The Brief

The Brief: Community lenders rally to defend gains for low-income neighborhoods

ImpactAlpha · October 27, 2025
Photo by OFN.

Greetings Agents of Impact!

SOCAP week. Step up and step out as ImpactAlpha helps kick off SOCAP25 in San Francisco tonight with a night of music and momentum, co-hosted with Candide Group and Partners in Equity. Special feature: live music by Candide’s Morgan Simon and the Iya Lingua Quartet. Only a few spots left – RSVP now.

The “ImpactAlpha track” at SOCAP kicks off Tuesday with the opening panels of many of the conference’s major themes. Dennis Price is tackling the future of global finance with the GIIN’s Amit Bouri and Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen of GSG Impact. Amy Cortese will introduce climate and nature-based solutions with Betsy Fore of Velveteen Ventures, Kate Williams of 1% for the Planet and Chante Harris of the Eunoia Group. Roodgally Senatus is teeing up “justice and economic prosperity for all” with Curt Lyon of Transform Finance and Susan Gouijnstook of Jobs for the Future. And David Bank will introduce “Catalytic Capital 2.0” with MacArthur Foundation’s Urmi Sengupta, Ceniarth’s Greg Neichin and Carolina Suarez Visbal of Latimpacto.

On Wednesday, Amy will talk about unlocking small business potential with the Navajo Nation’s Alisha Murphy, Winrock International’s Tonitrice Wicks and Mayor Frank Scott, Jr., of Little Rock, Ark. David will lead a timely discussion, “Surviving four more years,” with Candide Group’s Morgan Simon, VertueLab’s Aina Abiodun and Adriana Abizadeh-Barbour of Kensington Corridor Trust. And be sure to sparkle for Zuleyma Bebell, who will be looking to photograph SOCAP’s most fashion-forward attendees, continuing an ImpactAlpha tradition. Check out the full agenda.

In today’s Brief:

  • Lenders in low-income communities push back against cuts
  • Mirova’s $1 billion energy transition fund
  • Upcycling uneaten broccoli
  • Interrupting muni bonds for prison construction

Community lenders muster bipartisan support to salvage gains for low-income communities. Only a year ago, community lenders gathered in Los Angeles to celebrate years of groundwork that had delivered historic opportunities and expanded funding for community development financial institutions, or CDFIs. Now they’re watching that progress come undone. At this year’s conference of the Opportunity Finance Network, in Washington DC last week, the lenders to low-income communities faced up to the dangers of losing not only the Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund, but critical funding streams that are dependent on it. The CDFI Fund certifies lenders’ eligibility for bank investments under the Community Reinvestment Act and for New Markets Tax Credits, a critical source of financing for small businesses, mixed-use real estate and affordable housing in capital-starved neighborhoods. Also slipping away is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program, a $27 billion Biden-era program aimed at establishing a network of lenders to finance green projects in low-income communities. “As the kids say, we’ve got opps,” Harold Pettigrew of the Opportunity Finance Network told the crowd of more than 2,200 community development professionals, using slang for “opponents.”

  • Statutory duties. The Treasury Department agency, established in 1994, has nearly $350 million in appropriated funding, which historically has been leveraged for many times that in lending. Beyond the money, the CDFI Fund certifies the lenders’ eligibility for other key programs. After a March executive order to shutter the fund met bipartisan pushback, the Trump administration seized on the government shutdown to lay off the entire CDFI Fund staff as part of its broader reduction in force. That move has been stalled, for now, by a federal judge. More than 100 Republican House and Senate leaders sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week urging the administration to carry out the CDFI’s duties “that are essential to ensuring private investments reach our states and districts.” The letter, said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), amounted to “the biggest show of Republican support pushing back on the Trump administration on any issue in the first 10 months.”
  • Credit risk. Even if the CDFI Fund is preserved, cuts in food assistance, Medicaid and other programs are creating havoc for affordable housing, community health, small business loans and other CDFI priorities. Unemployment and tariff-driven inflation are hitting some borrowers hard, putting lending officers on high alert. “We’re experiencing different risks every month,” said LISC’s Shawn Luther. Business Impact NW, a CDFI  that serves underbanked entrepreneurs in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, said the rate of its loan losses had doubled. “We’re seeing a spike in our losses.” said CEO Joe Sky-Tucker. In past crises, such as the Great Recession or the Covid pandemic, “You had the public sector leaning in to assist CDFIs,” Kimberlee Cornett of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation told ImpactAlpha. “In this instance, you actually see the public sector leaning out. That’s where some of the quicksand lies.”

Dealflow: Energy Transition

Returning investors power a $1 billion raise for Mirova’s energy transition fund. Mirova, a unit of French asset manager Natixis Investment Managers, said it has reached the second close of its energy transition fund at €1.2 billion ($1.03 billion), boosted by “strong support” from returning investors and new partners. The fund, launched last year, is focused on renewable energy investments, including solar, onshore wind and hydropower, as well as energy storage, low-carbon mobility and energy efficiency. The French sustainable investor is targeting a €2 billion ($2.3 billion) final close  next year for its sixth flagship fund. “These investments offer predictable cash flows and contribute to global decarbonization goals, which is increasingly important for institutional investors seeking both financial returns and positive impact,” Mirova’s Raphael Lance told ImpactAlpha.

  • Investor appetite. Mirova Energy Transition 6 has made 10 investments totalling more than €960 million, including in independent power producers, renewable energy developers and e-mobility companies. About 80% of the capital raised so far has come from existing investors, mostly European and Asian pension funds, insurance companies. New backers include institutional investors and family offices from Europe and Asia. Mirova’s previous energy transition fund raised €1.6 billion in 2022 from investors including the Dutch pension fund PME.
  • More. 

Elbow Beach backs Upcycled Plant Power to upcycle uneaten broccoli. UK-based Upcycled Plant Power makes a machine harvester for broccoli farmers to help them capture more value from their fields. Only 20% of the broccoli plant has retail value. UPP’s machine collects the whole plant and converts the leaves, stalks and crowns that aren’t fit for sale into fibers, sugars and proteins for new food products, pet food and cosmetics. The three-year-old company rents its harvester to farmers on multi-year contracts, and pairs it with data services to enable precision harvesting. UPP is “turning waste into a powerful resource while solving a challenge for food manufacturers wanting to decarbonize their products,” said Jonathan Pollock of venture capital firm Elbow Beach, which made a £1.5 million ($2 million) investment as part of a £3.5 million round for UPP that included £500,000 million in government grants (for background see, “Private investors regroup to fight food waste as federal funding dries up”). The new investment follows Elbow’s £500,000 in funding to UPP in 2023.

  • Public-private funding. UPP first partnered with agriculture and food researchers at the UK’s James Hutton Institute and the agri-innovation hub Agri-EPI Center. The broccoli harvesting technology was designed using Elbow Beach’s first round of capital and an £800,000 grant from the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and UK Research and Innovation. Elbow Beach was founded in 2021 to make very early investments in new climate technologies and often serves as startups’ first institutional check. The firm is now raising its second climate tech fund and has an £80 million target. It is backed by the British Business Bank.
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • Nairobi-based Spiro raised $100 million, with $75 million from the African Export-Import Bank to speed Africa’s transition to electric mobility with its electric two-wheelers and battery swapping infrastructure. Spiro operates in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Benin and Togo and is starting operations in Tanzania and Cameroon. (Spiro)
  • Battery recycler Redwood Materials snagged $350 million to convert used but still serviceable batteries into renewable energy storage for data centers. The Series E round was led by VC firm Eclipse and included Nvidia’s venture arm, NVentures. (TechCrunch)
  • Denver-based STACK Infrastructure secured 39.7 billion yen ($260 million) in debt to finance a green data center campus in the greater Tokyo area. The debt package was underwritten by Natixis CIB and Societe Generale to comply with Japan’s Green Loan Guidelines. (ESG News)
  • Berlin-based Every Health raised €1.1 million ($1.3 million) for a virtual clinic that focuses on healthcare for LGBTQ+ individuals. Czech Founders VC, Atlantic Labs, LGBTQ+ dating app Taimi, and others participated in the round. (Tech.eu)

Impact Voices: Muni Impact

Stopping the financing of prisons and jails through municipal bonds. The US is on the precipice of a new prison and jail boom. Last month, Ohio issued over $100 million of tax-exempt bonds to fund the construction and rehabilitation of adult correctional facilities across the state. More than $30 billion in projects is planned over the coming years, including over $10 billion for jails in New York City to replace Rikers Island. The vast majority of these facilities will likely be funded with municipal bonds. The municipal bond market finances essential infrastructure that generally enhances our collective well-being, writes Clarion Call Capital’s Eric Glass in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. “Aiding, abetting and investing in the construction of jails and prisons is a glaring and horrific exception,” says Glass.

  • Investor agency. Glass is the co-founder of Investors Circle Toward Decarceration, which works with investors, civil society and system-impacted communities to advocate for divestment from projects of harm and exploitation and invest instead in infrastructure that spurs societal and environmental benefit for marginalized communities. “At a tenuous moment in history where politicians and pundits are intent on promoting division and building spaces of incarceration,” he writes, “we as investors have the agency and the responsibility to uplift and center generative, sustainable and transformative investments that foster abundance for all people.”  

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Join ImpactAlpha at these upcoming partner events:

The ImPact names Olivia Prentice, formerly with Bridges Fund Management and Impact Management Project, as CEO, succeeding Sam Bonsey… Ownership Works adds Nik Engineer, former chief partnerships officer of the GIIN, as senior director of partnerships… Women for Women International taps Thelma Ekiyor, previously with the Nigeria Philanthropy Office as CEO.

Acumen America welcomes Lily Brown, a recent MBA graduate of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, as partnerships and operations associate… Community Vision is looking for a development officer in San Francisco… Also in San Francisco, the Latino Community Foundation has an opening for an accounting manager of revenue and investments and an initiative director… ECMC Group is hiring an impact acceleration associate.

The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business is on the hunt for a senior research scientist… Avivar Capital is recruiting a monitoring vice president… The Sobrato Organization is looking for a vice president of data, impact and learning… Johns Hopkins University’s Black Wealth Data Center seeks a special projects advisor in Washington, DC. 

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– Oct. 27, 2025