How the U.S. can boost community financial institutions to counter bank consolidation and bridge racial wealth gaps. The collapse of Silicon Valley and Signature banks sent customers fleeing to banks that are “too big to fail.” Further market concentration could have devastating effects on low-income families, small businesses and communities of color that big banks don’t serve, Calvert Impact’s Beth Bafford and Pacific Community Ventures’ Bulbul Gupta warn in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Minority depository institutions, community development financial institutions, and credit unions have been a lifeline to underserved groups. Bafford and Gupta call for government investment in market infrastructure for community finance. “Hundreds of private sector organizations are working hard to support community finance and improve economic outcomes for un- and under-banked communities and communities of color across the U.S.,” they write. “Smart government policies focused on market development for the common good can amplify and multiply these efforts, build wealth, and create jobs in our communities.”
MDIF and partners democratize impact investing in independent media. Media Development Investment Fund has for 23 years invested in independent media outlets in places where a free press is challenged or threatened (see, “How impact investors embrace political risk to keep progress flowing”). A new bond issue from MDIF, Germany-based GLS Bank and its crowdfunding platform, GLS Crowd, is opening the investment opportunity to anyone in Germany. Proceeds from the bond will support media companies in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe where there are too few independent media voices, opinions and news sources.
Using social bonds to address gender and racial inequities (podcast). Corporate, nonprofit and municipal bond issuers are designating bond proceeds to support organizations that increase access to finance for women and people of color. Such issuance “could be increased in the market,” says SMBC Nikko Securities’ Philip Watkins, who hosted the latest social bond podcast from International Capital Market Association. Guests on the podcast included Anna Smukowski of Enterprise Community Loan Fund and Natasha Garcha of IIX.
LeapFrog Investments names Rob Leary, ex- of Nuveen and Olayan Group, as senior advisor to Leapfrog's leadership team… Alex Bell, formerly with Tikehau Capital, becomes a partner at J.P. Morgan Private Bank to focus on sustainable growth equity… Enterprise Community Partners seeks a manager for investment communications in Atlanta.
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – The fatal beating by police of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month exposed risks to the city’s finances that have …
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 18 – Cities around the U.S. are raising low-cost capital in the municipal bond markets by highlighting intentional efforts to address long-standing …
ImpactAlpha, September 30 – Capital to support women’s economic growth and financial inclusion is flowing – finally! – in many advanced economies. In emerging …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 19 – Investors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives and world leaders have descended on New York for Climate Week, the annual gathering alongside the …
ImpactAlpha, June 27 – ImpactAlpha’s spring season of Agents of Impact Calls spanned a period of tumult in the financial markets: instability in …
ImpactAlpha, June 3 – Just as investment in financial inclusion in Africa was really ramping up, a market downturn threatens to slow progress. Or …
ImpactAlpha, May 13 – One defining outcome of the pandemic: a boom in entrepreneurship. A record five million businesses were started in the …
ImpactAlpha, April 22 – The Ukraine crisis risks tipping up to 1.7 billion people — over one-fifth of humanity — into poverty, destitution …
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 1 – High-impact investments in fragile countries invariably entail political risk. And impact investments in a free press, humanitarian tech, financial inclusion …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 11 – It’s one thing for a corporation to set environmental or social goals. It’s another to shift executives, employees and supply …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 25 – Bottom-up policies for access to capital in divested communities. Top-down strategies to reshape capitalism to work for all stakeholders. “We …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 11 – ”$100 a ton?” exclaimed CDP’s Paula DiPerna on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact Call this week. “I should be popping champagne.” …
Corporate, nonprofit and municipal issuers are designating bond proceeds to support organizations that increase access to finance for women and people of color. …
Host Monique Aiken has the headlines and Atlas Impact Partners’ Robert Brown and ImpactAlpha contributing editor Imogen Rose-Smith join David Bank to parse …
What is the net worth of Salt Lake City? It’s a relatively straightforward exercise to total up the balance sheet of a company …
Impact Engine’s Priya Parrish joins David Bank to explain why purpose built investment firms end up with better impact outcomes than purpose driven …
2x Global’s Sana Kapadia joins host Monique Aiken to ring in Women’s History Month and talk about the state of gender-lens investing. Plus, …
The roundtable – that’s Brian Walsh, Imogen Rose-Smith and David Bank – is back together to discuss private equity and, specifically, that $4.5 …
It’s called the Silver Tsunami. In the United States, baby boomers own half of the privately held businesses with employees. And those boomers …
Fran Seegull of the Impact Investing Alliance joins host David Bank (filling in for Brian Walsh) to talk about jobs, climate and communities …
ImpactAlpha’s David Bank joins Host Monique Aiken to to share some takeaways from this week’s Agents of Impact Call on the steps that …
Development finance institutions are essential to the mobilization of capital to slow climate change and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. So why …
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 20 – Building wealth for women and people of color is about numbers as well as equity. By mid-century, there will be …
The historic buildout of low-carbon and sustainable infrastructure is on. Spurring this climate action is hundreds of billions in federal spending in the …
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank sent depositors fleeing into the arms of large “Systemically Important Banks,” even after the …
Impact fund managers are increasingly expected to provide their investors (i.e., institutional investors and allocators) with reporting that offers visibility into their portfolio’s …
When Fred van Eck, a New York investment manager, purchased 9,400 acres of Northern California and Oregon forest for timber production in the …
What’s not to love about planting trees? Once considered a tried and true solution to the climate crisis, tree-growing has lately been given …
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s series, “Sustaining Impact,” authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Sustaining Learning Labs. Key insights …
For all the optimism contained in International Women’s Day, the reality is that in most places around the world, the gender gap isn’t …
If ESG is a foot in the door to an economy built around sustainability, inclusion and equity, then governance is the power that’s …
The pandemic heightened awareness of the foundational role that caregiving plays in the US economy. Yet care infrastructure for childcare, eldercare, and other …
Often within the impact investing landscape, “impact” is defined by who we invest in and what we invest in. To truly create systems …
One year ago, the unthinkable happened: history, whose end had been (perhaps academically) proclaimed after the fall of the Soviet Union, came roaring …
Over my 20-plus years as a professional working on economic development, development finance, and impact investing, as both an investor and an advisor, …
Editor’s note: This blog is part of ImpactAlpha’s series, “Sustaining Impact,” authored by participants in the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) Sustaining Learning Labs. Key insights …
ImpactAlpha, March 24 – Hundreds of companies and investors this week urged policymakers to protect their “freedom to invest responsibly,” marking a new …
What is the net worth of Salt Lake City? It’s a relatively straightforward exercise to total up the balance sheet of a company …
ImpactAlpha, March 10 – Laura Ortiz Montemayor is not on board with decarbonization or its advocates. “Carbon is key to life. It’s a …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 17 – Years before this week’s elegant and understated Super Bowl appearance, Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty turned down the NFL’s invitation to headline …
ImpactAlpha, February 3 — Andrew Crosson was a decade deep in the work of community economic development in central Appalachia when he got …
ImpactAlpha, January 27 – Gary Forster left his job in logistics at Procter & Gamble to volunteer in Zambia, inspired by the 2005 …
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 20 – Building wealth for women and people of color is about numbers as well as equity. By mid-century, there will be …
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 13 – A small-business lender in the Mississippi delta. A microfinance bank in Uganda. A global development finance institution in London. Laurie …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 16 – Napoleon Wallace’s presence was all over the recent Mission Investors Exchange conference in Baltimore. …As the co-founder of Activest, which …
“I love complexity,” says Berlow, founder of Vibrant Data Labs, a “social impact data science” group. An ecologist and data nerd, Berlow spent …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 2 – Back in 1931, Winston Churchill predicted we’d grow real meat without the animals. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug …
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 4 – Barbados is an island nation of just 166 square miles and less than 300,000 inhabitants. But its leader, Mia …
The company, which helps women entrepreneurs in rural villages access loans, will receive $20,000, networking, capacity building and mentorship opportunities.
Runners up in the contest at the third annual Sankalp Southeast Asia Summit included EnerGaia, a Thai startup that harvests spirulina growers in underutilized urban areas and MyCash, a Malaysian enterprise that delivers simple online banking and payment systems for migrant workers.
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{{beat.name}}ImpactAlpha, Mar. 28 – If the world manages in the coming decades to avert the worst-case climate catastrophe, it will be the result …
ImpactAlpha, March 21 — Moral imperative? The threat of economic instability? Or the unrealized economic potential of our nation’s diversity? Whatever their motivations, …
Napoleon Wallace has a challenge. After decades of developing racial equity and economic development strategies he knows what he is looking for in …
Corporate, nonprofit and municipal issuers are designating bond proceeds to support organizations that increase access to finance for women and people of color. …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 23 – In financial markets, water is becoming the new carbon. From early stage startups and corporate supply chains to public policy …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 29 – In October 2021, a paper manufacturer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, issued $100 million of what it called “green bonds” through …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – The fatal beating by police of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month exposed risks to the city’s finances that have …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 9 – Municipal bonds have been called the original impact investments, the source of much needed capital for highways, bridges, schools and …
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 6. 2023 – The age of ad hoc impact reporting may be coming to an end. In the meantime, we’ve taken a …
ImpactAlpha’s David Bank joins Host Monique Aiken to to share some takeaways from this week’s Agents of Impact Call on the steps that …
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 31 – It’s distressingly easy to find places where city finances are distorted by systemic racism or outright bigotry. It’s harder …
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 24 – After 15 years as an analyst, trader, and portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein, Eric Glass was asked in 2015 to develop …
The attorney general of Texas earlier this month accused Citigroup of running afoul of a state law that “bars most government contracts with …
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 17 – A computer glitch that snarled air traffic last week presented a fitting backdrop as government and finance leaders gathered …
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 12 – Banks that use environmental, social, or governance, or ESG frameworks in their investing practice are being targeted by state legislators …
ImpactAlpha, March 24 — Impact investors are looking to add new talent across all continents, from senior associates and investment officers in India and Tanzania …
ImpactAlpha, March 17 — Employers in the fast-growing global impact investing market are hunting for talents. From impact associates and analysts to impact …
ImpactAlpha, March 4 — From interns and associates to executive directors and board members, impact firms are on the hunt for your talent. Just …
ImpactAlpha, February 24 — Opportunities in impact investing are global. Need proof? Check out this week’s roundup of impact jobs. Global locations i2i …
ImpactAlpha, February 17 — The U.S. economy added roughly 517,000 new jobs last month, dropping the unemployment rate to a record low 3.4% …
There is no denying that impact finance is one of the most sought after spaces in finance right now, but what does it …
ImpactAlpha, September 20th (original post date 2/6/18 on Medium.com by Lauren Cochran). I get 4–5 requests to do an informational interview/coffee chat/career session per …