by Sean Tennerson, Program Officer, The Case Foundation
For those of you who know the Case Foundation, we’re bullish on the impact investing movement and the power of private capital for public good. While still a relatively small market, impact investments are surging, with some seeing a trillion-dollar market potential by 2020. Against that context, we do a lot of thinking about what is standing in the way of tipping significantly more interested investors to activated investors.
by Donna Katzin, Executive Director, Shared Interest, a social investment fund that mobilizes the financial and human resources of South Africa’s lowest income communities of color. Since 1994, Shared Interest has helped to create more than 180,000 new small and micro-enterprises, 1.9 million jobs, and 120,000 affordable homes – benefiting 2.3 million economically marginalized South Africans – the majority of them women.
Reprinted from Institutional Investor. Michael Molitor is a Senior Fellow with the Ray C. Anderson Foundation
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Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, with $860 billion under management, has missed out on $1.9 billion in additional profits as a result of its decision to divest all of its tobacco holdings in 2010. The story that reported this fact, which ran in the Financial Times , goes on to suggest that fund managers should reconsider their investments in tobacco companies, as the sector is generating impressive returns, well above many key performance benchmarks.
Since 2010, the U.S. K-12 edtech industry has seen a boom of venture investing in education technology. EdSurge has been “following the money” behind venture investments in U.S. K-12 edtech companies to understand the dollars--and their implications. Those investments are redefining the tools and curriculum available to schools, and will have an effect on teaching and learning -- eventually. Measurable “exits” and demonstrated outcomes for schools have been scarce so far. But here’s what we’re seeing:
April 5, 2016 /3BL Media/ - Cox Enterprises today announced that David Blau and Tim Howe have joined the company’s corporate strategy and investments team. Blau serves as vice president of corporate strategy and investments, and Howe is senior director of corporate strategy and investments. Both report to Duncan O’Brien, Cox Enterprises’ senior vice president and general manager of corporate strategy and investments.
Why this subject? Why now? Erika Karp, Cornerstone Capital Group founder & CEO and a former Wall Street research chief, counts off asset owners, asset managers, investment banks, social media, NGOs, regulators, accountants, exchanges. ‘Everything is moving toward more transparency, collaboration and understanding of what sustainability means to the capital markets,’ she says.
SAP NEWSBYTE — April 22, 2015 /3BL Media/ — In alignment with the Skills for Africa initiative from SAP SE (NYSE: SAP), which promotes education to improve the problem of chronic youth unemployment and expand the IT workforce, SAP and Acumen today announced an investment in a program for social entrepreneurs in East Africa, designed to help the companies grow and scale.