The Impact Alpha | November 18, 2020

When investors go ‘impact on,’ they go to ImpactAlpha

David Bank
ImpactAlpha Editor

David Bank

When investors go risk off, they reduce their exposure and protect their capital. When they go impact on, they sharpen their focus, deliver value and optimize for the long term. 

Every day, with their commitment and their capital, impact investors and other Agents of Impact are writing a new narrative for business and finance. 

As the world grapples with COVID and climate, racial injustice and income inequality, it’s arriving at purpose-built vehicles and approaches incubated, in some cases for decades, by community and impact investors. Impact investing and sustainable finance are generating prototypes for a new financial system and a new economy.

ImpactAlpha is impact on. Five years ago, with many others, we set our sights on 2030, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and a massive mobilization of talent and capital to avert climate catastrophe. The trillions of dollars in play, we wrote “are reshaping the economy – and finance itself.”

Four years ago, we launched The Brief to cover impact investing as a serious, daily beat. Two years ago, we established the subscription service, aligning our revenues with our value to the growing community of Agents of Impact.

We are gratified and grateful that you find such value. In our recent subscriber survey, more than half of you said you subscribe to deepen the impact of your work, and nearly half to connect with allies and peers, gain an edge in the marketplace and advance your careers in impact. Nearly all of you say we help you stay informed, more than three-quarters value our trend-spotting and many find investments, investors and jobs. Your testimonials were awesome – you’ll see some of them in our campaign launching today.

We are excited that our success, in a tough media environment, enables us to step up in this pivotal moment, when the door is open for fresh solutions and the appetite for system-change is apparent all around us.

We’ve grown from an email newsletter to a multi-channel media company. More than 80% of respondents to our survey gave The Brief a rating of 4 or 5. Our weekly Impact Briefing and Agents of Impact podcasts are finding their audience. Engagement has soared in Agents of Impact Calls (we’re up to No. 25!) that attract hundreds of participants for lively conversations you won’t hear anywhere else. We’re pleased to be the platform of choice for hundreds of Impact Voices who have shared their thought leadership in guest posts on ImpactAlpha

And we hear you on how we can improve. The revamped ImpactAlpha.com, launched this week, is not only more visually appealing, but faster and easier to log in (and stay logged in). And we’re happy to offer a new weekly delivery option for The Brief so you can unclog your daily inbox and catch up with The Week each Friday (click ‘Update your mailing preferences’ at the bottom of any Brief).

Large majorities of you said you wanted to see more coverage of catalytic capital (66%), alternative financing models (60%) and impact management and measurement (58%). Significant subsets want us to go deeper on climate finance (45%), emerging and frontier markets (39%), racial justice (36%) and ESG (34%). Bring us your stories and your leadership. With our partners, we are doubling down on pattern-changing coverage in all of those areas. 

Our growing revenues have let us grow our team. Contributing editors Monique Aiken, Imogen Rose-Smith and Dmitry Fotiyev are contributing their depth and perspective. Reporter/producer Roodgally Senatus, a one-time intern, is back with his trademark enthusiasm.

The core editorial crew of Dennis Price, Amy Cortese, Jessica Pothering, now Roody — and me! — is on the beat, as you have seen all year. The team, led by Zuleyma Bebell and including Lyneka Little, Isaac Silk, Beth deBeer and Cesar Chavez, is humming. Learn more about all of us on the new site.

Our subscription model aligns us with our readers. Our thousands of subscribers give us not only independence, but a constituency and a community. And the model is working. Subscriptions now account for more than three-quarters of our revenues, giving us growing recurring revenues to bring you more value. Hundreds of enterprises are upgrading to ImpactAlpha’s ‘all you can eat’ packages for organizations with more than 10 users. We’re reaching next-gen leaders through partnerships with more than two dozen universities and business schools on four continents. Agents of Impact are our audience as well as our beat.

Together with all of you, we are writing a new narrative. Risks are being repriced, fiduciary duty redefined and policies aligned. The overriding theme is of an increasingly confident and mature financial marketplace and business ethos ready to supplant an increasingly archaic economic system. What we used to call “traditional” or “mainstream” finance has become simply “legacy,” like an outdated computer system due to be replaced. The old order will have a long tail, to be sure. But from now on, long term value and growth comes from positive environmental and social impact.

There’s no need to ask permission. No invitation is needed. And no excuses are accepted. Just as investors choose when to go risk off, they can opt for themselves to go impact on. When they go to ImpactAlpha, we hope they find value. For all of you who already do, we’re working hard to keep delivering … your daily dose of impact. Thank you.


Enjoy full access to ImpactAlpha.com, the daily Brief, subscriber-only Agents of Impact calls and much more. Go to https://www.impactalpha.com/subscribe.