ImpactAlpha Open | October 10, 2023

ImpactAlpha Open: Overheard at GIIN Impact Forum + Liist of open impact funds

Dennis Price

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ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

Greetings, Agents of Impact! 

Welcome to ImpactAlpha Open, our free weekly newsletter. Get our daily Brief, along with a regular stream of deal news, job openings and other data and tools to make impact investing easier, with an all-access subscription (and take advantage of a special 50% off intro offer). Subscribe today.

🎙️ Join today’s Call: State of the Field. ImpactAlpha is pleased to host this year’s “State of the Field” roundtable (we’ve opened this subscriber-only call to Open readers). Join TIIP’s Monique Aiken, Duke’s Cathy Clark and Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance, with other special guests, today, Oct. 10, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP.

In this week’s Open:

  • Overheard at the GIIN Impact Forum
  • Liist of open impact funds
  • Building equitable food systems
  • Child-lens investing

Let’s get to it. – Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

Overheard at the GIIN Impact Forum. At the Global Impact Investor Network’s annual forum last week, Amit Bouri called for ambition to lead change and humility for the journey ahead, as David Bank and Jessica Pothering reported from Copenhagen. The takeaways. 

Open impact funds. Dozens of impact funds in our new Liist database, the majority women-led in recent months remain open – and underfunded. Read the latest Liist. Search our new Liist database (subscriber-only).

Equitable homeownership. By helping families with down-payment assistance, Dearfield Fund is demonstrating that Black women are at the center of strategies for Black wealth-building, as Roodgally Senatus reported. 

Mitigating inequality as a systemic risk. In an op-ed, Monique Aiken, William Burckart, Tynesia Boyea-Robinson and Mahlet Getachew warned investors of systemic risks posed by conservative activists’ push to roll back diversity in the workplace, the military, our schools and universities, and even investment firms. “It’s more important than ever,” they wrote, that investors make clear “that there is no light between the fundamentals of investing and promoting equality and fairness in our economy.” Get their take.

Agents of Impact

🏃🏾‍♀️ People on the move

  • Bamboo Capital Partners named David Grimaud, ex- of Symbiotics, as CEO. After 16 years, Bamboo founder Jean-Philippe de Schrevel is stepping away, following Bamboo’s acquisition earlier this year by Palladium.
  • Sonen Capital hired Amanda Feldman, co-founder of the Impact Management Project and Predistribution Initiative, as head of impact engagement.
  • Bridges Fund Management appointed Henry Jones, ex- of Axiom, as partner and head of value creation.

Impact Briefing

🎧 On the podcast

Roraj Pradhananga and Jane Swan of Veris Wealth Partners join host Monique Aiken to discuss how the wealth manager is rethinking due diligence to advance gender and racial equity and justice. Plus, the headlines. 

Plugged In

🎙️ On the Call

Building equitable food systems with community and reparative capital (video). How we grow our food matters. For over a century, who gets a fair shot at owning and profiting from the agricultural systems that produce our food has been widely inequitable. In this week’s Plugged In conversation, host Sherrell Dorsey spoke with Olivia Watkins of the Black Farmer Fund, which is meeting the modern needs of Black farmers with affordable capital and technical assistance. 

Short Signals: What We’re Reading

🇪🇺 vs. 🇺🇸 impact investing market. There are one-third more European impact funds in the Phenix Impact Database (1,160) than US-domiciled impact funds (773). Private equity funds make up 42% of all of the EU funds, while in the US private equity funds account for 58% of all impact funds. (Phenix Capital)

🧒🏽 Child-lens investing. All investor actions impact children and their well-being. Unicef is introducing ‘child-lens’ investing as an approach in which investors intentionally consider child-related factors to advance positive child outcomes while minimizing child harm. (Unicef)

🔎 Racial equity in asset management. Statements in support of racial equity from BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, and Fidelity are not enough. Blackrock and State Street have conducted racial equity audits, but the largest asset managers are failing to deliver on racial equity in proxy voting. (Majority Action)

💰 Listening to microfinance clients. ‘Inclusive finance’ companies offering financial services to low- income customers have boosted clients’ income and quality of life. But many clients remain financially vulnerable, according to 60 Decibels’s Microfinance Index Report. (60 Decibels)

🚗⚡👷🏾‍♀️ Green auto jobs. Electric vehicles contain fewer parts, so require fewer workers. That’s one of the concerns of striking autoworkers. But is it true? A number of analyses show that electric vehicles could actually require more labor to build than gas-powered cars in the U.S., at least for the foreseeable future. (Heatmap)

⚡ Clean energy at rural co-ops. Electric cooperatives are clamoring for some of the  $9.7 billion in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new clean energy program. The hundreds of projects detailed in their proposals would require at least twice that amount to launch $93 billion in new investment across rural America. (NRECA)

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • CalSTRS is on the hunt for an associate portfolio manager for sustainable investment and stewardship strategies in Sacramento.
  • In Singapore, Schneider Electric is hiring an impact and ESG analyst, and IIX seeks a portfolio management associate vice president.
  • Mission Investors Exchange is hiring a director/senior director of program content.

NEW! Visit ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub for more impact investing jobs. Contact us for job postings.

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