Capital’s Rachel Robasciotti co-founded another effort, Freedom Economy to provide legal protections to justice, sustainability and impact investors (see, “As legal safeguards are eroded, it’s up to investors to hold corporations accountable,”). The decisions by the Supreme Court “mark a dramatic and historic power grab by the Supreme Court,” said Better Markets’ Dennis Kelleher. “The concepts of fiduciary duty and duty of care are absolutely relevant at this moment,” said B Lab’s Jorge Fontanez. Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance mapped the landscape in “Free markets and impact investing in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s rulings.”
Among the hundreds of Agents of Impact who joined The Call: Shareholder Commons’ Rick Alexander, Brian Nagendra of Spring Point Partners, Mari Hicks and Justine Correa of Roanhorse Consulting, Daniel Tellalian of Angel City Advisors, David Rankin of Great Lakes Protection Fund, Norbert Cichon of Good Chaos, Charlene Franke of LISC Strategic Investments, Paula Uniacke of DBL Partners, Cynthia Simon of The Shareholder Rights Group, Anne Clawson of Cascade Advisory.
Jen Talansky and Lacy Maria Serros of Nonprofit Finance Fund, Melissa Begay of Rematriating Economies Apprenticeship, Ahmad Alif of Global Impact Investing Network, Holly Ensign-Barstow of B Lab, Amber Reese of Tipping Point Fund, Marianne Vermeer, a consultant to CDFIs, Dave Bowermaster of Fireside Strategy, Stephen Filler of Regenerative Strategies.
Naoko Felder of NFK Consulting, Zach Komes of Founders First Capital Partners. Kyle Mylius of Humanize Wealth, Haisley Wert of Harvard Business School, Sara Olsen of SVT Group, Lisa Richter of Avivar Capital, Annabel Kuhn of Hope Community Capital, Danielle Fox of Climate Finance Action, Nick Freeman of Primary Productions, Fernando Morales of SEAF, Kent Ruffin of The African American Heritage Association, Claire Mattingly and Maddy Banker of U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, Jessica Quirt of Parkera, Karyn Polak of Shift the Prism Advisory, Maryan Abdelmesih of Better Markets, Elizabeth Damaskos of Winston & Strawn, Chris Pinney of High Meadows Institute, Tom Woelfel of HCAP Partners.
Rachel Perry of CIBC Private Wealth, Rebecca Obounou, consultant, Enisha Shropshire of CapEQ, Phil Kirshman of Manchester Capital Management, Jane Bieneman of Tideline, Bill Vogelgesang of EPOCH Pi, Ugochi Obidiegwu of NYU, Jim Olson of The Experience Alchemists, Jim Sorenson of Sorenson Impact Foundation, Brendan Lehan of New Capitalism Project, Natalia Arjomand of SecondMuse Capital, Marc Blumenthal of Social Ventures Foundation, Shivani Garg Patel of Skoll Foundation, Lisa Geason-Bauer of B Local Wi, Cabot Brown of Carabiner, Matt Elston of Donor Money, Andrea Armeni of NYU Wagner.
Call No. 61: Entrepreneurial households in industrious communities
Don’t call your customers “poor people” or “low income,” says Amie Patel of Elevar Equity. Elevar prefers “entrepreneurial households” that live and work within “industrious communities.” “You cannot see people only as they spend today,” advised Wagner Albuquerque de Almeida of the International Finance Corp. Martina Castro of British International Investment introduced the “Inclusive Business Investing Guide,” to debunk myths about investing in low- and middle-income emerging market households. “The market is maturing,” said Citi Social Finance’s Borja Garcia Fernandez.
Call No 60: How green banks are blending finance for community infrastructure and greenhouse gas reduction
Public funding is catalyzing a community-driven, equitable, green financial ecosystem – even before the money begins to flow. “This program is really focused on how to drive the [energy] transition and the benefits of clean technologies in low-income and disadvantaged communities,” explained Climate United’s Beth Bafford. “Our community demands this type of investment right now, so we don’t have time,” said Finance New Orleans’ Damon Burns. “Being here in a red state that is largely opposed to what we’re doing, we had to develop some pretty interesting strategies,” shared Doug Coward of the Solar and Energy Loan Fund in Florida.
Among the Agents of Impact joining the Call: Growth Opps’ Michael Jeans, Traviss Witt logged in from Berea, KY… Johann Wong joined from Washington, DC…Rosalie Cates was in Missoula MT… Kimberly Lorensberg chimed in from South Dakota… Sean Kelleher joined from Utah… Maura ONeil in California… Rian Irani logged on from New York… Alex Mitche called in from Los Angeles…
Kyle Barrios joined from Boulder, CO… Cara Purcell was in Allentown, PA… John Sherman said hello from Nashville… Shurid Sen logged in from Baltimore… Geoff Moore signed on from Montreal… Mark Attia from Massachusetts… Lynn Carpenter called in from Cleveland… Phil Kirshman signed on from Santa Barbara… Madison Friedman was in NYC… Ina Lee said hello from Santa Fe… Tian Wu was in NYC… and Melissa Abel joined from Texas.
(Disclosure: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports ImpactAlpha’s coverage of Muni Impact)
Call No. 59: Impact value-creation isn’t just for impact investors (but they’re better at it)
“There’s a special toolkit that impact investors and fund managers can use to squeeze extra impact that is financially material out of those investments,” explained Impact Capital Managers’ Marieke Spence. Self-identified and committed impact investors remain better positioned to deliver the “alpha in impact,” argued Tideline’s Ben Thornley (see, “Impact value-creation playbooks provide X’s and O’s for generating alpha”). S2G’s Aaron Rudberg remembers asking major consumer packaged goods distributors, ‘What are your problems? And foolishly we said, ‘Well, what if we solve that problem for you?’” Bain Capital’s Double Impact fund sees a clear correlation between impact initiatives and value-creation, said Bain’s Larissa Quinn.
Among the Agents of Impact joining the call: Ellen Frank-Miller chimed in from the Workforce & Organizational Research Center in Chicago… Avesta Fund’s Srikant Vasan called in from Denver… David Harlley of Africa-based Third Way Capital joined… Matt Camp with Peer Venture Advisors said hello from outside of Boston… a trio of Toronto based attendees included Jaiveer Gandhi, from Boann Social Impact, Andrew Newton of Amplify Capital and Alexa Nguyen from Rally Assets…
Bereng Seeiso of Oryx Impact called in from Lesotho… Lauren Burnhill was in Portugal… Joining from Spain was Joan Fulton representing the Swiss-based Ocean Assets Institute… Rachel Mavorthalasitis of Reach&Root Partners checked in from San Diego…James Bair of Swiss-registered Baraka Impact Finance joined from San Francisco… Also in SF was Mike Hokenson of Community Investment Management… and Diana Yang of BlackRock Impact Opportunities and Tamay Kiper from Beach Point Capital joined from Los Angeles.
Ellen Remmer from Invest for Better called in from Boston… Joining from NYC was Matt Raimondi of Beyond Capital Ventures… Johann Wong, from JouleWatt in Washington DC… Jeff Rosen from the Tufts University Certificate in Impact Investing chimed in… David Balkcom with WealthBridge Financial Group joined from NYC… Caitlin Morelli from Worthmore called in from NYC… Amaris White of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP chimed in from NYC… Niels Andersen with JPES Partners, joined from New York’s Hudson Valley… and Harshita Mira Venkatesh from Avesta Fund represented Denver.
Call No. 58: Moving from the ‘why’ to the ‘how’ of impact incentives
Structures like impact-linked carried interest for managers can be complicated. “It doesn’t have to be perfect,” advised Aunnie Patton Power of The ImPact. “If we had waited to understand what the best practices of impact investing were in order to start impact investing, we wouldn’t have 10-year-old funds.” The European Investment Fund requires fund managers – including itself – to articulate their theory of change and track their progress, said EIF’s Uli Grabenwarter. Added Bjoern Struewer of Roots of Impact, “Even with the best of companies, there’s always something to improve.” Santiago Alvarez of ALIVE Ventures in Colombia and Gilberto Ribeiro of Vox Capital in Brazil shared that they had to revise their early incentive structures because the methodologies were too complicated.
Some of the Agents of Impact who introduced themselves: PearlBridge Capital Managers’ Olufunmi Adepoju in Lagos, who is incentivized to see more women empowered in Africa. DisAbled Life Alliance founder Paul Kent in Boston is driven to facilitate meaningful change throughout the disabled community, “of which I am a proud member!” Zebras Unite and Armillaria founder Astrid Scholz in Portland, Ore. said her daughter, and the rest of the next generation, spur her “to keep at it.”
Claire Morduch of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s impact investments portfolio… Billy Gridley is new to The Investment Integration Project… Julie Menter, Transform Finance, called in from Oakland, the land of the Lisjan Ohlone people… Sabari Raja is managing partner at JFFVentures…
Aaron Bourke and Chintan Panchal joined from RPCK Rastegar Panchal in New York. … Adwoa Asare, director of Turner MIINT… Greg Beier of Susarb Sustainability Arbitrage… Sally Boulter joined from ImpactAssets… Christophe Bochatay, head of ESG and impact at TripleJump, sent greetings from Geneva… Brian Vo from Connect Humanity is investing in broadband for low-income communities… Cordell Jacks of Regenerative Capital Group, joined from Vancouver Island… Michael Casey of L1 Impact, a UK based impact investor… Ken Vaughn, director of impact investments at VertueLab….
Magdi Amin, managing partner of African Renaissance Partners… Jonah Zahnd is director of impact investing and sustainability special projects at Harvard Business School… Diederik Wokke is from Wire Group, a Netherlands-based impact fund of funds… Eliza Guinness from Dynamic Planet in Washington, DC… Elena Casolari is a partner at OPES Italia, an Italy-based investor in local social impact enterprises… Hama Makino is a senior gender policy advisor at the US International Development Finance Corp… Emily Arnold works on Cambridge University’s Venture Investment Fund’s social ventures portfolio…
Megan Reilly Cayten from Climate Asset Management… Nish Acharya from Equal Innovation in Boston … Alan Lo from Sorenson Impact Institute… Julie Abrams, managing director of impact investments at NatureVest at The Nature Conservancy… Apoorv Shukla, Asia Innovative Finance Advisor at USAID, dialed in from New York… Joan Larrea of Convergence Blended Finance… Espen Daae from Ferd, a Norwegian family-owned investment company, is chair of the Norwegian National Advisory Board for Impact Investing… Jamie McInerney is from CrossBoundary Group… Dan Block is from Mercy Corps Ventures…
Chas Walker, CIO of Blue Oceans Finance in Atlanta… Eric Hensel is a longtime impact measurement professional, now based in Slovenia… Andrew Mirie is a finance and operations professional in Nairobi… Lori Michaelson called in from the US International Development Finance Corp.
