ImpactAlpha Open: Enhancing impact investments with policy advocacy and lobbying + community ownership models

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In this week’s Open:

• Policy-enhanced impact investing
• Models and proof points for community ownership
• Climate tech changes its tune for Trump
• Testing Africa’s public markets

Let’s dig in. – Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

• Policy-enhanced impact investing. A new community of wealthy families and limited partners have launched Policy-Enhanced Impact Investing, to lobby for policies that enhance the impact, and perhaps the returns, of their portfolios. “Investment portfolios can’t exist in a political vacuum, and impact theses can’t exist in a political vacuum,” Blue Haven Initiative’s Liesel Pritzker Simmons tells ImpactAlpha’s David Bank in a candid interview. “So let’s just be honest about that. Are we using all the tools in the tool belt? We are admitting at Blue Haven that we haven’t been and we should.” Learn more.
  
• Visions for community ownership. In San Francisco, Community Vision is financing youth centers, small businesses and health clinics to keep neighborhoods resilient and locally-owned, reports Roodgally Senatus.  “We talk a lot about gentrification and displacement of renters, but it’s true for small businesses and nonprofit tenants as well,” explains Community Vision’s Nate Schaffran. This year’s impact report from the $130 million community development financial institution details its financing of community ownership for positive social outcomes. Check it out.
  
  • Proof points. Community ownership models “can open up more equitable economic opportunities in communities experiencing long-term disinvestment,” write Aisha Benson of Nonprofit Finance Fund and Christina Hollenback of Justice Capital in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. From Indigenous-owned clean energy to community-owned real estate, local ownership models around the US are demonstrating how profits can be recirculated in communities. Read on.
    
• Hacking finance for regenerative returns. A “regenerative” economy transcends the transactional to center relationships, creates shared value, and money as a tool to repair communities and natural environments. Such an economy “is not just a utopian fantasy,” writes Jasper van Brakel of RSF Social Finance. “I know that, because a growing number of us are making it real.” In a Q&A for ImpactAlpha, van Brakel interviews Betty Francisco of Boston Impact Initiative and Mark Lewis of Trailhead Capital, who are each building investment models for regenerative results. Hear them out.
  
• Model for climate tech ecosystems. “New York’s transformation into a climate tech hub can serve as a blueprint for establishing climate innovation centers in other cities worldwide,” writes Todd Khozein of SecondMuse in a guest post. His organization worked with the New York City Economic Development Corp. to provide entrepreneurs with mentorship, workforce development, funding and technical expertise. Last year, climate startups in New York City attracted $664 million in venture or growth funding, creating more than 133,000 jobs. See how.
  
• Energy transition, meet presidential transition. Six weeks before President-elect Donald Trump moves back into the White House with vows to upend climate action, nearly 2,000 founders and investors pushing climate solutions gathered in Washington, DC, for the US Department of Energy’s “Deploy” conference. For a climate tech conference, there was little talk of, well, climate change, reports ImpactAlpha’s Amy Cortese. The new talking points: Creating jobs, cutting energy prices, and strengthening America’s hand in the competition with China. Read more.

Agents of Impact

🏃🏽‍♀️ On the move

• The Global Fund for a New Economy added Gina Dalma, previously with Silicon Valley Community Foundation, as chief development officer.
  
• JFF Ventures added six new members to its Corporate Innovation Council, including Pilot Company’s Jocelyn Caldwell, Mari Sifo of Host Hotels and Resorts, Kathy Tague of Northwestern Mutual, and Amazon’s Tammy Thieman. 
  
• Incofin added managing partner Serkan Alhan to its management board… Mike Ilardi, previously with S&P Global, joined Dunya Analytics, a biodiversity and nature risk analytics firm, as chief commercial officer.

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: How family offices are using lobbying and advocacy to pursue “policy enhanced impact investing”; how community ownership models can combat displacement and share the wealth; and how securitization of commercial solar installations could accelerate clean energy in Africa.

• Listen to the new episode of This Week in Impact. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple or Spotify.

The Week’s Deal Spotlight

🔍 Africa’s early growth-stage companies are going public. Going public is typically an exit strategy for large companies seeking expansion capital and returns for their investors. A small group of companies in Africa is testing the public markets as an early-growth strategy. Agrifood investor Africa Eats is now a listed entity along with two of its portfolio companies on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. The goal: to help its portfolio of small and mid-sized food businesses – and itself – overcome Africa’s financing gap for companies needing growth capital. That capital gap is especially hard on non-tech businesses that don’t qualify for venture capital, says Africa Eats’ Luni Libes. “Finding a way to list these companies on the stock exchange would be especially crucial for businesses that need short-term funding to meet orders or unexpected expansion and which cannot afford to wait on long investment cycles,” Libes toldImpactAlpha. 

• Keep reading, “Early growth-stage companies are going public – in Africa,” by Lucy Ngige on ImpactAlpha. Catch up on all of this week’s dealflow reporting. 

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

• Flourish Ventures is seeking a senior investment analyst for a hybrid role in São Paulo.
  
• The Coalition for Green Capital is hiring a financial planning and analysis manager in Washington, DC.
  
• Acumen is looking for a chief of ventures for a hybrid role in New York.

Sign up to Impact Careers get the top impact investing job listings and internships right in your inbox. Register for free.

🤝 Meet up

Don’t miss these upcoming impact investing events:

• ReFED will accept applications for its Catalytic Grant Fund, which provides grant capital to nonprofits and for-profits for early-stage food waste solutions, until Tuesday, Jan. 21. It is hosting an informational webinar Wednesday, Dec. 11.
  
• Convergence XXI, Criterion Institute’s month-long online convening on the future of gender-lens investing, is set to begin on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
  
• Katapult Future Fest has canceled its 2025 Oslo-based conference. “Sometimes, stepping back is the boldest step forward,” the group wrote in note to its community. “We want to create space for an emergence of thought, to build a platform for scaled impact and long-term sustainability.”

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