Topic Archives: Funding/Financing

August 19, 2019 – Funding/Financing, Measuring, Reporting

Impact Links: ESG Ratings; P&G Interviews; Stanford Study Shows Racial Bias in VC; Helsinki Sustainability App; World’s Most Sustainable Industrial Building; IPCC Climate Change Report; Climate Change and the Corporate World

How can you tell if your investment is really responsible? The Washington Post provides an overview of ESG ratings. Procter & Gamble’s chief sustainability officer explains how she is making sustainability “irresistible” in a new piece in Forbes. A new study led by a Stanford psychologist and Illumen Capital found that venture capital funds led ...›

August 2, 2019 – Funding/Financing, Measuring, Reporting

Impact Links: Morgan Stanley Impact Quotient; Shroders acquires BlueOrchard; Morning Star sustainable fund data; Africa lags in SDGs progress; Forest Sector Roadmap; Climate change and the global economy; Sea rise threatens 800,000 U.S. homes.

Morgan Stanley announced a new tool to help financial advisors and their clients’ measure sustainable investment performance, allowing the prioritization of selected environmental, social and governance interests and alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Schroders expanded its impact investing strategy through its acquisition of a majority stake in Swiss impact investor BlueOrchard. New ...›

July 29, 2019 – Funding/Financing, Measuring, Reporting

Impact Links: EY Proxy Season Review Report; Rhino Impact Bonds; UN SDGs; Climate Emergency Fund; Moody’s Buys Climate Data Firm

The EY Center for Board Matters’ 2019 Proxy Season Review report revealed gender diversity and sustainability were among the main governance concerns. The $50 million Rhino Impact Bonds (RIB), the first financial instrument working toward the conservation of a species at risk of extinction, will launch in 2020. Unless progress is accelerated, Asia and the ...›

July 18, 2019 – Funding/Financing, Measuring, Reporting

Impact Links: Congress Rejects ESG Reporting Proposal; R-factor as an ESG Reporting Solution; NFL Player’s $200m Opportunity Zone Fund; KLM’s and Zara’s Sustainability Plans; Seafood Farm Sustainability; Impact Investment Through Biomimicry

U.S. Congress rejected a proposal to align ESG reporting requirements with the more rigorous standards applied in Europe. Bob Eccles discusses the “R-Factor” as a possible market-based solution for ESG reporting standards. An NFL player retired at age 30 and launched a $200 million Opportunity Zone fund. A seafood company in Vietnam hopes to scale ...›

June 12, 2019 – Foreign Investments, Funding/Financing, Resources

Impact Links: Canada Bans Single-Use Plastic; Britain Launches Impact Investing Institute; Omidyar’s Education Investments; Temasek’s New Impact Fund

What do boards need to know about sustainability ratings? Silda Wall Spitzer and John Mandyck discuss in the Harvard Business Review. Growing its education investments, Omidyar Network expanded its educational agenda to include investments in both early childhood and adult education programs. Canada announced a plan to ban single-use plastics by 2021 and introduce standards ...›

May 28, 2019 – Funding/Financing, Resources

Impact Links: Generation IM closes $1B fund; Nasdaq launches ESG guide; Catalyst Opportunity Zone Fund; Vanguard’s newest ESG fund; S&P 500 ESG Index

Generation Investment Management announced a newly closed $1 billion Sustainable Solutions Fund for growth investments. The fund will focus on investments in growth-stage businesses in three areas: 1) planetary health; 2) people health; and 3) financial inclusion. Nasdaq launched a new voluntary global environmental, social and governance reporting guide for public and private companies, which ...›

May 1, 2019 – Deal Structures, Funding/Financing

SXSW 2019 – Mainstreaming Impact Investing

MoFo Impact partner Alfredo Silva spoke at SXSW 2019 on “Mainstreaming Impact Investing” with impact investors from Omidyar Network, DBL Partners, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The panel explored what impact means to a variety of investors and described how fund structures, financing instruments, and corporate form can help advance environmental, social, and governance goals ...›

December 12, 2018 – Funding/Financing

How To Make The Most Of Impact Fund Formation

The difference between reaching and failing to meet financial goals during an impact investment can come down to the details behind how the funds are formed, according to Morrison & Foerster partner Susan H. Mac Cormac in the Law360 article “How To Make The Most Of Impact Fund Formation.” “People really need to be thoughtful when advising ...›

December 3, 2018 – Funding/Financing

What To Know About PE’s Penchant For Impact Investing

Suz Mac Cormac, chair of Morrison & Foerster LLP’s Social Enterprise + Impact Investing group, was extensively quoted in the Law360 impact investing article, “What To Know About PE’s Penchant for Impact Investing.” Impact investing has been around for quite a while, but the private equity industry’s involvement is a relatively new development. Normally focused ...›