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 …
ImpactAlpha, June 13 – Who knows best the needs of a community but members of the community itself? First-time fund managers who understand the …