October 2019 | Field News and Resources

• The Packard and MacArthur foundations launch Terra Silva, a $90 million impact fund that will provide catalytic capital to tackle climate change. See this dialogue on the investment and both organizations’ commitments to catalytic capital at SOCAP19. An ImpactAlpha article on this investment can be found here.
• The Grove Park Foundation is taking a holistic approach to community revitalization in Atlanta’s Grove Park, working with a team of neighbors and local partners to improve services and help current African-American residents stay in this gentrifying neighborhood. The article also cites Annie E. Casey Foundation’s report Changing the Odds: Progress and Promise in Atlanta, and MacArthur Foundation’s work on Partnership for Southern Equity’s Just Energy Circle energy efficiency initiative.
• The Start Us Up Coalition, which includes the Kaufman Foundation, has developed America’s New Business Plan, a bipartisan roadmap for reducing barriers to entrepreneurship and spurring more startups across the country. Read additional insight, from Joe Milam of The Legacy Funds, on increasing underserved entrepreneurs’ access to capital here.
• Rating and information service, Aeris Insight, launches two products aimed at increasing accountability and transparency in impact investing. Brian Trelstad, partner at Bridges Fund Management, said, “I’m a huge believer in what Aeris is trying to do with Atlas, which is to offer fund managers and the companies they invest in an easy way to demonstrate that they have the impact that investors expect.”
• The National Center for Family Philanthropy’s Trends 2020 report highlights the results of the organization’s second survey of the field, which finds that newer family foundations are leading the way in impact investing. Fifty-five percent of foundations founded in 2010 or later plan to increase their mission or impact investing, compared with twenty-five percent of those founded prior to 2010.
• A new report from Community Capital Management, CDFI Investing for the Impact Investor, explores the history of CDFIs, the offerings available for impact investors, and case studies illustrating how the firm has invested in CDFIs over its 20-year history.
• Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and founder of Pivotal Ventures, explains why she’s committing $1 billion to expanding women’s power and influence in the United States over the next 10 years.
• The Ford Foundation’s Darren Walker offers insight on the growing number of leaders in the business and social sectors finding ways to make our capitalist system fairer.
• Geeta Goel of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation shares what the foundation has learned about investing in systemic change — such as the need to take informed risks that spur addition investment in a sector or region — after 13 years deploying $200 million in grants and impact investments in India.
• Learn more about the Catholic Impact Investing Pledge, an effort to galvanize the Catholic investment community to incorporate impact investments into their portfolios in alignment with Catholic Social Teachings.
• The Guardian reports that the world’s three largest asset managers, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, now oversee $300 billion in fossil fuel investments, an increase of 34.8% since 2016, making them the largest investors in public oil, gas, and coal companies managing money for pension funds, university endowments, and insurance companies.
• Social Impact Bonds rely on foundation dollars to align investor risk with limited potential government-paid upside return. Maoz Brown, who heads research at the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, explores whether the return on this philanthropic subsidy is worth the cost.
• The Financial Times reports on the ongoing trend of wealthy millennials nudging their families into impact investing.
• The list of donors divesting from fossil fuels swells to nearly 200 the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.
• Ben Hecht, president of Living Cities, offers three ways foundation heads can lead on racial equity, in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

• Upstart Co-Labs new Impact Investing in the Creative Economy report offers investors and other stakeholders insight into ethical fashion, sustainable food and social impact media.

People Moves

• Kate Wolford, president of the McKnight Foundation, will retire in November, after 13 years leading the organization.
• Javier Alberto Soto has joined The Denver Foundation as president and CEO.
• Donna Dean, The Rockefeller Foundation’s chief investment officer, will retire at the end of the year after 19 years in the position. Chun Lai will replace Dean.
• Kelly Ryan is leaving Wisconsin’s Incourage to begin a fellowship with the F.B. Heron Foundation. Heather McKellips, Incourage’s chief operating officer, will assume the role of interim CEO until a new CEO is named.

Impact Jobs

• Native Americans in Philanthropy seeks an Executive Director
• Open Road Alliance is looking for a Director of Communications
• McKnight Foundation is hiring a Vice President of Finance and Operations
• The California Endowment seeks an Impact Investing Associate and an Impact Investing Program Analyst