Login
Stay Connected with ImpactAlpha

Get ImpactAlpha Open, our free weekly newsletter.

Submit
By signing up you agree to receive marketing emails from ImpactAlpha Inc. and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Return on Inclusion | Erika Brice
The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …

impact investing in HBCUs
Impact Voices | Kevin Schuster
How innovative financing structures can help close California’s housing gap
Smallholder Agriculture | Jessica Pothering
For these tech startups and investors, the next big thing is climate adaptation for smallholder farmers
Woman demonstrating a water pump for children
Impact Voices | Rathi Ramasamy, Nao Sudo and Mike McCreless
Elevating impact reporting to raise the performance of impact fund managers
Impact Management | Rathi Ramasamy, Nao Sudo and Mike McCreless
Six impact performance reports that go beyond the basics to give investors needed insights

Dealflow

Latest impact investments and fundraises

The Brief

Read by thousands of impact pros daily

students on HBCU campus
April 16, 2024 | ImpactAlpha
The Brief: Investing in HBCUs

Greetings Agents of Impact! In today’s Brief: Featured: Returns on Inclusion The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs. Four years into …

Today’s brief

Featured: Returns on Inclusion

The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs. Four years into a social justice movement in which private and public funders vowed to prioritize communities of color, America’s 107 historically Black colleges and universities continue to lack reliable and affordable access to capital. The end of affirmative action in higher education admissions only increases the imperative to close the funding gap for HBCUs, argues Kresge Foundation's Erika Brice in a guest post. “It’s a moment that calls for a response,” says Brice, an alum of Howard University in Washington, DC (for background, see “Social returns on investments in HBCUs rise as affirmative action recedes”). Kresge invested $3.5 million in Reinvestment Fund’s $25 million HBCU Brilliance Fund to help HBCUs restructure their balance sheets, diversify their revenues, upgrade infrastructure and enhance student services. The flexible, mission-driven debt capital represents an underwriting approach that Reinvestment Fund, a community development financial institution, says “better reflects the financial realities of the schools.” The Brilliance Fund will back real estate projects both on and off campus. “Our long term goal is to have HBCUs serve as community anchors,” says Reinvestment Fund’s Damien Wilson. HBCUs generate an estimated $14.8 billion in annual economic impact. 

Podcast: Agents of Impact

Building equitable food systems with community and reparative capital. On this week’s Agents of Impact Podcast, co-host Sherrell Dorsey chats with Olivia Watkins of Black Farmer Fund. The fund aims to meet the modern needs of Black farmers and food entrepreneurs with affordable capital and technical assistance (for background see, “Black Farmer Fund is reimagining U.S. agricultural finance, on farmers’ terms”).

Dealflow: Adaptation Finance

Pula lands $20 million to offer livestock insurance to smallholder farmers. Insurance tech startup Pula launched in 2015 to provide crop insurance to small scale farmers, 80% of whom lack access to products that protect their incomes from extreme weather events, like drought. The Kenyan company partners with insurers to embed their policies into the costs of the farm inputs farmers buy – when a farmer buys seeds, for example, those seeds come with an insurance policy. Its Series B equity round will support its expansion into livestock insurance. Swiss impact investor BlueOrchard led the round. Along with existing investors, Gates Foundation, Kenyan venture capital firm Hesabu Capital and the IFC also participated (see, "The next big thing is climate adaptation for smallholder farmers").

Impact Voices: Catalytic Capital

How innovative financing structures can help close California’s housing gap. The way housing is financed and constructed in the United States has changed little in decades. The result: skyrocketing costs and a nationwide housing shortage. California alone needs an estimated 2.5 million new homes by 2030, with 40% of those units for lower-income households. More than 100 policies adopted by the state in recent years to unwind exclusionary land use practices and increase housing production are unlocking development potential. Private investors and philanthropists have a big role to play in “catalyzing innovative approaches to financing housing to increase the pace of development, including increasing access to capital, reducing financing costs, and seeding novel approaches,” writes Kevin Schuster of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. 

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Alison Lingane, who co-founded Project Equity with Hilary Abell in 2014, is transitioning from her role as chief innovation and investment officer to senior advisor to Project Equity’s Employee Ownership Catalyst Fund… Connectivity Capital is hiring a project manager in Washington, DC… MacArthur Foundation is looking for an awards manager in Chicago… Also in Chicago, Builders Vision is recruiting a vice president for impact measurement and management… Chicago TREND is hiring a senior property manager.

Subscribe to ImpactAlpha

Find the alpha in impact.

  • What comes with a subscription?
    • The Brief: Award-winning daily newsletter
    • Full Access: Unlimited, ad-free articles on ImpactAlpha.com
    • Community: Exclusive Slack channels, calls and events
    • Career Hub: Job board and career-building resources
    • Data and tools: Open funds database, climate deal mapping, and more.
Start Here

Previous Briefs

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

Impact Voices | Erika Brice

The brilliant case for impact investing in America’s HBCUs
| Dennis Price

ImpactAlpha Open: Climate risk at insurance companies + investing in food waste solutions
Catalytic Capital | Kevin Schuster

How innovative financing structures can help close California’s housing gap
Africa | Lucy Ngige

SEAF provides impact-linked capital to Dawa Mkononi for pharmaceutical access in Tanzania

Impact Voices

Editorials and guest essays from impact professionals

Deploy!

Following the energy transition to every community

Ownership Economy

Strategies for wealth-creation and shared prosperity

Career Hub

Build your impact career on ImpactAlpha

Careers | Aunnie Patton Power and Ashley Lewis
10 tips to speed your transition to an impact finance career

There is no denying that impact finance is one of the most sought after spaces in finance right now, but what does it …

Careers | Lauren Cochran
How to get a job in impact investing

NEW Job Board

    • Full Time

    Senior Program Associate for CCFLA Local Hub in Brazil

    • Full Time

    Impact Manager

    • Full Time

    CLIMATE FINANCE ASSOCIATE

    • World Resources Institute
    • Washington, DC or Bonn, Germany
    • View Role
Load more listings
Search the Job Board

More Stories