July-August 2022 | Field News & Resources
This page features this month's highlights, announcements, resources, and general news related to advancements in the impact investing field.
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Congratulations to the MIE members, peers, and fellow field builders included on the 2022 NonProfit Times Power and Influence Top 50! They include San Francisco Foundation, AARP, Ford Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Skoll Foundation, and more.
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An educational podcast with Carver State Bank president and CEO Robert E James II where he talks about the state of Black owned and led banks in the US since pledges to invest in racial equity were made in the wake of the George Floyd murder. He also discusses with the hosts of Renegade Capital the capacity of CDFIs and MDIs to accept large increases in capital, and much more
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provided funding and support for a report, Impact Investing Opportunities to Advance Water, Health, and Equity, by the Environmental Innovation Center. The timely report identifies opportunities for philanthropic impact investors to align their investment strategies with their or others’ grantmaking – and also with government funding – to advance solutions to these challenges and help move towards an equitable water future.
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In Colorado, Pikes Peak Community Foundation and other regional foundations have come together to collectively leverage impact investing as a tool to advance their missions and strengthen the local economy. Through an MRI, they launched the Philanthropy Collective in the city of Colorado Springs’ downtown center, a first of its kind consortium that brings regional foundations, philanthropists, and the charitably- minded together to create a collective vision and pool resources for greater impact.
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An Institutional Investor article about affordable housing partnerships trending among allocators interested in making impact investments that offer attractive returns starts with two Australian fund announcements as the latest in a series that includes a similar partnership in California announced last spring and includes The California Endowment, Weingart Foundation, and others.
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Health equity is one of the hottest topics in healthcare today. Daryn Dodson of Illumen Capital provides an interview to Healthcare IT News covering topics such as the bias in investing, why he focuses on healthcare, the market potential and investor growth in healthcare technology, and why diversity is important in healthcare investing.
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Capital Impact Partners, CDC Small Business Finance and Ventures Lending Technologies have come together to create Momentus Capital with a mission to inclusively and equitably transform the financial services sector. With Ellis Carr as founding President and CEO the new organization has created a continuum of capital to transform capital markets and address systemic issues. The Heron Foundation is a supporter.
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The Associated Press asks what happened to the social impact bonds that foundations issued in the wake of George Floyd's murder. Hilary Pennington from the Ford Foundation is quoted about the bonds enabling their grants to work on steroids and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors' Greg Ratliff puts the practice in context as important catalytic capital.
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San Francisco Foundation has published a progress update on its Bay Area Community Impact Fund (BACIF) which provides local nonprofits and social enterprises with low-interest loans, and also announces an expansion of its impact investing work, all with a focus on advancing racial equity.
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Rey Ramsey of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and San Francisco Foundation are among the supporters of Just Futures, a platform to align worker-held 403(b) plans for impact, specifically social justice.
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The Annie E. Casey Foundation is among the foundations investing in the "Good Jobs Fund," a $21.5 million venture capital fund from CEI Ventures, a subsidiary of the CDFI Coastal Enterprises. The hallmark of this VC fund is working with the portfolio companies to achieve milestones in CEI’s Good Jobs framework, such as paying living wages, providing retirement savings, and more.
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Darren Walker updates the community on the progress made by the Ford Foundation since committing $1 Billion to mission investments five years ago. The financial returns are strong: investments have generated a compound annual return rate of 28%, compared to the 7-8% standard for perpetual foundations. The mission investments have generated measurable social impact across all target areas of investment, including affordable housing, diverse fund managers, financial inclusion, quality jobs, and health tech. The in-house management is racially and gender diverse.
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The Ford, Kresge, and Rockefeller Foundations are founding members of The Economic Opportunity Coalition, a White House-led coalition of 24 companies and foundations that are coming together to align historic investments to address economic disparities and accelerate economic opportunity in communities of color and other underserved communities. This effort to catalyze and align public and private investments is designed to support an equitable economic recovery.
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The Rockefeller Foundation and Visa Foundation are among the anchor investors in the international Seedstars VC fund. This $30M global fund focuses on supporting scalable technology companies in emerging markets, solving major societal challenges like access to finance, health, or education. The Rockefeller Foundation’s commitment came through the Zero Gap Fund (ZGF), an impact fund launched in partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and its flagship Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3).
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Kresge Foundation provided a $3M loan guarantee to BlocPower as the lead firm in a new public-private partnership to decarbonize 6,000 buildings throughout Ithaca, N.Y. This investment supports a loan-loss reserve fund capitalized by the NYSERDA. This guarantee, a form of catalytic capital, will also support BlocPower’s work in other cities across the nation.
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The Greater Milwaukee Foundation is among the impact investors investing in Black-owned businesses. Ken Robertson, the executive vice president, COO and CFO says “When you look out across the city, you can see the unevenness of investment,” he said. “Portions of this city will not be developed without support.”