June 2020 | Field News & Resources
This page features this month's highlights, announcements, resources, and general news related to advancements in the impact investing field.
- A coalition including Surdna Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation kicked off the "Path to 15/55" initiative, which aims to galvanize investment in Black-owned businesses to spur growth and job creation.
- In a first-ever move by a U.S. nonprofit foundation, the Ford Foundation sold a $1 billion social bond on the corporate bond market. The proceeds will go to support and strengthen nonprofit organizations hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic. Ford foundation is joined by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, who will use social bonds to collectively distribute to over $1.7 billion to the nonprofit sector.
- MIE's Monique Aiken hosted two episodes of ImpactAlpha's weekly podcast, Impact Briefing. The June 5 episode delves into the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and the renewed calls for racial justice in the United States. The Juneteenth episode features Jasmine Rashid of Candide Group, author of The Financial Activist Playbook for Supporting Black Lives, and a profile of Aurora James, the creator of the "15 Percent Pledge," which calls on corporations and institutions to support Black-owned businesses.
- Fixed-income manager Community Capital Management launched the new "Minority CARES" strategy, offering institutional and retail investors the opportunity to support racial equality and tackle social disparities via investments in market-rate bonds.
- Big venture capital investors are signaling interest in startups run by Black founders, but some founders have doubts that the checks will actually materialize, according to the Times of Entrepreneurship.
- More grant makers are appointing senior-level people to focus exclusively on ways to help share power and promote diversity and inclusion, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.
- Rodney Foxworth, CEO of Common Future, calls on foundations to commit capital to “restorative investments,” investments that deliberately address inequality and build the wealth and power of people of color.
- Dr. Robert Ross and Shawn Ginwright of the California Endowment call on foundations to use their money, their ability to collaborate, and their voice in the fight to end racism. In The Chronicle of Philanthropy they argue foundations need to reimagine how philanthropy, business, and government can work together to create an inclusive and equal society.
- In an op-ed in The New York Times, Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation calls for philanthropy to relinquish its special privileges and benefits, reform capitalism, and create new policies that advance long-term, sustainable investment in order to obtain a more equitable society and save our democracy.
- Jasmine Rashid of Candide Group published The Financial Activist Playbook for Supporting Black Lives, a roadmap for individuals to use their financial resources to support Black lives, via Medium.
- The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) published the first in a series of issue briefs meant to support impact investors addressing the needs and challenges arising from the COVID-19 crisis. The brief is part of the GIIN’s Response, Recovery, and Resilience Investment Coalition (R3 Coalition) effort, which launched in May.
- The Rockefeller Foundation’s Otis Rolley III argues that the response to the COVID-19 economic crisis should not repeat the mistakes of the New Deal, historic legislation that never-the-less worsened deeply-entrenched racial and financial inequities, via Business Insider.
- Betsy Zeidman, a Beeck Center Fellow, explores ways to finance efforts to reengage immigrants and refugees in the workplace.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed the idea of launching a national "green bank" to re-stimulate and significantly de-carbonize the American economy by utilizing public money to help cash-strapped businesses invest in solar panels, wind farms, and energy-efficiency building retrofits, Salon reports.
- Prime Coalition has raised $76 million and counting for early-stage climate startups working on climate innovations, Bloomberg reports.
- The Kresge Foundation's Fresh, Local and Equitable (FreshLo) Initiative published a report on the importance of hyper-local investments to ensure that community needs are met in moments of crisis. neighborhood cultural institutions have been cornerstones of the pandemic response.
- JFF published its "Impact Employer Framework," which aims to help employers make strategic investments that benefit immigrant and refugee employees and their bottom line.
- Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors launched the “Impact Investing Handbook: An Implementation Guide for Practitioners,” in an effort to help asset owners turn interest in impact investing into action.
- An essay by Amy D. Augustine of Boston Trust Walden on landmark legislation for LGBTQ employees, who now have federal recourse when faced with workplace discrimination, and its relevance to impact investing.
- Investors in Colorado are increasingly looking to invest in companies working to solve environmental, social justice, and economic equity problems, according to The Colorado Sun.
- Upstart Co-Lab aims to boost investments made in arts and culture-related industries that are designed to stimulate local economies and generate jobs. The research and laboratory project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors has formed a 10-member coalition of investors, including art institutions and individual funders, with $1 billion in funding capacity, Barron’s reports.
- The number of asset owners using sustainable investment practices jumped to 80% in 2019 from 70% in 2017, according to a recent Morgan Stanley Investment Management survey. Another 15% of the 110 institutional investors surveyed said they are seriously considering incorporating such practices into their investment strategy, Pensions & Investments reports.
- In this recap of Amplifying Impact, the MIE 2020 National Conference, Alexandra LaForge of Arabella Advisors reflects on the calls for systems change that were central to the conversations throughout the Conference.
- Austin Community Foundation awarded a $1 million low-interest rate loan to the city’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity to help finance an affordable housing development.
- The Nathan Cummings Foundation is accepting applications for its 2020-2021 fellowship. Each fellow will receive up to $150,000 and 18 months to turn an inspired idea in the field of social justice into a reality. Applications are open through September 1, 2020.