ImpactAlpha Podcasts

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund has been frozen in court for almost two years – but some of the money got out the door before the freeze; a donor-backed fund betting that treating the whole family is a better and cheaper path to youth mental health; And, as UN climate negotiators meet in Turkey, Outrigger...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: While the midterms reshuffled Washington, in western North Carolina, communities show the power of what local capital can do when federal help falls short; a new wave of foundations and family offices is leading with impact before they consider returns; and in this week's Deal Spotlight, two climate fund...

Vinay Nair, the new chief commercial officer at 60 Decibels, joins David Bank. Vinay came to the work from the trading floor at JP Morgan, by way of a microfinance sabbatical and a stint at Acumen, where he set up the London office. Vinay and David speak about the so-called “Acumen mafia,” and the push for an impact economy in the UK, and why the voices of customers and other end-users of impact p...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Impact investing hits $1.76 trillion –  even as many of the people who built the field are heading for the exits; Ahead of its IPO, a look at the fine print of Anthropic’s public benefit corporation designation; And in this week's Deal Spotlight, Maycomb Capital closes a $100 million fund that only gets...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor Jessica Pothering . Up this week: Singapore’s biggest banks pledged to quit coal in 2019. So why are they still financing coal plants? At Norrsken Impact Week in Barcelona, AI dominated the conversation, but trust remained the big question. And in New York, a $50,000 loan by a revolving loan fund could save a million-dollar family hom...

Mapping the capital providers betting that the next wave of AI returns will come from making the technology more trustworthy; how the US Development Finance Corp. has shifted its priorities during the second Trump administration; and, two impact finance firms joined forces to give emerging fund managers the back office muscle they need to land bigger investors. Story links: “ Investing in AI 2.0:...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Family Office Ceniarth finds that their impact-first portfolio is not making money… but that's been their plan all along; a new Latin American investor rewards founders with better terms when they deliver more impact; And finally a climate justice fund raises $71 million to back clean energy projects the...

Xenia Viragh, head of impact investments at The SCAN Foundation, joins David Bani. The $280 million California-based foundation is adding mission-related investments to their grantmaking around policy and advocacy for older adults.  SCAN will be at this month’s Grantmakers in Aging conference in Denver to help other foundations think about adding investments to their philanthropic toolkits. David...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: From Galveston to Kansas City, overlooked cities are getting organized and making themselves investment ready; investing in the economic determinants of a healthy democracy; And a deal spotlight on Blue Earth Capital, which is unsticking impact capital. Story links: “ Power of place drives impact in a nation...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: As President Trump calls climate change a “con job” at the UN, investors and philanthropies are raising money and building projects anyway; development banks abroad and Asia's asset owners are stepping up on climate finance –  is it enough; And this week's deal spotlight shines on Celsius Companies,...

Jim Sorenson, the entrepreneur, investor and founder of the Sorenson Impact Foundation and the broader Sorenson Impact Group joins David Bank. They discuss Jim's new book , The Impact Capitalist, "propelling" ones values rather than just living them, the bipartisan case for an ownership economy, and two of the ventures he's helped stand up in Utah. Disclosure: Sorenson Impact Fou...

Amit Bouri joins David Bank. The co-founder and, for a few more months, the CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network is stepping down after 17 years. Amit has a unique perspective on the field of impact investing, since he’s done so much to build it. The GIIN is due to release a new sizing analysis at its investor forum in Amsterdam.

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor Jessica Pothering . Up this week: Ahead of New York Climate Week, why investors are getting down to business , even as AI sucks up the oxygen (and the capital) in the room; why African pension funds — sitting on $600 billion in assets — are starting to dip into private equity and private debt to fund small businesses back home; and, w...

Robert Munson, CEO of SOCAP Global, the company behind SOCAP, joins David Bank. The annual impact investing conference this fall leaves its longtime San Francisco home to convene in Chicago. They discuss this year’s emphasis on getting out of the conference center in Willis Tower and into Chicago’s neighborhoods, as well as the anxieties swirling around politics, funding and AI, and the excitement...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: Restructuring and layoffs hit Pro Mujer, as gender lens and development funders pull back; how faith-based investors , from Catholic sisters to family offices, are quietly building some of the most values-driven capital in private markets; and, spotlighting a floating modular nuclear reactor company that jus...

Doug Lee, founder and CEO of D3Jubilee Partners, a Seoul-based impact venture firm, joins Dennis Price. D3 is co-hosting Asia Impact Nights in Kobe, Japan alongside the Japan Social Innovation and Investment Foundation. For this 10th anniversary convening, D3 has moved from Korea for the first time, to Japan, under the theme of Asia's "triple transition" — demographics, climate and,...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: “ Revenue-based financing helps create wealth with anti-dilution protection for founders, not investors ,” by Roodgally Senatus “ How revenue-based finance can help close the racial wealth gap , by Carrie Endries “ Investing in Resilience: Why America's overlooked businesses matter more than ever ,” by K...

Aaron Rudberg, managing partner at S2G Investments joins David Bank. The Chicago-based firm co-founded by Walmart heir Lukas Walton, recently closed its $1 billion Solutions Fund. David speaks with Aaron about the opportunity – and the impact – in financing  growth-stage companies too big for venture capitalists and too small for infrastructure investors, and his views on the dangers of groupthink...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: “ Patient capital to establish trust, efficacy and potential for scale in youth mental health startups ,” by Hopelab’s Nathaan Demers " After a commercial failure, AIM Horizon goes all in on impact for maritime decarbonization ," by Jessica Pothering

Stacey Faella, executive director of the Woodcock Foundation in New York, joins David Bank for an update on Woodcock's decade-long journey toward near-100% mission alignment of its $90 million endowment. They talk about "investing in democracy" through the ownership economy, and the case for foundations to fire their investment advisors. Woodcock is a founding member of Impact LP, im...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor Jessica Pothering . Up this week: “ As Norges Bank warns of potential losses, can impact investments provide a hedge? ” by Amy Cortese " Investors find opportunities in South Africa's rush to renewables ,” by Marilyn Waite “ Murdoch heir seeks to set All Aboard climate coalition up for long term impact ,” by Amy Cortese To tr...

Manufactured housing assets and mobile home communities, along with single-room occupancy motels, and multifamily properties, are key sources of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing. On this episode, Proactive Realty Group’s Canaan Williams ( ImpactAlpha Edge ) tells how he has acquired and renovated nearly two dozen distressed, condemned or nearly abandoned assets and rehabilitated them, includ...

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: “ Power for AI, mostly renewable, tops the shopping list for big asset managers ,” by Amy Cortese, with reporting from Erik Stein “ Of agents and agency: An investor’s guide to choice and control across the AI stack, ” by Paul Fehlinger " WovenEarth raises $155 million fund-of-funds for early-stage clea...

Todd Khozein of SecondMuse, an impact ecosystem builder and investor that designs and deploys innovative financing for resilient, inclusive and sustainable economies, joins David Bank.  Todd’s family fled Iran in 1979 with other Baha'i families, who were persecuted after  the Islamic Revolution. In a recent post on ImpactAlpha, he applied Second Muse’s system-thinking to the provocative topic...

 Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank . Up this week: How Temasek, the $400 billion state-owned investment fund out of Singapore, positions itself as a generational investor; a look at three impact investing “beach reads,” out this week, that tackle the future of capitalism and the common good; and sustainable farm and timberland manager Alder Point lands $4 m...