The Brief  |  February 18, 2020 The Brief: Impact alpha in donor-advised funds, inclusive credit unions, greenhouses in India, flexible loans for founders of color, off-grid energy impact     ImpactAlpha Greetings, Agents of Impact! Featured: Impact Voices Impact drives alpha, and other lessons from ‘100% impact’ donor-advised funds. In the same way that some big foundations are beginning...Read More

Many students across America can expect to read or listen to speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. during Black History Month, but in Oakland, Calif., they go beyond just reading. In the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorical Festival, students perform those speeches, as well as poetry and monologues they wrote, and compete for...Read More

In 1996, Hema Hattangady took over as the CEO of Conzerv, an embattled family-owned firm based in Bengaluru that manufactured digital energy meters. Over the next twelve years, she grew it to a Rs 100 crore company, which has become the country’s largest energy-management company. In 2009, the company was acquired by Schneider Electric, and Hema Hattangady...Read More

Residents of Two Bridges, a neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, slowed a developer’s plan to build three residential skyscrapers to join this one that already dwarfs its fellow buildings, One Manhattan Square.Credit…Stefano Ukmar for The New York Times New apartment buildings often look to activists like precisely the problem. Let developers build...Read More

Private equity firm KKR & Co. Inc has raised $1.3 billion for a global impact fund, as it joins peers such as Blackstone and TPG in seeking to invest in companies that strive to solve environmental or social problems. The KKR Global Impact Fund marked the final closing with help from a diverse group of...Read More

AL ULA, Saudi Arabia — The Coachella art crowd had arrived in the Saudi desert, and chic caftans in head-turning colors outnumbered abayas on the sand. At a buffet ornamented with cantaloupes carved in the shape of flowers, waiters tended a fresh-squeezed juice station and rows of dainty canapés. Across the gold-and-russet sandstone canyon, the...Read More

Investing well is hard enough, and introducing your personal values into the mix only compounds the confusion. What matters most? How can I have the biggest impact? And am I a traitor to myself if I own stocks in companies I would otherwise shun? Consider just one issue that inspires deep feelings: animal welfare. It...Read More

(BERLIN) — Swiss voters approved by a wide margin Sunday a measure that will make it illegal to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. Switzerland’s parliament in late 2018 approved expanding the country’s existing anti-discrimination law to make it illegal to publicly denigrate, discriminate or stir up hatred based on a person’s sexual...Read More

(Reuters) – From plant-based meals to repeat tuxedos and water bottle bans, Hollywood has come to embrace sustainability in an awards season usually known for excess. Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, many of whom are vocal about environmental issues, are now turning words into action on red carpets and at gala dinners as they crisscross...Read More

Researchers Study How Mauritius Achieves and Sustains Peace by Allegra Chen-Carrel |January 30, 2020 Members of the University of Mauritius project team participating in a workshop. Photo: Allegra Chen-Carrel Recently, while the U.S. teetered on the brink of a war with Iran and North Korea, and struggled with one of the most contentious internal political...Read More