June 2022 | Field News & Resources
This page features this month's highlights, announcements, resources, and general news related to advancements in the impact investing field.
- Many MIE members issued statements on the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade with a range of perspectives. The Kresge Foundation statement sees the decision as dramatically widening the health-equity gap; while similarly the W.K. Kellogg Foundation statement sees the decision as a barrier for low-income families and especially women of color; while Lumina Foundation CEO Jamie Merisotis notes how the decision will gravely harm college-going women.
- MacArthur Foundation Managing Director Debra Schwartz introduces a series of in-depth Learning Labs and resources from seasoned investors that make up the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3). C3’s founding members are MacArthur, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Omidyar Network.
- Shilpa Patel, Director of Mission Investing, ClimateWorks Foundation, issues an open letter to philanthropy to use catalytic capital to help achieve global climate goals.
- The Betsy and Jesse Fink Family Foundation and Google are seed funders for a $100 million Circular Food Solutions Funding Platform, a blended investment and innovation platform developing solutions to help reduce the 35% of food that goes unsold or uneaten each year in the United States. Created and managed by ReFED and Closed Loop Partners, the financing emphasizes catalytic capital deployment.
- The Cisco Foundation gives an update on its $100MM climate commitment at the one year mark: half in grants and the other half in impact investments, including an investment in Prime Coalition climate solution funds.
- In this Q&A between McKnight Foundation's board chair Noa Staryk and MIE partner National Center for Family Philanthropy, Noa talks at length about the foundation founders’ (her great grandparents) commitment to climate, and the generational evolution and deepening of that mission, which includes alignment with the endowment and impact investing.
- Sorenson Impact Asset Management has launched Enable Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests at the intersection of disability and innovation with the goal of delivering deep impact.
- The California Endowment (TCE) announced $30 million in initial investments from the Foundation’s $300-million social bond issued in January 2021, all focused on advancing their mission of racial justice and health equity.
- MIE member Better Way Foundation announces new impact investments in Indian Country: $500,000 with the Native CDFI Oweesta and a $300,000 investment in the Wolakota Bison Project, an initiative by the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation to create the largest Native-owned bison herd in North America.
- GreenBiz has a Q&A with Goldman Sachs Foundation President Aisha Pompey where she talks about the need for measurement, transparency and accountability in order to achieve impact on sustainability, economic empowerment, diversity and more.
- The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) released a new report, Approaching the Tipping Point: Recommendations for building the marketplace for system-level investing, that gives investors a roadmap to addressing systemic social, environmental, and financial issues in the near term, specifically, the next two-five years. It is based on a survey of nearly 100 investors and other stakeholders that revealed a need for basic, straightforward guidance for how to start.
