February 2021 | Field News & Resources

The Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) recently launched a new grantmaking program that is calling for research proposals aimed at strengthening the evidence base for catalytic capital — a patient, flexible, risk-tolerant form of investment. The program is housed at the New Venture Fund and jointly funded by the MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Omidyar Network, which established C3 in 2019 as an investment, learning, and market development initiative. 

A nonprofit tied to Amalgamated Bank kicked off a new fund, dubbed the Democracy Reinvestment Fund, in an effort to raise money from corporations that have said they will no longer contribute to political campaigns following the riot on Capitol Hill. Run by the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, a nonpartisan 501(c)(3), the fund will use corporate donations to provide financing to other nonprofit organizations, CNBC reports.

Ariel Investments has launched private asset management firm Ariel Alternatives along with its initial strategic initiative “Project Black.” The purpose of Project Black is to scale sustainable minority-owned businesses and close the racial wealth gap by generating jobs, economic growth, and equality within underrepresented populations from the entry-level to the boardroom.

Social Finance has created a pilot program to retrain low-income workers for in-demand jobs at no upfront cost. The training is financed through “career impact bonds,” drawn from a $40 million fund provided by philanthropic investors, The Boston Globe reports.

Accelerating Community Investment, a new national campaign to encourage investment in lower-income communities includes organizations such as The Milwaukee Economic Development Corp. and the Madison-based Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. The campaign aims to spur investment in community and economic development, affordable housing, and other areas of social impact, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Four South Carolina-based charitable organizations created a community economic development partnership called the Opportunity Center. The four organizations — Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, Increasing H.O.P.E., Homes of Hope, and the S.C. Association for Community Economic Development — will use the Opportunity Center as their headquarters, a training center, and a business incubator.

While corporate impact investing is still a nascent field, similarities among effective practices have begun to emerge. In an article in Stanford Social Innovation Review, authors from Autodesk, Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund, and Merck share insights from their investing practices along with five characteristics of effective corporate impact funds.

The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation has begun to make a number of strategic shifts to better support its grantees, including a shift to place-based grantmaking; providing larger, multi-year grants; and coupling grants with investment capital.  

Northwest Area Foundation offers a look at the foundation’s efforts to update its organizational values to reflect its current aspirations and morals—especially in relation to its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitment.

ImpactAlpha has launched a new podcast series The Reconstruction, hosted by Monique Aiken. In one episode, Aiken interviews Dr. Carmen Rojas, president of the $800 million Marguerite Casey Foundation and founder of The Workers Lab, engaging her on the nature of “servant leadership,” freedom, and truth. In another episode, Aiken interviews the creators of Due Diligence 2.0 — Rachel Robasciotti, Founder and CEO of Adasina Social Capital; Brent Kessel, Founder and CEO of Abacus Wealth Partners; Tracy Gray, Founder and Managing Partner of the 22 Fund; and, Erika Seth Davies, Founder of the Racial Equity Asset Lab.

In a letter signed by 87 business organizations and investors representing over $420 billion in assets under management, US SIF urged the Biden administration to enact policies that will help the nation “build back better” and provide a framework for the private sector to work alongside government leadership.

ESG investing appears poised to “define the next decade of investing,” as the vast majority of consumers and employees expect companies to live up to values beyond shareholder return alone. Nearly 80% of C-Suite executives now say they plan to align their business strategies with sustainability challenges such as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this SalesForce sponsored content says.

The Brookings Institute recommends the use of outcome-based or pay-for-success financing — including social and development impact bonds (SIBs and DIBs) — to spur efforts to “build back better.” This policy brief notes that crowding-in private funding and focusing resources on outcomes can reduce government risk and strengthen systems of social service delivery.

In this Barron’s Op-Ed, Sir Ronald Cohen calls on the Biden administration to require corporate transparency on the social and environmental impacts created by companies.

For foundations aiming to defend democracy, directing external funding to pro-democracy groups and causes is not enough. Funders must also undo their internal anti-democratic practices by ending top-down decision-making and shifting power to communities, Josh Lerner, executive director of People Powered: Global Hub for Participatory Democracy, writes in this Nonprofit Quarterly op-ed.

In the latest episode of Off the Sidelines, an investor education podcast produced by Technical.ly, Assistant Editor Stephen Babcock spoke with Elizabeth Killough, co-CEO of the Untours Foundation, and Lauren Cochran, managing director at Blue Haven Initiative about different approaches to impact investing.

In this Inside Philanthropy interview, The Roosevelt Institute’s Felicia Wong discusses the organization’s efforts to challenge neoliberalism and call for a new set of rules to govern our economy.