The Week in impact investing: Systemic – ImpactAlpha

TGIF, Agents of Impact!

Agents of Impact Call No. 17: 10x Community Capital.Small businesses and nonprofits will need capital, and lots of it, to re-open and recover from the COVID crash. The network of community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, built over decades, is rallying to extend loans where most banks dont reach: in low-income and rural communities, to enterprises led by women and people of color, and the 95% of businesses that have fewer than 20 employees. As a COVID response, impact investors are beginning to rally to help CDFIs fulfill their mission. The Call will feature Calvert Impact CapitalsBeth Baffordand Community Reinvestment FundsPatrick Davis, along with representatives of local CDFIs and other Agents of Impact who are expanding the pipes for community capital to flow. Join The Call nextThursday, May 21at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm London.RSVP today.

Impact Briefing.OnImpactAlphas weekly podcast, hostBrian Walshtalks withDavid Bankabout system-change and withDennis Priceabout Heron FoundationsDana Bezerra, this weeks Agent of Impact, whos working to shift power, a system-change necessity. Listen tothis weeksImpact Briefing, share it with your networks, and follow us onApple,Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts.

1. Systemic, inclusive, catalytic: Overheard at Mission Investors Exchange.ImpactAlphawas the media sponsor of this weeks virtual gathering of mission-investing foundations.The big theme: systems change. Fighting for it (Andrew Young), empowering communities to drive it (Dana Bezerra), and questioning capitals role in it (Lisa Hall). Foundations that have fought disparities for decades have a lot of lessons on what needs to happen in this moment, said Kellogg FoundationsLa June Montgomery Tabron. Communities of color must participate in the recovery and in reimagining what the economy can be, she said. As this work expands, we can be a part of that expansion.

2. Climate comeback in COVID recovery plans.If the logic of a sustainable recovery is inescapable, so are the politics. In the U.S. at least, attempts to tie COVID recovery plans to climate action hit a wall of partisan opposition. Pragmatists are renewing the push for renewable energy and other climate solutions.The key:call it jobs, call it infrastructure, call it good economics anything but climate action.Get it done.

3. Visa Foundation doubles down on women and small businesses (podcast).Even before the COVID crisis hit, theVisa Foundationwas planning to use investments as well as grants to support small and micro-businesses, with an emphasis on women (Visa Foundation is a sponsor of ImpactAlphas Capital on the Frontierseries). The COVID crisis spurred the three-year-old foundation to redouble its efforts to use all the tools in its toolbox. OnImpactAlphas Returns on Investment podcast, Visa FoundationsGraham Macmillansaid, If we put women at the center of the recovery, the recovery will be more durable and inclusive.Read on and listen in

4. Gender resilience.ImpactAlphas 10x Challenge got Catalyst at LargesSuzanne Biegelthinking: What would it take to 10x gender-lens investing? In a guest post, Biegel lays out four ways to multiply the capital for investments in women, and to be smarter, bolder and more intentional about how we move it.Read on.

5. Vive les startups.France has disbursed 1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) in loans from its 4 billion COVID relief package aimed at tech startups. Portugal, Switzerland and the U.K. are among other countries bailing out startups to preserve innovation and jobs. Aid for social enterprises may be next. We want to make sure that all the work weve done over the last decade will be as much as possible preserved for the future, saysPaul-Franois Fournierof Bpifrance.Plus.

6. Oil industry reckoning.Shellcut its dividend for the first time since World War II. Another tradition executive pay based on ever-more production of oil and gas is under challenge as well.BPdropped direct production growth pay incentives as part of its net-zero emissions pledge; some ofRepsolexecs pay will be linked to decarbonization and sustainability.Dig in.

7. Kenyas creative economy recovery plan.Kenyas DJs, fashion designers and other creatives have lost the majority of their incomes as the pandemic (temporarily) put an end to events, creative spaces and tourism.HEVA Fund, a Nairobi-based creative economy investor, has a five-point plan to boost creatives on the other side of the crisis.Get inspired.

8. Brent Kessel walks the talk.LikeMatthew Weatherley-WhiteandBeth Bafford, I believe in walking my talk, says Kessel, founder and CEO ofAbacus Wealth Partners, who shared withImpactAlphahow hes integrating impact and sustainable investing strategies into his own portfolio. The Kessel familys largest asset is its equity stake in Abacus. Hes pointing much of the rest of his portfolio at climate change, animal welfare, womens rights, financial empowerment and poverty alleviation (hat tip toDana LanzaandConfluence Philanthropiesfor sharing Kessels post).Peek inside.

Dana Bezerra, Heron Foundation. There was a let-down inside the Heron Foundation when it reached its goal, ahead of schedule, of investing 100% of its $300 million endowment for impact. It felt like a boom-splat, Bezerra toldImpactAlpha. That felt like such a low bar. Amid aspirational calls for systems change at this weeksMission Investors Exchangevirtual conference, Bezerra stood out with a plan to shift power as well as assets. What 100% represented in 2016 was that the foundation had fully invested for impact. When she became president two years ago, Bezerra moved to optimize for Herons mission: helping people and communities help themselves. Now Heron is putting investment power over Herons assets into the hands of community partners and grappling with all the complexities that entails. At MIE, Bezerra called out those throwing stones from the cheap seats,meaning critics who are not, as she said, in the arena.Her invitation: Join us.

The power-shift is personal for the farm girl from Fresno, Calif. Growing up on her familys dairy farm in the San Joaquin Valley, Bezerra saw creameries go bankrupt, as well as tax abatements for multinational food companies. After a decade in private banking and investments, she joined Heron and helped place the foundation at the nexus of community and capital markets. As president, she has been rebuilding Herons focus on places demonstrating an agency of their own, where theres something happening, where they appear to be starting to say, We need to change. Already, the foundation maintains sub-accounts for investments in the San Joaquin Valley, Maine and Jackson, Mississippi. Bezerra says Heron will move capital and deployment decision-making to five to 10 geographies over time. Bezerra says the foundations role is to speed that agency and accelerate it and not put our fingerprints all over it.Dennis Price

Frontier finance. Soros Economic Development Fundcommits$15 million to Africa-based gender-lens funds DFCbacksIndias Caspian Debt to fund high-impact businesses Novastar Ventures second fundto investin basic goods and services in Africa.

Inclusive fintech.Indonesian education lender Pintek gets backing from Accion Venture Lab Creditshelfsecures62 million for small business lending in Germany.

New initiatives.Nasdaqlaunchessustainable investment impact tracking service for investors and advisors GIINlaunchesResponse, Recovery and Resilience Investment Coalition.

Education and jobs.Acumen fundre-upsin Peruvian edtech venture Crehana.

Impact tech.Intello Labsraises$5.9 million for quality-control in Indias food system.

Resilient communities.Turner Impact Capitalpoints toCOVID housing crisis with latest apartment acquisition.

Prudential Financialseeksa vice president of impact investing in Newark, N.JOpen Road Allianceisrecruitinga senior risk officer in Seattle, New York or Washington, D.C TheRockefeller Foundationishiringa manager for innovation and a program manager for pandemics in New YorkKivaislookingfor a managing director for its Kiva Invest in Women Fund in San Francisco, New York, Bogot or Nairobi.

Qontigoishiringa head of ESG in New YorkBMGI, which manages the assets of Bill and Melinda Gates and The Gates Foundation Trust, isrecruitingan ESG analystDC Green Bankseeksa chief investment officerWalton Enterprisesislookingfor a senior analyst of investments in Denver TheGates Foundationishiringa program assistant of philanthropic partnership in SeattleBig Society Capitalis on thehuntfor a new CEO in London.

Thank you for reading.

May 15, 2020

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The Week in impact investing: Systemic - ImpactAlpha