Returns On Investment

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week:"Dear Shareholders: Your votes and your voice are needed more than ever," by As You Sow's Andrew Behar“Impact investors seek to assert human agency over the future of AI,” by David Bank and Dennis Price“Collaboration Fund sparks a conversation around M&A in impact investing field-building,” by David Bank and Amy CorteseTo try ImpactAlpha Edge for yourself, click here.Correction: Sorenson Impact Institute, not Foundation, is hosting the Collaboration Fund as well as the Webinar next week.

Smitha Das of World Education Services, or WES, joins David Bank for this episode. WES has amassed its balance sheet not from a wealthy individual or a major corporation, but from the operations of its own nonprofit social enterprise -- and is now on a path to investing 100% of its $300 million in assets in full alignment with its social mission.

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: How the economic impacts of war in Iran are rippling through energy, fertilizer and food systems; a look at ImpactAlpha Edge; and, a public reckoning with an aquaculture investment gone wrong.Relevant links:“With imported gas in short supply, Indian households green their kitchens,” by Shefali Anand"⁠Persian Gulf blockade stokes demand for local, bio-based fertilizers⁠," by Amy Cortese"The ImpactAlpha Edge: Actionable Intelligence for Agents of Impact," by Dennis Price"Aqua-Spark’s founders on lessons learned and the path forward after eFishery scandal,” by Amy Novogratz and Mike Velings

Russell Sprole of Virta Ventures joins David Bank to talk about why Virta expanded its equity-light, software-focused climate-tech investment strategy to include hardware, AI and blended capital stacks. Virta Ventures has been an active and early user of ImpactAlpha Edge, ImpactAlpha’s premium platform of data and tools for fund managers and other Agents of Impact.For more on the firm check out out David's piece on the firm's strategy from last year.

David Bank is joind by Carol Galante of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley and The Housing Lab. Carol is a proud “houser,” as affordable housing practitioners like to call themselves. David speaks with Carol to identify some of the policy and finance levers that can make housing more affordable in California and beyond.

Lyneir Richardson of Chicago Trend joins David Bank for this Agents of Impact podcast. Trend acquires and improves shopping centers in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The twist:  Investment structures that enable local residents to become co-owners on the same terms as institutional investors. David speeks with Lyneir about how such local buy-in bolsters the properties, why even a $1,000 stake in commercial real estate can change a family’s trajectory, and how broad-based community ownership can help close the racial wealth gap. 

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week:"Conflict in the Middle East creates (even more) refugees in need of livelihoods, services and impact investment," by Lucy Ngige."Valuing Aging" Agents of Impact Call (5:05)." Profit and punishment: The portfolio risks lurking inside private prisons,"by Andrew Behar (10:45).

Bryan Goh of the Tsao Family Office joins David Bank on this Agents of Impact podcast. Goh runs the social impact arm of the family behind Singapore-based maritime company Tsao Pao Chee Group. The company itself says it is guided by a “well-being mandate” and “an awakening journey from I to We.”The Tsao Family Office is a founding partner of Impact LP, ImpactAlpha’s  platform for asset owners for whom LP stands for “Leadership Potential.”For more, read our writeup on Tsao.

Ashley Bell of Redemption Holding Company joins David Bank on this episode of the podcast. Redemption last year acquired Utah-based Holiday Bank & Trust, the first time Black owners had acquired a non-minority-owned bank. From a Salt Lake City suburb, Bell is building a national financial institution.

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: "How Anthropic’s standoff with the Pentagon is putting impact investors' AI thesis to the test in real time," by David Bank. “⁠Sharing wealth with workers creates value for private equity buyout firms. So why not share more?⁠” by Roodgally Senatus. (10:15). “⁠Six barriers keeping foundations from impact investing – and how to overcome them⁠,” by Woodcock Foundation's Stacey Faella (17:55).

Tirtha Patel and John Morris of Intentional Asset Management join David for this episode. Intentional is raising the Carib Grow Fund to provide much-needed equity financing for food systems in the Caribbean. Tirtha and John explain the fund's strategy for transforming the region’s food value chain, from production to processing to waste recovery. Intentional Asset Management has been an active and early user of ImpactAlpha’s premium databases and other investment tools for fund managers and other Agents of Impact.

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank and producer Isaac Silk. Up this week: As the Trump administration steps back from domestic policy, how states are taking the lead on clean energy, the ownership economy, and AI regulation (09:25); Why smaller funds are leading to bigger returns in Africa (); And, the pivots of Mast Reforestation, as it seeks to sell removal credits on the voluntary carbon markets (14:15).ImpactAlpha's Policy Corner coverage.“Aruwa Capital has the data to make the case for small investment funds,” by Lucy Ngige“From planting trees to burying them, Mast Reforestation follows the market for carbon credits,” by Isaac Silk

The Russell Family Foundation is a regional small fry among the giant pension, insurance and sovereign wealth funds in the Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance, which represents more than $9 trillion in assets. Russell, based in Gig Harbor, Wash., near Seattle, accounts for only about $100 million of that total.  “We can move a little bit faster,” Kathleen Simpson, CEO of the foundation, tells David Bank on this Agents of Impact podcast.Resources mentioned by Kathleen:Russell's latest climate reportAs You SowClarity.aiiconik

The status quo is stupid, expensive and unfair. That’s the first line of David Erickson’s book, “The Fifth Freedom,” which makes the case for good schools, well-funded libraries, safe streets and public spaces, quality health care, spiritual refuges and accessible transportation to help kids and communities thrive.Erickson joins David Bank on this episode of Agents of Impact. His team at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have turned such ideas into Making Missing Markets, an initiative to connect the builders of health, wealth and vibrant communities with the “buyers,” including hospitals,  insurers and corporations as well as government agencies, such as Medicaid. He says such collaborations could finance “upstream” interventions that deliver such outcomes at far lower cost than downstream remediation.

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Highlights from this week’s Agents of Impact Call on Shaping the Algorithm for good AI; how regional housing finance agencies in California are leveraging public funding to crowd private capital into affordable housing (12:20); and the emergence of local guarantee facilities for local investors in infrastructure in Africa and Asia (17:20).Story links:Call roundup“Building regional engines for affordable housing in California,” by Andrew Fremier, Ryan Johnson and Cody Petterson“Local guarantees for local investors in infrastructure projects in Africa and Asia,” by Lucy Ngige

Dimitry Gershenson and Erin Davis of Enduring Planet join David Bank to discuss how their working capital loans help early-stage climate startups meet the milestones need to unlock other financing – and pay them back. They discuss the current state of climate tech, technology-enabled lending, catalytic guarantees and even corporate beekeeping.

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with Jessica Pothering, Dennis Price and Roodgally Senatus. Up this week: Jessica reports from Cape Town on how Africa’s mining industry is leveraging global demand for critical minerals; Dennis shares takeaways from his panel at the Urban Institute on what’s next for place-based investing (12:15); and, Roody reports from Philadelphia on Kensington residents are fostering neighborhood revival without gentrification and displacement (20:15).Story links:"Demand for critical minerals creates new opportunities to put Africa first," by Jessica PotheringDennis' Urban Institute panel."In Philadelphia, Kensington Corridor Trust demonstrates a neighborhood-led model of revival without displacement,” by Roodgally Senatus

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: How patient capital built India’s booming affordable home lending market; Nippon Life Insurance’s step-up to system-level investing in Japan (07:15); and, the push and pull behind growing interest in climate adaptation (13:20).Story links:"Key to India’s booming affordable home lending market: Patient capital," by Shefali Anand“With 'people x planet', Nippon Life Insurance steps up to system-level investing,” by Erik Stein.“Rising risks and returns on resilience are the push and pull for climate adaptation,” by David Bank.

SHIFT Capital, Aedera Companies and Lafayette Square are teaming up to bet on some of the most overlooked corners of the US housing market: Federally subsidized housing in mid-sized cities and rural communities on the east coast, and in the rust belt and midwest.SHIFT's Brian Murray and Aedera's Alison Carey join David Bank to discuss their new fund's strategy of preserving, and improving, affordable housing in underserved markets.

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: How some LPs are going ‘beyond the check’ to help their GP impact managers survive the fundraising drought; enabling US retail investors to back solar projects in Africa and Latin America (8:05); and, at “He for She,” recognizing men who champion women in asset management (13:40).Check out this week's stories:“Ten ways LPs are going ‘beyond the check’ to help impact managers survive the fundraising drought,” by Erik Stein.“Solar projects in Africa and Latin America pay dividends to US retail investors,” by Lucy Ngige.Listen to "Women Changing Finance"The lyrics to Kat Taylor's re-write of "The Times They Are A-Changin'":Come gather around people wherever you roamand admit that the dangers around you have grownand accept it that soon you'll be cut to the bone if your time isn't spent saving, we better start swimming or we'll sink like a stormfor the times they are changin'.I