This Week in Impact

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: What’s significant about Uganda’s national pension fund’s effort to stand up a locally focused fund of funds; unraveling the controversy surrounding KKR’s lucrative employee ownership exit from CoolIT; and, unpacking the failure of the impact advisory firm Align Impact. To try ImpactAlpha Edge yourself, ⁠⁠cl...

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 fiel...

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...

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 fou...

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 remov...

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 infrastruc...

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 Kensin...

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: Patie...

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 s...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Highlights from this week's star-studded call on the real returns of impact-first managers; why some investors are raising permanent capital to keep affordable housing affordable, permanently (10:00); and, how Lendable is showing that asset-backed financing in emerging markets can have institutional appe...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week : In an impact fundraising drought, novel strategies and private credit stand out and, yes, size matters. Joseph Blasi's strategy to give workers a stake in AI’s upside through state and federal ‘permanent funds’ (10:45). And, the social-impact of popular movies and television (17:00). “ ⁠In impact fundrai...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Impact investors chart a path for Latin America after the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Why working capital might be the biggest barrier for next-gen fund managers (6:15). And, why some insurers are looking for new risk transfer tools in the face of accelerating climate impacts (13:20)....

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Why LP might stand for Leadership Potential, in addition to limited partner, as asset allocators contend with an increasingly complex world; how new approaches to the ownership economy are helping to both increase and share the pie; and, amid a pullback in official aid, how African asset owners and fund mana...

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 with its $200 million endowment; 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 thi...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: The ambitious strategy behind New Mexico’s $67 billion sovereign wealth fund; How the residential solar industry plans to stay competitive by eliminating dealer fees; And, how cities are building durable capital stacks for climate action, as federal support evaporates. Story links: “ ⁠How New Mexico’s $67 bi...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Beyond investments and guarantees, how Encourage Capital assembled the necessary pieces to unlock capital flows for the global clean energy transition; The missing markets for local builders and buyers of health, wealth, and vibrant communities (09:30); And, how European pension funds learn to stop worrying...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Instead of 50 year mortgages, actual solutions to make homeownership affordable; The case of the missing $54 billion in climate finance; And, highlights from this week’s call, on plugging the financing gap for growth businesses in Africa. Story links: “ ⁠ From affordable home ownership to ‘fair-share appreci...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: In the lead up to the COP30 climate summit, the state of climate blended finance is a mixed bag; the private credit jitters that are putting even impact investors on edge (10:55); and, a preview of next week's Agents of Impact call on mobilizing growth funds for growth firms in Africa and Asia (16:10). ⁠...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with CEO Dennis Price . Up this week: What was top of mind among innovators and investors at SOCAP; How community lenders are building rare bipartisan support to salvage gains for low income communities (09:35); And, a dual lens for due diligence and impact: investing with AI vs. investing in AI (15:55). Story links: “ ⁠Community lenders muster b...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: The surprising resurgence of impact-first investing; How lawyers, yes lawyers, are working to simplify impact transactions: And, in Newark, new ideas surface for how to build a nation of owners. Story links: ⁠Impact-first call recap⁠ “ ⁠ Building a nation of owners with new financial products and fresh ideas...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank and reporter Lucy Ngige . Up this week: Trimtab's unapologetic impact-first pitch to wealthy families: outperformance on impact rather than financials; How the new Sendero Verde affordable housing development is bringing to life a vision for a community of opportunity in East Harlem (10:30); And, a vibe check from this...

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., or DFC, are on hold pending congressional authorization; how debt and equity “growth funds” in Africa are tapping homegrown pension funds and family offices (11:20); and why youth  co-creators are the key to effectiveness in the new crop of...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editors David Bank and Amy Cortese . Up this week: At Neighborhood Economics in Chicago, entrepreneurship through acquisition and other promising ideas are filling out the playbook for shared prosperity; How ExxonMobil's new voting program for retail investors aims to change the balance of power in corporate governance. And, how reinsure...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with Amy Cortese and Dennis Price . Up this week: How investors at Climate Week NYC shook off the Trump doldrums (. And how, from Singapore to London, even fund managers that shun the label are driving alpha with impact (12:45). Story links: “ ⁠ At Climate Week NYC, investors look to shake off the doldrums and start deploying capital again ⁠ ,” b...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Foundation leaders “unite in advance” of expected attacks in the supercharged political environment; how the carbon credit platform Rubicon Carbon is using diversification and ratings to strengthen the market for voluntary carbon credits (07:20); and the bumpy road to the sustainable future as charted by Gen...