Greetings Agents of Impact! Welcome to ImpactAlpha Open, a free weekly sampling of the top news and views from ImpactAlpha.
🎉 Stay ahead of the curve with an individual or team subscription to ImpactAlpha. Learn more.
In this week’s Open:
- What’s next for Middle East sovereign wealth
- ‘Tenant equity’ vehicles
- Podcasts: Lyneir Richardson, Esther Ndeti and Joy Anderson
Let’s jump in. – Dennis Price
Must-Reads on ImpactAlpha
- Middle East sovereign wealth financed massive green infrastructure investments. Now what? Fund managers had been beating a path to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh to tap into the oil-rich region’s enormous pools of sovereign wealth. Now many investors and bankers are among those fleeing the escalating attacks from Iran on physical, economic and financial infrastructure, reported Amy Cortese. Dive in.
- ‘Tenant equity’ models start to give renters access to housing wealth. Tenants typically can’t build wealth through the homes they rent. But in San Diego, nonprofit affordable housing developer Cornerstone Communities sets aside a portion of its property’s operating income for its “Renter Equity Club,” reported Roodgally Senatus. “As more people rent for longer and homeownership isn’t a realistic near-term path, we need to think more expansively about how people build wealth,” said Catherine Toner of Gary Community Ventures, which published a case study on “tenant equity vehicles”. Check it out.
- Also read: “How ‘entrepreneurship through acquisition’ can deliver benefits to workers, too,” by Julie Menter of Transform Finance and Sean-Tamba Matthew of SES ESOP Strategies, and “The case for investment in alternative ownership and governance models,” by Smitha Das of World Education Services.
- Also read: “How ‘entrepreneurship through acquisition’ can deliver benefits to workers, too,” by Julie Menter of Transform Finance and Sean-Tamba Matthew of SES ESOP Strategies, and “The case for investment in alternative ownership and governance models,” by Smitha Das of World Education Services.
- Now playing in Africa: Home-grown film productions that shift the narrative. A Trevor Noah-backed film project explores the unlikely alliance of the daughter of a water tycoon and a gangster in South Africa. Lucy Ngige reported that the project is among the first nine selected by Next Narrative Africa, a $40 million mission-driven film fund launched two years ago by Akunna Cook. Keep reading.
Agents of Impact
- Lolitta Nunn, previously with Potlikker Capital, joined Impact Charitable as director of the Unlock Ownership Fund.
- Anup Jagwani, formerly with the International Finance Corp., was named World Bank Group’s farming and agribusiness director.
- Impact Capital Managers tapped Adam Habib Cisse, former fellow at Google, as programs and operations analyst.
The Week’s Podcasts
🦸 Agents of Impact
Lyneir Richardson of Chicago TREND joined David Bank to talk about how models for “community equity” in commercial real estate are dismantling a long-standing barrier to local wealth creation. Chicago TREND helps local residents buy into commercial real estate deals on the same terms as accredited investors. “Nobody ever invites the church member, the charter school parent, or the guy who used to do crime in the neighborhood that turned his life around, to have an ownership stake in making the neighborhood better,” Richardson said. “How do you democratize ownership? My belief is that you just gotta make it work for more people.”
👩🏽🤝👩🏻 Women Changing Finance
Esther Ndeti, managing partner at Unconventional Capital, tells host Krisztina Tora how she meets African entrepreneurs where they are, with revenue-based financing.
📯 The Criterion Institute Podcast
Host Joy Anderson muses about the often-overlooked power of volunteerism and voluntary association as a foundational force in civic life, democracy and systems change.
Get in the Game
💼 Step up
- Aqua-Spark is recruiting a development officer focused on Africa.
- BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group is searching for a sustainability analyst in New York.
- Nia Impact Capital is accepting applications for summer interns.
- Wellington Management is hiring an associate for its private climate investing team.
🤝 Meet up
- April 27-29: Mission Investors Exchange (Atlanta)
- May 13 – 14: Total Impact Summit (Philadelphia, PA)
- May 19 – 21: ReFed Food Waste Solutions Summit (Charlotte, NC)
- May 26-29: GLI Forum Latam (Lima, Peru)
- May 27 – 29: Katapult Future Fest (Amsterdam)
- June 1 – 5: Sustainable Finance Initiative’s Impact Week (Hong Kong)
🎉 Stay ahead of the curve with an ImpactAlpha subscription. Subscribe today.
Bring your team onto ImpactAlpha. Save with substantial group discounts. Start here.
Lead the conversation. Sponsor a beat, newsletters or calls with ImpactAlpha. Get in touch.
