International Women’s Day is over. The International Year of Mansplaining continues. Sad! The Brief Quiz can bring us together. Let’s see where your Impact IQ got you this week. Get ImpactAlpha’s daily newsletter, The Brief. 1. Together with BNP Paribas, the World Bank issued its first Sustainable Development Goals-linked bond. How is it different from green […]

A year ago, every company had to have a Big Data story. Now, no initiative is complete without AI and machine learning. Extra points for “blockchain.” Next up: companies, asset owners and fund managers touting their alignment with “the SDGs.” If you don’t know already, those are the Sustainable Development Goals, with colored icons to […]

Morgan Stanley’s wealth management unit has launched two sustainable investment products in which individuals can get started with as little as $10,000. Hilary Irby, head of Morgan Stanley’s Investing with Impact initiative, said the low investment threshold was part of a strategy to make sustainable investing more accessible. Morgan Stanley’s brokerage group launched similar offerings […]

Asian social stock exchange founder Durreen Shahnaz is seeking Trump’s support for impact investing. “I may have been born in Bangladesh, but I was nurtured to be a banker, media executive and entrepreneur in the US,” Shahnaz wrote in an open letter to President Trump. Shahnaz is the founder of IIX, based in Singapore, which connects […]

Jean Case is bullish on impact investing. Writing in Stanford Social Innovation Review, the former AOL executive and head of the Case Foundation credits the growing influence of young people and women, the entrance of big institutions and an increasingly robust data ecosystem. On that last point, Case touts the Impact Investing Network Map under development […]

Global Islamic finance represents $1.9 trillion in assets, mostly in predominantly Muslim countries in Africa and Asia, where large numbers of people still live on less than $1.25 per day. That makes financial institutions rooted in Islamic principles an under-tapped resource for the $3 to $5 trillion per year needed to achieve “shared prosperity” and […]

Sonen Capital has closed its first fund for investments in real assets like buildings, energy infrastructure and land. The San Francisco-based investment manager already has made eight investments in affordable housing, clean energy, and timber in the U.S. Africa and Asia. Launched in 2012, Sonen has nearly $400 million under management and impact investment strategies […]

Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into […]

The Global Impact Investing Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing around the world. The GIIN builds critical infrastructure and supports activities, education, and research that help accelerate the development of a coherent impact investing industry. As impact investing continues grow and open up to new audiences, […]

(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Increasing demand for a more socially responsible, purpose-driven finance has led to the emergence of innovative approaches to impact investing. Although impact investing began many years ago as a niche activity practiced by large philanthropists, it is now spearheaded by a wide range of impact investment funds that are committed to the […]

(3BL Media/Justmeans) – A Venture Capital Trust (VCT) is a type of publicly listed, tax-advantaged investment fund in the UK, designed as a way for individual investors to gain access to VC investments via capital markets. In recent years, VCTs have increased their focus on socially responsible investments that take environmental, social and governance (ESG) […]

Prime Coalition and Investors’ Circle have backed solar startup, ConnectDER. ConnectDER helps home solar systems easily connect to the electric grid and helps utilities manage such distributed energy inputs. The $1.1 million investment includes nine individual investors from Investors’ Circle; Prime brought together a mix of program-related investments and grants from the Ellis Family Fund, the […]

Fair warning: he-who-shall-not-be-mentioned just might make a cameo appearance below. But the bigger decision facing investors, from American families with 401(k)s to managers of the world’s largest pension and sovereign wealth funds: Whether to bet on the low-carbon energy transformation now under way – or stick with business-as-usual.   It’s not renewables that are ‘alternative.’ […]