- Beats
- The Brief
December 3, 2020
The Brief
Signals: Ahead of the Curve
Cultural institutions start to put their assets to work for mission. Universities, private foundations and even large nonprofits have deployed hundreds of billions of dollars into ESG, impact and community-based investment strategies. In contrast, America’s art institutions have been slow to shift their $58 billion in endowment assets. That is changing, sparked by the COVID crisis and this year’s Black Lives Matter protests, as well as a stronger track record for both ESG and impact strategies. The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, for example, is deploying more of its $170 million endowment to socially responsible and impact investments, five years after moving to intentionally hire diverse-owned investment firms to manage a portion of its assets. “We're at the forefront of social justice issues and on the economic precipice here in Baltimore,” the museum’s Julia Marciari-Alexander told ImpactAlpha. “To be a transformative force for good in the city, this is exactly the kind of work that we need to be doing.”
Dealflow: Follow the Money
GoSite raises $40 million to digitize U.S. small businesses. The pandemic has forced traditional brick-and-mortar small businesses to lean into e-commerce to survive. San Diego-based GoSite helps small business owners set up websites and manage online transactions. The company's Series B round was led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from Longley Capital, Cove Fund, Stage 2, Ankona Capital and Serra Ventures.
Impact Voices: Pass the Mic
What Accountability Counsel learned about the state of impact accountability from 74 investors. Last month, International Finance Corp.’s Neil Gregory rounded up the publicly-available disclosures from signatories of the IFC’s Operating Principles for Impact Management (see, “What the IFC learned about the state of impact management from 62 investors”). Accountability Counsel’s Margaux Day has taken another look at the disclosure statements from impact fund managers (now up to 74) and found a gap: only three signatories report having accountability mechanisms that let individuals or communities negatively impacted by investments raise issues with investment decision-makers. Accountability mechanisms are critical impact tools, Day writes in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “First, they offer the people who bear the most risk from investments – namely communities living near or working at investment sites – an opportunity to protect their rights and environment,” she says. “Second, they help ensure successful investments in that they provide investors with a way to learn of and address potential negative impacts before they drive an investment materially off course.”
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
ImpactAlpha contributing editor Monique Aiken, ex- of Mission Investors Exchange, joins The Investment Integration Project as managing director… Thierry Adant, formerly with Willis Towers Watson, is named chief investment officer at Newmarket Capital… Casey Family Programs’ Antoinette Malveaux and University of Washington’s Reggie Brown have been elected to the Beneficial State Bank board of directors… San Francisco-based Community Vision is recruiting a president.
- The Call
Gender Smart | November 13, 2020
Call No. 25: Gender-smart investing for a sustainable recovery
What: The Call No. 25: Gender-smart investing for a sustainable recovery Join SME.NG’s Thelma Ekiyor, Trade Depot’s Onyekachi Izukanne, Development Partners International’s Takudzwa Mutasa, Alitheia’s Temilade Denton, …
Africa | October 19, 2020
Call No. 24: Agents of Impact converge on financing solutions to ‘light every clinic’
The people and principles needed to solve the challenges of financing solar power for frontline health clinics were represented on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of …
Call Recording | October 1, 2020
Call No. 23 recap: Changing investment algorithms to advance racial justice
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 1 – What got us here won’t get us where we need to go. Guidelines that govern global finance need to …
Call Recording | August 27, 2020
Call No. 22: Rooting out racism as a systemic risk
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 27 – Investors have been talking about systemic risks at least since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. More recently, climate …
Call Recording | August 11, 2020
Call No. 21: Impact investors confront the impact of the November election
It’s long past time to get political. Impact investing, with appeal on both the left and the right, has generally steered clear of …
Call Recording | July 1, 2020
Call No. 20: Investors share experiences in getting their assets off the sidelines
“It’s a great time for new entrants, but for those of us who’ve been doing this for a while it is equally urgent to raise our game right and to not get complacent,” said Margot Brandenburg of the Ford Foundation.
2030 Finance | June 24, 2020
Call No. 19: Green infrastructure is back on the agenda
ImpactAlpha, Jun 24 – The action in climate action is shifting to infrastructure. Driven by falling price curves for renewables, mispriced risk, and …
Agents of Impact | May 4, 2020
Call No. 16: Impact investors step up to the 10x challenge
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 4 – A disruptive technology has to be 10 times better than what it’s replacing. Tech venture capitalists aim to recoup …
Call Recording | April 30, 2020
Impact management is hot: Recapping Call No. 15
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 30 – The first annual assessments of impact investors are coming in under the International Finance Corporation’s Operating Principles for Impact …
Africa | February 5, 2020
Call No. 12: How local early-stage funders are finding impact alpha in emerging markets
ImpactAlpha, February 5 – Small and growing businesses are the pillars of local economies, in both developed and developing economies. Startups are engines …
Call Recording | August 14, 2019
Call No. 10: Calling trends and scooping ideas in ImpactAlpha’s newsroom
ImpactAlpha, April 14 – Don’t refer to conventional finance as ‘mainstream,’ ImpactAlpha’s David Bank said on The Call earlier this month. Call it ‘legacy …
Beyond Trade-offs | June 3, 2019
Call No. 9: Impact investors move “beyond trade-offs”
ImpactAlpha, June 3 – The early days of impact investing were all about proving that you didn’t have to sacrifice financial returns to do …
- Podcasts
Podcasts | November 20, 2020
Impact Briefing: Week of November 20th
Host Monique Aiken recaps this week’s Agents of Impact Call on gender-smart investing and we go to South Africa to follow up with Secha Capital’s Kuhle Mnisi and Wukina’s Maureen Sibanda, this week’s Agents of Impact.
Podcasts | November 13, 2020
Impact Briefing: Week of November 13th
Host Brian Walsh and roundtable regulars Imogen Rose-Smith and David Bank explore what the presidential transition in the U.S. means for impact investing.
Podcasts | October 21, 2020
High-tech greenhouses attract institutional investors to food security and climate adaptation
Concerns about the resiliency of the food supply chain went from conceptual to concrete when the COVID crisis shut down railroads and stranded …
Podcasts | September 21, 2020
Shutdown accelerates shift to digitized, decentralized, decarbonized electricity
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 21 – When the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the world economy this spring, Emmanuel Lagarrigue worried the momentum toward a …
Gardner-Denver's employees in 2017 when the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange.Podcasts | August 12, 2020
This private-equity giant has distributed more than $500 million – to hourly employees
Sharing wealth with hourly employees has not been a major part of the private-equity playbook, which has more often called for layoffs, plant …
Agents of Impact | July 16, 2020
Catalytic Capital: Diane Isenberg lays down a “1/10th Challenge” for wealthy families
ImpactAlpha, July 16,2020 –– If you’re rich, and you get your capital back with perhaps a little extra for inflation and expenses, you’ll …
Podcasts | July 13, 2020
CDC’s Nick O’Donohoe on risk, liquidity and catalytic capital in emerging markets
When the coronavirus busted out as a global crisis in March, private equity funds, banks and other commercial investors largely pulled out of …
Podcasts | June 15, 2020
Leapfrog’s Andy Kuper on impact, exits and scaling growth in emerging markets through the COVID crisis
LeapFrog Investments goes into this recession with capital on hand, the fortuitous result of having raised more than $700 million for its third …
Gender Smart | June 10, 2020
How gender power imbalances put the COVID recovery at risk
Power is the thread that connects the surge in gender-based violence during the COVID crisis with violence against people of color, including by …
Podcasts | May 11, 2020
Visa Foundation’s Graham Macmillan doubles down on small and micro businesses – run by women
ImpactAlpha, May 9 – A parade of philanthropic foundations will report this week on their journeys toward aligning their assets with their missions, as …
Podcasts | May 5, 2020
Career impact bonds transfer risk to investors as the future of work arrives
The future of work is here. With unemployment soaring and many jobs never coming back, long-forecast shifts in employment patterns that might have …
Call Recording | April 30, 2020
Impact management is hot: Recapping Call No. 15
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 30 – The first annual assessments of impact investors are coming in under the International Finance Corporation’s Operating Principles for Impact …
- Opinion
An Accountability Counsel training in Oaxaca, Mexico on OPIC's Office of Accountability
Impact Management | December 3, 2020
What we learned about the state of impact accountability from 74 investors
The International Finance Corp.’s Operating Principles for Impact Management take a step to protect against impact-washing by requiring disclosures and verification. Genuine accountability …
Impact Voices | November 25, 2020
Why impact investors should double down on democracy funding
The post-mortem on this election is far from over, but as the news of the past few weeks has unfolded, we are seeing …
Impact Voices | November 25, 2020
How to stop ‘astroturf’ campaigns and the spread of misinformation
That the network of trade associations and advocacy groups blocking meaningful action on climate change was bankrolled by fossil fuel interests comes not …
Impact Voices | November 24, 2020
Valuable lessons to help investors integrate impact and financial management
Impact measurement and management isn’t just magical thinking. With enough effort and skill, the practice produces value and insights for investors, which can …
Impact Voices | November 24, 2020
Strengthening impact investing in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with collaboration, local solutions and scale
For the first time in two decades, global extreme poverty is expected to rise. According to The World Bank, the COVID-19 pandemic will …
Catalytic Capital | November 23, 2020
An ‘impact-first’ approach to investing for climate justice in rural communities
If you are an investor interested in learning more about how to invest in climate justice solutions, join us on December 3rd for …
Puno, Peru | Photo credit: Simon MayerESG | November 18, 2020
Responsible restructurings: How impact investors can help emerging market businesses survive the ‘debt pandemic’
Impact investors may be missing an opportunity to restore sustainable emerging market growth and earn commercial returns by providing desperately needed restructuring support …
Community Finance | November 17, 2020
Blueprint Local and LISC are using Opportunity Zones to bridge divisions, beginning in the Southeast
As we move beyond a difficult election cycle, it is time to focus on an ambitious community investment agenda that has a meaningful …
Impact Management | November 12, 2020
What the IFC learned about the state of impact management from 62 investors
One of the key features of the Operating Principles for Impact Management is that they require signatories to publicly disclose how their impact …
Entrepreneurship | November 2, 2020
How creative financing structures can help companies preserve jobs and weather the pandemic
Flexible investment structures that prioritize employees and customers alongside entrepreneurs and investors are proving useful in helping companies preserve good jobs through the …
Catalytic Capital | October 29, 2020
How a portfolio of inclusive businesses prioritized the poor through COVID
The spread of COVID-19 and the economic devastation in its wake have shown just how necessary for-profit approaches are to serving the poor …
Africa | October 29, 2020
Q&A with DPI’s Runa Alam: How Africa’s impact ventures became essential during Covid-19
As the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread around the world in early 2020, gloomy predictions about the coronavirus’s effects on Africa also made …
- Agents of Impact
Agents of Impact | November 20, 2020
Wukina’s Maureen Sibanda and Secha Capital’s Kuhle Mnisi
ImpactAlpha, November 20 – Follow the women… to catalyze an economic recovery and unlock trillions in new consumer spending power. Tech-enabled startups are …
Agents of Impact | November 13, 2020
Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact.
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 13 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline on the snappy Agents of Impact section on the new ImpactAlpha.com …
Agents of Impact | October 30, 2020
Kesha Cash, Impact America Fund
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 30 – Two years ago, ImpactAlpha recognized Kesha Cash as an Agent of Impact for her cutting-edge investment thesis: the billion-dollar …
Agents of Impact | October 16, 2020
Aisha Yesufu, Nigerian activist
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 16 – The world’s most populous Black nation is standing up to police brutality. The demand of protesters in Nigeria: #ENDSARS …
Agents of Impact | October 9, 2020
Anne Price, Insight Center for Community Economic Development
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 9 – Anne Price is the first woman and the first non-lawyer to lead the 51-year-old organization that works at the …
Agents of Impact | October 2, 2020
Archana Soreng, indigenous youth activist
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 2 – Global efforts to turn back the tide of biodiversity loss may be missing the trees for the forest. The …
Agents of Impact | September 25, 2020
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 25 – The advantages of women’s participation and leadership in business and society have become conventional wisdom. That’s in no small …
Agents of Impact | September 18, 2020
Jeffrey Ubben, Inclusive Capital Partners
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 18 – Oil giant BP this this week called Peak Oil. Ubben, a veteran hedge fund manager, is calling Peak Finance. …
Agents of Impact | September 11, 2020
Dave Kirkpatrick, SJF Ventures
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 11 – The co-founder and managing director of SJF Ventures still had half of the firm’s $125 million fourth fund when …
Laura Callanan of McKinsey & Co gives the Closing Keynote speech during the Duke Net Impact 2012 Conference at Geneen Auditorium on Wednesday, February 15th.Agents of Impact | September 4, 2020
Beth Bafford, Calvert Impact Capital
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 4 – Months before the COVID crisis, Bafford told an interviewer that what she most liked about structuring deals and syndicating …
Agents of Impact | August 28, 2020
Professional basketball players. The women and the men.
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 28 – When the lineup of the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court on Wednesday, the players didn’t realize they’d …
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