ImpactAlpha Open

Scaling up employee ownership trusts + state of Black venture capital

Dennis Price ¡ September 9, 2025

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In this week’s Open:

  • Taking employee ownership trusts to bigger businesses
  • The state of Black venture capital
  • Podcasts from Community Capital Live, Criterion Institute and ImpactAlpha
  • Spotlight: Nature-based opportunities for family offices in Asia

Let’s jump in. â€“ Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • Bigger companies discover employee ownership trusts. Consumer Direct Care Network, with 135,000 home caregivers across 14 states, has transferred roughly 30% of its shares into a trust for employees, an emerging form of employee ownership that has been touted as a more flexible and inexpensive exit alternative to employee stock ownership plants, or ESOPs. The conversion is one of the largest conversions to an employee ownership trust in the US to date, reports ImpactAlpha’s Roodgally Senatus. Check it out.
  • The state of Black venture capital: More money, fewer deals. Black-led venture capital firms raised more funds than ever before in 2024, with half raising more than $20 million and half less. That is far below the broader industry’s $50–$100 million median for fund raises. A new report from BLCK VC captures a moment when political backlash against diversity efforts has weakened institutional resolve, reports ImpactAlpha contributing editor Tony Lawson. Keep reading.
  • Green lenders scramble to salvage deals as appeals court OKs freeze on accounts. With the promise of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund money rapidly fading, networks of green bankers are scrambling to find the money to back up those claims, reports ImpactAlpha’s Amy Cortese. “We will continue to press on for communities across the country that stand to benefit from clean, abundant and affordable energy,” said Beth Bafford of Climate United, which was awarded $7 billion and is the lead plaintiff. “This is not the end of our road.” Learn more.

Agents of Impact

🏃 On the move

  • Generate Capital appointed David Crane, former under secretary for infrastructure at the US Department of Energy, as CEO and board chairman. He replaced co-founder Scott Jacobs. 
  • Swedfund International added Siongo Kisoso, previously with BK Capital, as East Africa regional director.
  • Eric Meissner stepped down as head of investment services of ImpactAssets to advise the impact organization through his new consulting firm.

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: â€‹â€‹How Climate United and other green lenders are scrambling to salvage investable deals after a federal appeals court ruling upheld a freeze on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Employee ownership takes a big leap forward, with 135,000 in-home caregivers getting a 30% equity stake in their company. And we look at the commercialization of nuclear fusion, which has attracted the attention and billions of dollars in very patient capital from family offices and other investors.

More highlights from the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network:

🏘️ Community Capital Live: The Hudson Valley’s green community investment fund. Rosalie Fransen of Mid-Hudson Energy Transition’s HELP Fund shares how the fund is addressing housing displacement, health inequity and climate vulnerability by financing energy efficiency upgrades for low-income families. The HELP Fund, she says, is out to “address this issue from the side of financing, and break down some of the financial and systemic barriers that keep low-income families from accessing energy-efficient housing.”

📯 The Criterion Institute Podcast: Financing solutions to gender-based violence. Criterion leverages finance as a tool to reduce gender-based violence. In this episode, Joy Anderson charts the progress in building evidence, creating tools and training investors and social change leaders. Next up: Amplifying success stories, providing advanced education for investors and practitioners, and creating spaces for collaboration, such as next February’s conference on gender violence. 

The Week’s Spotlight

🌱 Meeting the demand of family offices for nature-based projects in Indonesia

A partnership between Indonesian impact investment advisor Supernova Equatora Capital and Swiss advisory firm Clarmondial homes in on the kind of nature-based investments that top the wish list of many Asian family offices. “We are seeing particular interest from Indonesian family offices transitioning from grant-making to impact investments, as well as from Asian impact investors seeking opportunities that combine social and environmental outcomes with financial returns,” Clarmondial’s Tanja Havemann tells ImpactAlpha. Nature-based solutions, biodiversity and regeneration are the top interests driving impact investing among Asia’s family offices, according to the Sustainable Finance Initiative, which surveyed 144 such offices.

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • ICA fund is seeking an investment associate in Oakland.
  • Allstate Insurance Co. is looking for a climate investment intern in Chicago.
  • The William Davidson Institute is searching for an impact investing director for a remote role.

Dozens of job opportunities are available to subscribers each week on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

🤝 Meet up

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