Hi there, Agent of Impact! Welcome to ImpactAlpha Open, a free sample of the top news and views from ImpactAlpha.
🎉 You’re invited: Agents of Impact Call No. 72: Policy action for shared prosperity. Abundant economic opportunity. Uplifted community ecosystems. Access to clean air and water. They require not only investment but effective public policy and incentives. Join Opportunity Finance Network’s Dafina Williams, the US Impact Investing Alliance’s Fran Seegull, and other Agents of Impact working in a challenging environment to advance policies for shared prosperity in Washington DC and in the states. Tuesday, June 24, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. Subscribe to RSVP.
In this week’s Open:
- Activating Philadelphia endowments for local impact
- The Call: Investing in the pipeline of stranded green loans
- Impact and sustainable investing at European LPs
- New podcasts from ImpactAlpha, Impact(ed) and Activest
Let’s jump in. – Dennis Price
Must-reads on ImpactAlpha
- In Philadelphia, a dozen foundations are deploying local endowments for local impact. Private foundations in the greater Philadelphia area are working together to turn their endowments – not just their grant budget – toward local investment opportunities in small business finance, inclusive homeownership strategies, affordable housing development and other community-led ventures and initiatives, reports Roodgally Senatus. Read more.
- For European LPs, material risks are still material, and American GPs come calling. Thousands of private equity fund managers and limited partners descended on Berlin earlier this month for SuperReturn and SuperVenture, the private equity industry’s Lollapalooza. Among the buzzy topics: The emergence of Europe as an investment destination and the ascendent opportunity in defense tech as the continent re-arms. VentureESG’s Johannes Lenhard and Hannah Leach joined the fray to take the pulse of sustainable investing. Check it out.
- Taylor Swift, Ryan Coogler and the emerging ownership economy in music and film. When you think about Taylor Swift and Ryan Coogler, do you think impact? “You should. And the ‘ownership economy’ is a big part of the reason,” argues Mark Newberg of Stockbridge Advisors in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Hear him out.
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Agents of Impact
🏃 On the move
- Heron Foundation tapped Felecia Lucky, former head of the Black Belt Community Foundation, as president and CEO, effective Oct. 1.
- World Resources Institute appointed David Widawsky, previously with former President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency, as US program director to advance climate action and sustainable development.
- Congruent Ventures welcomed Austin Pringle, previously with Summit Nanotech, as an analyst for its Continuity Fund.
The Week’s Podcasts
🎧 This Week in Impact: Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Turning stranded green loans into investable pipelines for private capital. For European investors, material risks are still… material. And, Taylor Swift, Ryan Coogler and the emerging ownership economy in music and film.
- Listen to the new episode of This Week in Impact. Get the podcast in your feed by subscribing on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
🗺️ The Activest Podcast: The Reconstruction will not be televised. Activest co-founder Napoleon Wallace joins the hosts to share his remix of Gil Scott-Heron’s seminal 1971 record “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” Wallace, the subject of ImpactAlpha’s mini-documentary, “Equity and ownership,” which charts his quest to build strategies for shared prosperity while living with the challenges of ALS. In the remix, Napoleon uses his AI voice, cloned from pre-diagnosis recordings; in the podcast conversation, Napoleon speaks through his text-to-voice eye pad. Check it out.
🧑🏽🎓 Impact(ed): Empowering communities through CDFIs. Community development financial institutions play a critical role in promoting economic equity and supporting underserved communities. Kim Lyle of Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp. joins Eric and Lucas to talk about the importance of micro-lending, innovative approaches to green financing, and lessons from her non-linear career path. She shares her love for building things that don’t yet exist, passion to get money to people out there who hustle, and why green lending ticks all of the organizations’ impact areas. Tune in.
The Week’s Call
☎️ The Call No. 71: Green lenders are all dressed up and ready to roll (video)
The deals pencil. The pipeline is vetted. The projects are shovel-ready. Last week’s Agents of Impact Call surfaced a huge financing opportunity for impact and other private investors. Community lenders and green banks that had been set to deploy $20 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund are combing through their extensive pipelines of projects in community solar, building decarbonization and truck, school bus electrification and other green solutions. They have a pipeline of deals representing billions of dollars that could move forward without the infusion of federal funding. “The whole reason we exist is to lean into these challenges and opportunities when others lean out,” said Beth Bafford of Climate United, which has taken the lead in challenging the Trump administration’s attempts to freeze and rescind GGRF funds approved by Congress and awarded last year.
- Keep reading and watch the replay of Agents of Impact Call No. 71.
Get in the Game
💼 Step up
- Sorenson Impact Institute is hiring an impact measurement manager in Salt Lake City.
- Community Investment Management is looking for a senior associate for client solutions in New York.
- European Bank for Reconstruction Development is searching for a food and agribusiness associate in London.
Dozens of job opportunities are available to subscribers each week on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
🤝 Meet up
- June 23-25: ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit (Seattle)
- June 25-27: US SIF Forum 2025 (Washington, DC)
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