Greetings, Agents of Impact, and welcome back to The Brief.
Our takeaway from the holiday break: A movement is breaking out. We are keen to hear your big plans for 2019 by email, on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and, yes, Facebook), on our Slack channel, on our monthly Agents of Impact conference calls (see below) and at our continuing series of Agents of Impact gatherings. This week, we’ll be in New York and Boston and look forward to meeting many of you there.
For those itching to jump in (or jump ship), we’re catching up with a bounty of Agent of Impact job opportunities (see below) and other actionable items. Help us follow your talent: Send job moves, mandates, event announcements and other news to [email protected].
Featured: Agents of Impact Call No. 6
A new year, and a new day, for Agents of Impact. Something changed in 2018. Conversations with families and institutional investors have shifted from skeptical-but-interested to, “We really want to do this. Can you help us understand the on ramps?” said Caprock Group’s Matthew Weatherley-White on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact Call No. 6 last month. “That’s transformative.” The Call helped round up a year in which impact investing broke through from feel-good to a legitimate source of risk-mitigation and investment advantage, er, impact alpha. (Catch up on opportunity alpha, gender alpha, inclusion alpha, climate alpha and the whole year in impact alpha with the roundup of our year-end roundups).
On the call, Impact America Fund’s Kesha Cash recapped the firm’s investment in Mayvenn, which is reshaping the hair-care market and boosting livelihoods of low-income, mostly African-American stylists. “We are experts in understanding the nuances of overlooked and underserved communities,” Cash said. Enterprise Community Partners’ Rachel Reilly says holistic, integrated and community-based strategies can de-risk Opportunity Zone investments as investors rush this year to take advantage of capital-gains tax benefits. Bank of America’s Jackie VanderBrug says the performance of environmental, social and governance, or ESG, investments is “better than they could have imagined,” and “too good to miss.” Plus, the “gender alpha” is real, VanderBrug says. Stanford’s Alicia Seiger says rising appreciation of systemic risks is driving pension, sovereign and insurance funds toward low-carbon investments.
Read, “The Call No. 6: A new year, and a new day, for Agents of Impact,” by Dennis Price on ImpactAlpha.
- What has changed in your conversations? Join us in New York or Boston (see above), drop us a note at [email protected], or chime in on ImpactAlpha’s subscriber-only Slack channel.
Dealflow: Follow the Money
Bain Capital’s Double Impact acquires HealthDrive to improve long-term care. HealthDrive targets patients in long-term care facilities who often lack access to preventive health services. The Wellesley, Mass.-based company works with specialists to provide on-site dentistry, optometry, podiatry and audiology care at 2,000 facilities in 11 states. One of the Double Impact fund’s investment themes is improving access to healthcare in the U.S. “Many of the patients in nursing homes are medically complex and not receiving [routine] services,” Bain’s Peter Spring told ImpactAlpha. The deal follows Bain’s October acquisitions of North Carolina-based care staffing company Arosa and Los Angeles-based care provider LivHOME. Read on.
Lyme Timber closes fifth forest conservation fund at $300 million. The Hanover, H.H.-based fund manager operations says prices and yields in the timberland markets it targets are as attractive as they’ve been since the early 2000s. Lyme’s fifth fund was primarily backed by institutional investors (impact investors made up about 30% of the commitments) and is already 20% invested in forests in northwestern Pennsylvania and eastern Tennessee. “Increasingly, Lyme is investing in rural, low-income communities where conservation and economic development go hand-in-hand,” Lyme’s Peter Stein told ImpactAlpha. As of last September, Lyme had approximately $750 million in assets under management. Here’s more.
Green for Growth Fund’s loan boosts energy efficiency in Tunisia. The 10-year-old investment fund invests in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Europe and North Africa. A €6 million ($6.8 million) loan to Attijari Leasing will help small businesses in Tunisia replace light vehicles and machinery with more fuel-efficient alternatives. Dive in.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Follow the talent. Annie Donovan steps down as director of the Community Development Finance Institutions Fund. Jodie Harris steps up as the CDFI Fund’s new director… Stephanie Copeland, formerly Colorado’s economic development director, joins Four Points Funding to work on the firm’s rural Opportunity Fund… The Securities and Exchange Commission appoints Martha Legg Miller as its first advocate for small business capital formation.
Seize the opportunity. Bridges Fund Management is hiring an impact and finance director and an investment manager for its social outcomes team… Open Society Foundations is looking for an investment principal for its Economic Advancement Program in London… Canada’s development finance institution, FinDev Canada, is recruiting a lead investment officer in Montreal… Salesforce Impact Fund is hiring a senior manager in San Francisco… New Island Capital is hiring a vice president for real estate in San Francisco… Just Capital is looking for a director of investment products in New York… Mission Investors Exchange is looking for a digital associate in New York… The Jain Family Institute is recruiting project leads for universal basic income and income share agreements in New York… Kaya Impacto is recruiting a senior associate in Mexico City… NorthStar Asset Management is hiring a systems support analyst/assistant trader in Boston… AHL Venture Partners is looking for a partner in Nairobi… The International Trade Centre is recruiting a sustainable investment consultant… The Annie E. Casey Foundation is hiring an investment analyst in Baltimore.
Apply, respond, submit. The Creative Startups accelerator is accepting applications… New York’s 76West clean energy startup competition is open.
Get smarter. Ethical Corporation is hosting a circular economy webinar Jan. 10 featuring executives from Unilever, Walmart, Danone and WBCSD.
— January 7, 2019.
