Hi there, Agent of Impact!
🎉 An offer just for you. With summer winding down, now’s a great time to gear up for a productive fall. To help maximize your impact, I asked our subscriptions team for a special discount to share just with you. They agreed! Right now, take 75% on an all-access ImpactAlpha subscription – that’s one year for $99.
⚡ Plugged In: Disrupting for good at Citi Impact Fund. ImpactAlpha contributing editor Sherrell Dorsey hosts Meredith Shields,head of the $500 million Citi Impact Fund, on LinkedIn Live. They’ll discuss Shields’s system-change framework for impact investing, and the proof of concept, traction and scalability she looks for in assessing teams tackling major societal challenges. As head of Sorenson Impact Foundation’s early stage investments, Shields backed companies supporting education, healthcare, workforce development and financial inclusion for underserved communities. Join the conversation, tomorrow, Wednesday, Aug. 21, at 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm London. RSVP now.
📞 The Call: Investing behind federal funding for water quality, community health and climate resilience. Cities and rural communities in the US are scrambling to take advantage of once-in-a-generation federal funding to upgrade critical water infrastructure. They need help developing projects, catalyzing capital and floating bonds to stretch the funding. Join North Star Strategy’s Radhika Fox, who led the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Office for three years, and Rogelio Rodriguez of the nonprofit WaterFX, which helps communities finance equitable water infrastructure, to identify high-impact water investment opportunities, Thursday, Aug. 29 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP today.
In this week’s Open:
- Investors fight for ‘freedom to invest’
- HBO does impact investing
- Crypto as an onramp to opportunity
- The Celtic’s Jaylen Brown puts superstar power behind inclusive wealth
Ok, let’s jump in. – Dennis Price
Must-reads on ImpactAlpha
- Investors fight for ‘freedom to invest’ (video). The effects of this summer’s Supreme Court decisions gutting the “administrative state” are playing out in legal challenges to rules on climate action, labor rights and corporate accountability. Investors are gearing up to fight back. “These attacks are reducing your freedom as investors,” says Adasina Social Capital’s Rachel Robasciotti, a founder of Freedom Economy, a trade association with legal resources for investors standing up not only for their rights, but their obligations to clients and beneficiaries. Robasciotti joined Better Markets’ Dennis Kelleher, B Lab’s Jorge Fontanez and The Shareholder Commons’ Rick Alexander, Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance and ImpactAlpha’s David Bank to discuss the new legal landscape on last week’s Agents of Impact Call. Read the Call recap and watch the replay.
- Putting your metrics where your mouth is. BlueMark’s fourth Making the Mark report rounds up findings from impact verifications of 111 fund managers representing $234 billion in impact assets under management. Some impact investors are moving to hold themselves accountable by setting impact targets, BlueMark’s Tristan Hackett explains in a Q&A. Hear him out.
- HBO takes on impact investing. Impact investing is having a moment in the Hollywood sun or, rather, shade. In the new season of HBO’s hit show, “Industry,” sustainable investing, impact, and ESG are being treated with deep skepticism, reports ImpactAlpha’s Isaac Silk. “It’s like utopian opiate for morons who believe in a better world, whatever that means,” says a financial career-climbing character on the show (hear Isaac and some clips onthis week’s podcast). Check it out.
- Crypto as an onramp to opportunity. A rising cohort of diverse founders are turning crypto from speculative gamble to inclusive opportunity through distributed autonomous investment organizations, digital token raises and other blockchain-based tools that together make up Web3, I report. See how.
- Mapping market of tech startups in climate resiliency. SJF Ventures’ Joey Barrick takes on the continuing underinvestment in climate adaptation and resilience by mapping the market of tech startups in fire tech, insurance tech, water tech, analytics and infrastructure. Find the way.
- Bringing impact to main street. ImpactAlpha’s Lynnley Browning reports on what could be the next big wave of impact capital: the trillions in bank deposits held by non-accredited investors who remain locked out of most impact investments. Read more.
Agents of Impact
🏀 Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics: Putting superstar power behind inclusive wealth
The finals MVP of the NBA champion Boston Celtics, Jaylen Brown, has long been vocal about racial injustice. When he signed his five-year, $304 million contract extension with the Celtics last year – at the time, the NBA’s largest supermax deal ever – he vowed to turn his wealth and influence toward bridging racial wealth gaps. “I want to launch a project to bring Black Wall Street here to Boston,” Brown told reporters, and “attack the wealth disparity here.” Last week, the 27-year-old guard and forward launched The XChange in Oakland, Calif., with Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. Kidd is from Oakland; Brown calls the California city his “second home” from his time at UC Berkeley. They are recruiting other professional athletes, philanthropists and other business leaders to realize their ambition: to help bridge the US racial wealth gap by generating $5 billion in net wealth for historically marginalized communities.
- Keep reading, “Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics: Putting superstar power behind inclusive wealth,” by Roodgally Senatus on ImpactAlpha.
🏃 On the move
- Tanya Jain, previously with the Health Finance Institute, joined Impact Charitable as a senior investment analyst.
- Illumen Capital promoted Octavio Sandoval to principal.
- Blue Earth Capital welcomed Daniel Tjemkes, previously a portfolio manager at Partners Group, as head of portfolio management advice.
The Week’s Podcasts
🎧 This Week in Impact
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank, who tees up some choice quotes from last week’s Agents of Impact Call on the new legal landscape for impact investors. Then, why some impact investors are still dragging their feet when it comes to setting targets for their impact and holding themselves accountable. Bonus: Producer Isaac Silk joins the conversation to recap the new impact investing storyline on HBO’s show “Industry,” and tee up the question of whether the season will cast impact as greenwashing, fad… or fraud.
- Listen to the new episode of This Week in Impact. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple or Spotify.
🏛️ Capitol Gains
Navigating the dynamics between state and local governments. Brookings Institution senior fellow Amy Liu joins Matt Posner and James McIntyre to discuss preemption, navigating state politics, the rural and urban divide, and more on Capitol Gains, part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network.
- Read the recap and listen to the podcast from Posner and McIntyre.
Get in the Game
💼 Step up
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is seeking an impact investment officer for a hybrid role.
- Tapestry Community Capital is looking for an impact investment manager for a flexible/remote position in Toronto.
- The Global Impact Investing Network is hiring a director of impact measurement and management for a hybrid role in New York.
Sign up to 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:
- September 9-11: Latimpacto (Oaxaca)
- October 7-9: AFSIC Investing in Africa (London)
- October 25: Norselab Impact Day (Oslo)
Subscribe (with 75% off) to access substantial discounts on partner events.
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