ImpactAlpha Open

Systems investing at Sierra Club Foundation + Rebuilding Black neighborhoods in Portland

Dennis Price ¡ December 16, 2025

Hi there, Agents of Impact! Welcome to ImpactAlpha Open, a free weekly sampling of the top news and views from ImpactAlpha.

🎉 ImpactAlpha’s end-of-year offer is here. Onward to 2026: Find your alpha in impact in the new year with an ImpactAlpha subscription. Now 75% off. 

☎️ Tomorrow’s Call: Municipal impact investing for shared prosperity. Can philanthropic bond guarantees expand access to capital for smaller cities and rural areas? On this Agents of Impact Call we’ll explore strategies to reverse entrenched patterns of disinvestment and help municipalities, bond banks and other authorities to grow their resource base. Join Lourdes GermĂĄn of Public Finance Initiative, Michael Gaughan of the Vermont Bond Bank, Damon Burns of Finance New Orleans, Eric Glass of Clarion Call Capital and Brian Boland of Delta Fund, for this week’s Call, Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London. RSVP for login details.

In this week’s Open:

  • System-level investing at Sierra Club Foundation
  • 1803 Fund is going big to rebuild Black neighborhoods in Portland
  • Podcasts: Stackwell’s Trevor Rozier-Byrd and This Week in Impact
  • The Call: Tackling advisor roadblocks

Let’s dig in. â€“ Dennis Price 

Must-reads on ImpactAlpha

  • Sierra Club Foundation is dumping managers, innovating indexes and embracing system-level investing. Engage equity. Deny debt. That’s essentially the climate investing strategy of the Sierra Club Foundation, a $200 million endowment that provides operating income for the Sierra Club and sees itself as a demonstration of system-level investing. “The divestment movement is more effective on the fixed-income side of the balance sheet,” Sara Murphy, who joined the foundation in August as director of system-level investing, tells ImpactAlpha’s David Bank. Read more.
  • In Portland, the 1803 Fund is rebuilding Black neighborhoods, zip code by zip code. The restoration of Portland’s once-bustling Black community of Albina is moving from vision to action, reports ImpactAlpha’s Roodgally Senatus. The 1803 Fund, seeded two years ago with $400 million from Nike billionaires Phil and Penny Knight, is deploying capital to reclaim land, enable community ownership and anchor economic opportunity in an area long scarred by displacement. Learn more.
  • With FinDev, Canada tries to show that development finance can be fast and efficient. “Brash newcomer” is not a description usually associated with stalwart, if stodgy, development financial institutions. The quasi-public investors of rich countries anchor many of the private equity, private debt and bank lenders in emerging markets but have been criticized for being slow, risk-averse and opaque. FinDev Canada, the newest DFI, is trying to be nimble, quick and effective, reports ImpactAlpha’s Erik Stein. See how.

Agents of Impact

🏃 On the move

  • Steven Meier, who last month stepped down as chief investment officer of the New York City Retirement Systems, became vice chair of Neuberger Berman’s institutional business, where he will advise pension funds and other limited partners on asset allocation.
  • The Inter-American Development Bank Group appoints Graham Macmillan, former head of the Visa Foundation, as general manager of IDB Lab, effective Jan. 5. Visa Foundation’s Najada Kumbuli succeeds MacMillan as president of Visa Foundation.
  • Natalie Shriber is supporting the Sea Forward Fund as a senior investment consultant.

The Week’s Podcast

🎧 This Week in Impact

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: How the Sierra Club Foundation is leaning into system-level investing; the 1803 Fund’s ambitious plans to restore historically Black neighborhoods in Portland; and, how financial advisors can meet clients’ demand for impact investing opportunities, and other takeaways from this week’s Agents of Impact Call.

😎 Agents of Impact podcast: Financial wellness with Trevor Rozier-Byrd

Two particular life experiences set Trevor Rozier-Byrd on the path to create Stackwell Capital, a financial wellness and wealth app to get young, diverse investors started on compounded wealth in the stock market. The first was back in 2005, when he purchased a few shares of Apple stock as a 22-year-old just out of college that later helped him pay for a full year of law school. The second was on the investment banking team for a company led by Bob Johnson, co-founder of BET. “That was the first time I had ever seen an all-Black management team in my career,” says Rozier-Byrd. â€œIn that moment, I believed that I could do what they were doing.”

The Week’s Call

💰 How financial advisors are starting ‘the values conversation’ with their clients (video)

Financial advisors who engage with clients about their values and offer credible impact strategies can deepen their relationships and prepare for the Great Wealth Transfer. Advisors “are the front door to this conversation,” says ImpactPHL’s Cory Donovan. “They already have the relationships, they already have the trust. They’re already managing the money.” Donovan joined CapShift’s Liz Sessler, Westfuller’s Randall Strickland, Glenmede’s Julia Fish and ImpactAlpha’s David Bank on Agents of Impact Call No. 75 to offer practical advice for advisors seeking to meet client demand for impact investment opportunities.

Get in the Game

💼 Step up

  • Galvanize Climate Solutions is seeking an impact measurement associate in New York.
  • JPMorgan Chase is hiring an environmental and social due diligence associate in New York.
  • Northpine is looking for an impact manager for a remote role in Canada.

🤝 Meet up

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