Greetings Agents of Impact!<\/p>\n
\u260e\ufe0f Agents of Impact Call: Financing Indigenous sovereignty in southeast Alaska. When federal funding for Native communities was frozen last year, a self-directed endowment kept community development projects in southeast Alaska moving forward. Spruce Root, a Native-run community development financial institution, established Seacoast Trust in 2022 as a perpetual capital pool to fund food security, energy independence and natural-resource stewardship without dependence on Washington. Seeded with $20 million from Sealaska, The Nature Conservancy and others, Seacoast is targeting ambitious growth under AlTi Global\u2019s management. Explore this model of Indigenous-led, place-based investing with Spruce Root\u2019s Alana Peterson, Sealaska\u2019s former CEO Anthony Mallott, Ian Johnson of the Hoonah Indian Association, and AlTi\u2019s Brad Harrison, in conversation with ImpactAlpha\u2019s David Bank, Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 9am Alaska \/ 10am PT \/ 1pm ET. RSVP now<\/a>.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s Brief:<\/p>\n Optimism and action at Climate Week NYC<\/p>\n Financing Native home ownership in South Dakota<\/p>\n Gender-lens investing in public markets<\/p>\n Featured: Climate Finance<\/p>\n Hoax this! Climate Week NYC showcases real solutions to real (really!) climate change. Climate entrepreneurs and investors have moved on from you-know-who. Across New York City\u2019s Climate Week, initiatives were rolled out, funds were raised, and solutions were showcased, all as if the real risks of climate change created real opportunities to address them. \u201cThere are real results to point to,\u201d Jahed Momand of VC firm Cerulean Ventures told ImpactAlpha. \u201cIn the last year we have had some seriously good results around energy and decarbonization and water.\u201d The more than 1,000 Climate Week activities demonstrated the parallel reality of climate action and progress happening in the same week that US President Donald Trump trashed climate science<\/a> in an extended riff at the United Nations, where he again claimed that climate change is a \u201choax.\u201d The get-things-done attitude<\/a> of more than 100,000 Climate Week attendees has produced something rare in recent climate conversations: optimism. \u201cYou\u2019re hearing a lot of practical strategies, practical advice, and a lot of real talk about what has to happen,\u201d said Robert Munson of the Sorenson Impact Institute, which hosted a daylong program on nature-based solutions to climate challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n Signs of life. \u201cNet zero\u201d sounds so\u2026 2024. Investment strategies these days are more likely to be couched as energy sovereignty, resilience or adaptation. \u201cSometimes the upfront narrative changes in terms of how you get to an investment strategy, but the underlying asset that you end up investing in remains the same,\u201d said Colin le Duc of Generation Investment Management. Institutional investors and high net-worth families are returning to such opportunities after the climate fundraising winter of recent years. On Wednesday, New York Comptroller Mark Levine, who oversees the city\u2019s five major pension systems with a combined asset base of more than $325 billion, said he will propose allocating $5 billion<\/a> to new private market climate investment opportunities. At One Ventures, a San Francisco-based climate tech investor, is two-thirds of the way to its $350 million goal for its third fund, according to At One\u2019s Tom Chi. California-based Candide Group has closed its Afterglow Climate Justice Fund at $70 million.<\/p>\n Power and place. Affordability and community resilience remain good bets, even as the Biden-era Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, or GGRF, remains tied up in legal battles with the Trump administration. Just in time for Climate Week, a federal judge ruled<\/a> that the administration\u2019s termination of $7 billion in the Solar for All portion of the GGRF was unlawful. Minneapolis-based McKnight Foundation said it would back a $150 million fund to fill the gap in the Midwest for the kind of green, community-based infrastructure projects that the GGRF was intended to finance. \u201cCommunities have real projects and real leaders and real community support,\u201d said McKnight\u2019s Tonya Allen. \u201cThe challenge now is making sure that capital flows to them so they can shape and build the future.\u201d Enerwealth, a community solar and storage developer in the Southeast, is lowering electricity bills, diversifying revenue streams for farmers and landowners, and distributing what it calls \u201cfreedom dividends,\u201d a form of universal basic income for single mothers. Separately, the Richard King Mellon Foundation made a $250,000 investment in Frontline Gig, a Baltimore-based venture that staffs local climate projects to create pathways into the green economy for local residents.<\/p>\n Keep reading, \u201cHoax this! Climate Week NYC showcases real solutions to real (really!) climate change<\/a>,\u201d by Amy Cortese.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spotlight on cash: Doing good with deposits. Cash is called \u201cking\u201d because it provides security, liquidity and flexibility \u2013 and remains the foundation of financial decisions. Today, more than $18 trillion in cash sits in US bank accounts, alongside more than $8 trillion in money market funds. This scale underscores the importance of cash and its potential for impact. StoneCastle was founded to drive deposits to community banks that strengthen local communities. Today our network includes more than 1,000 financial institutions, including community banks, MDIs, CDFIs and credit unions. We believe cash can do more than sit on the sidelines. When directed to institutions serving communities, it can help support small businesses and their workers, housing, agriculture and infrastructure priorities.<\/p>\n KEEP by StoneCastle helps advisors and clients put cash to work with a competitive yield, federal insurance, overnight liquidity and a streamlined digital experience. By making cash movement scalable, KEEP helps turn everyday cash into an opportunity for clients and communities. For more information, download our report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dealflow: Indigenous Finance<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfd8\ufe0fEnterprise invests in mortgage finance fund to support Indigenous homeownership. The Enterprise Community Loan Fund approved<\/a> a $1 million loan to Great Plains Housing Initiative to expand the availability of mortgages in South Dakota. Great Plains Housing Initiative\u2019s Native Impact Fund buys up performing mortgages from Native-led CDFIs to free up capital to originate new mortgages in Indigenous communities. Such mortgage sales are common in the US housing finance market. What is unique<\/a> to the Native Impact Fund is that the originating lenders maintain underwriting control and servicing rights after the sale. \u201cThis structure helps Native CDFIs to preserve community relationships at the heart of their work,\u201d Enterprise explained in a statement. Share this post<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other impact deal news:<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf33Nature-based investing. IDB Lab, the Inter-American Development Bank\u2019s venture group, invested $1 million in Amazonia Impact Ventures to support access to financing for small producers in the Amazon in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. IDB Lab invested via its Clean Technology Fund in the catalytic tranche of Amazonia Impact Ventures\u2019s debt fund. The investment comes as IADB is reportedly under pressure<\/a> from the Trump administration to drop its climate targets. (Amazonia Impact Ventures<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2600\ufe0fEnergy access. Acumen made a $5 million equity investment in Sun King to support the off-grid solar company\u2019s work in Zambia. The investment is expected to help up to 4.5 million people access clean and reliable energy for the first time. Acumen invested from its Hardest to Reach Catalyze initiative (see, \u201cHow Acumen\u2019s Jacqueline Novogratz is blending capital to bring electricity to the hardest to reach<\/a>\u201c). (Acumen<\/a>)<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7Infrastructure finance. Energy infrastructure investor Generate Capital exited its anaerobic digestion portfolio, Generate Upcycle. The portfolio includes 12 sites in the US and UK. UK-based Pinta Energy acquired the seven UK-based sites, while Vanguard Renewables is acquiring the five US-based sites. Generate said the purpose of the sale is to free up capital for new renewables investments. (Generate Capital<\/a>)<\/p>\n Signals: Gender Smart<\/p>\n Gender-lens investors look to scale capital in public markets. It has been a difficult 18 months for investors working to advance gender inclusion in the capital markets. The more than 270 investors, asset owners and managers, financial institutions, development finance institutions and multilateral organisations that gathered in Montreal last week for the 2X Global Summit were looking ahead, not back (see, \u201cDeepening, not disengaging from, gender-lens investing<\/a>\u201d). The uncharted territory for gender-lens investing may be the $270 trillion, or 95% of global capital, that is invested in the public markets. \u201cThe consensus of the convening: honor what has been built, do not retreat from the work, keep moving forward,\u201d writes 2X Global advisor Natasha Ferrari in a guest post. Looking ahead means directing the tools built largely for private investors in development finance into mainstream financial architecture without sacrificing rigor, credibility or accountability, she says. \u201cReaching public equities and debt is not a side conversation. It is the field\u2019s next test of scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Leading by example. The convening, held in Montreal and co-hosted with FinDev Canada and Global Affairs Canada, was a full-circle moment for the gender-lens investing movement. Canada was a launch partner of the 2X Challenge in 2018. Then the goal was to mobilize $3 billion for investments that advance women as entrepreneurs, leaders, employees and consumers. Within six years, participants in the challenge had mobilized more than 10 times that amount and set a goal of adding another $20 billion by 2027 (see, \u201cSpurring a global race to the top for investing with a gender lens<\/a>\u201d). FinDev Canada, Canada\u2019s development finance institution, announced two new investments totalling C$110 million ($78 million) at the summit. Mirova, Triple Jump and FSD Africa Investment, meanwhile, signed on to the 2X Challenge. \u201cWe are not asking for favors,\u201d 2X Global\u2019s Jessica Espinoza told the gathering. \u201cWe are building markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep reading<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent<\/p>\n Impact Performance Reporting Norms welcomes<\/a> its founding adopters, including Accion, Capricorn Investment Group, SJF Ventures and The Rockefeller Foundation\u2026 IIX brings on<\/a> Son Nguyen as senior vice president\u2026 \u00a0Lydia Merry joins<\/a> Thriving Investments as director of investor relations and product\u2026 ArcLight Capital Partners appoints<\/a> Peter Podurgiel as president and board director of its portfolio company Advanced Power.\u00a0<\/p>\n Global Partnerships seeks<\/a> an administrative assistant in Bogot\u00e1\u2026 Better Society Capital is hiring<\/a> an investment partnerships and advisory officer in London\u2026 BerkeleyHaas Ventures is on the hunt<\/a> for a managing director\u2026 Hanna Ebeling becomes<\/a> an independent investment committee member for Minderoo Foundation\u2019s Strategic Impact Fund\u2026 Ford Foundation\u2019s Roy Swan joins Mission Investors Exchange\u2019s Matt Onek for a virtual discussion<\/a> about building inclusive prosperity through impact investing, and Swan\u2019s new book, \u201cPositive Sum,\u201d (see, \u201cFord Foundation\u2019s Roy Swan makes the case for \u2018positive-sum\u2019 capitalism<\/a>\u201c), Tuesday, Oct. 6.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 View (or post<\/a>) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha\u2019s Career Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thank you for your impact!<\/p>\n \u2013 Sept. 24, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greetings Agents of Impact! \u260e\ufe0f Agents of Impact Call: Financing Indigenous sovereignty in southeast Alaska. 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