ImpactAlpha Open

Stalled plans for bolder US development finance + reinvigorating impact investing

Dennis Price · October 14, 2025

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In this week’s Open:

  • What’s in store for the DFC? 
  • Tideline’s Ben Thornley on “care” as the fourth pillar of impact investing 
  • PluggedIn: Include Ventures’ Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson
  • Agent of Impact: Corinne Lebrun on building Ecuador’s impact ecosystem

Let’s jump in. – Dennis Price

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • Bipartisan plans for a bigger, bolder US International Development Finance Corp. on hold. When the axe fell in the US development sector this year, the US International Development Finance Corp. remained standing. The development finance institution, revamped during President Trump’s first term, looks set to play a key role as an international investor, especially after the decimation of USAID, reports ImpactAlpha’s Kristin Kelly Jangraw. Learn more.
  • Reinvigorating impact investing with pragmatism, clarity and ambition. Recent surveys show that investor demand for sustainable and impact investing remains high. But after “navigating market dynamics and pressure points,” the consultancy Tideline sees the need for a recalibration of impact investing grounded in pragmatism, clarity and ambition, Tideline’s Ben Thornley writes in a guest post on ImpactAlpha. Hear him out.
    • ICYMI: Survey of GPs, LPs and advisors shows impact investors to be hopeful but cautious. Go deeper.
  • Raintree charts an impact investing path for India’s wealthy families. India’s economic growth surge has teed up an enormous transfer of wealth. The country’s wealthiest families are set to pass on some $1.4 trillion to the next generation over the next five to 10 years. In a country where few families have embraced impact investing, Leena Dandekar and her children are modeling how to marry investment growth and family values, reports ImpactAlpha’s Shefali Anand. See how.

Agents of Impact

🇪🇨 Corinne Lebrun, Impacta VC: Building Ecuador’s impact ecosystem and a first-time fund

Corinne Lebrun had no finance experience, no VC connections, and little encouragement when she began thinking about leaving her corporate job to start a venture capital fund in Ecuador. She quit anyway. Her role at a French cement company had put her in contact with Indigenous communities bearing the environmental costs of cement production but receiving little benefit. After a crash course through Stanford’s VC Unlocked program, Lebrun launched CREAS to support startups tackling social and environmental challenges in Ecuador. CREAS has backed nearly a dozen companies and made two exits. “Everyone told me it was impossible,” she says. “But my reflection was: if I don’t do it, no one is going to do it.”

🏃 On the move

  • Stacy Swann was appointed managing director and chief of blended finance of IDB Invest. 
  • Julia Wang, previously with Upwage, joined New Majority Capital as chief of staff.
  • Jenelle Harris was promoted to head of social impact programs at Visa.

The Week’s Podcasts

🎧 This Week in Impact

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Ambitious plans for the US International Development Finance Corp. are on hold pending congressional authorization; how debt and equity “growth funds” in Africa are tapping local pension funds and family offices; and why youth co-creators are the key to effectiveness for new AI-driven approaches to youth mental health.

🦸 Agents of Impact: Broadening the impact tent with Lucas Turner-Owens and Eric Horvath. The co-hosts of Impact(ed), Lucas Turner-Owens and Eric Horvath, join David Bank to discuss the swinging pendulum between values-driven impact investing and the business case, reflected in the diverse voices shaping season two of their podcast. Listen in.

🏘️ Community Capital Live: Investing with values and building Just Futures with Alex Saingchin. Just Futures’ Alex Saingchin joins host Joel Skene to share how the organization supports a just transition to a regenerative economy. “All of my work in movements and philanthropy kept bringing me closer and closer to money, and our relationship to money,” says Saingchin. Watch the conversation, and RSVP for the next Community Capital Live, Wednesday, Oct. 22.

📯 The Criterion Institute Podcast: Reimagining finance for feminist movements. Host Joy Anderson examines the dramatic decline in philanthropic funding for feminist and justice-focused nonprofits, and makes the case for a feminist financial imagination. Finance is a system of power to be reshaped, she says, not just a source of grants. Check out the latest episode.

The Week’s Call

🔌  VC Include’s Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson on onboarding managers for impact (video)

“I always talk about the 100x impact,” VC Include’s Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson told ImpactAlpha contributor Sherrell Dorsey on the latest PluggedIn. “We’ve launched first-time firms that have gone on to raise over $1 billion collectively. That’s the kind of multiplier effect the industry needs right now.” Between VC Include and Include Ventures, Robinson has created a full-cycle platform to support fund managers from incubation to institutional readiness. “I wanted to build an onboarding system for impact,” she said.

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • Mercer is seeking a values aligned and sustainable investments principal in Boston.
  • The Nature Conservancy is looking for a director of finance and compliance for a remote role.
  • Working Capital Fund is hiring a senior venture capital analyst for a hybrid role in San Francisco

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

🤝 Meet up

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