Elevating Impact: Impact Advisory Councils

By Ander Iruretagoyena and Priya Parrish

Welcome to our new series, "Elevating Impact.” As an investment firm committed to driving positive social and environmental change, we recognize that leaders in the field must be as intentional and focused about driving excellent impact as they are about driving excellent financial returns. Because we invest in both funds and companies, across early stage and late stage, and across three different impact themes, we are fortunate to see a very wide swath of examples of impact (inclusive of impact management and measurement, environmental-social-governance management, diversity-equity-inclusion, and more) efforts across the industry. We hope it will inspire and inform others in the industry to highlight and share them through this series.

Today, we will start by highlighting the concept and significance of Impact Advisory Councils (IACs). These councils, established by General Partners (GPs), play a pivotal role in shaping and guiding a firm's approach to impact. Typically comprised of experts, stakeholders, investment team members, and sometimes even portfolio company CEOs, the most important role of an IAC is to act as a sounding board on impact opportunities or challenges that could arise, such as in relation to: screening processes, due diligence, company metrics, deal terms, investor reporting, team member responsibilities, certifications, or market positioning. This could be in the context of a policy or program, or even a specific investment where there might be debate about how to approach impact or whether the potential impact meets the firm’s bar.

In addition to having a trusted body to turn to, the existence of an IAC can signal a firm’s commitment to continuous improvement in areas that are rapidly evolving, reinforcing to both investors and companies the importance placed on these issues. Furthermore, these councils provide LPs who are passionate about impact an opportunity to engage more deeply and build stronger relationships with the firm. 

While there is growing consensus in the industry that IACs are a beneficial addition to impact investing firms, there is no universal agreement on the optimal structure for these councils. As an impact investing firm with a network of over 990 different GPs, Impact Engine has observed a wide variety of council structures tailored to meet the unique needs and resources of each firm. Typically, these councils consist of 3-5 members, often composed of LPs, and generally convene 2-3 times per year, primarily through virtual meetings, with some opting to meet in person around their Annual General Meetings (AGMs). The agenda for these meetings usually includes a review of the portfolio and impact report, discussions on new investments, and special topics or projects. While IACs do not typically weigh in on governance issues (this falls under the purview of the Limited Partner Advisory Committee (LPAC)), some do weigh in on compensation matters related to impact, such as tying impact performance to carried interest. 

We currently serve on 12 IACs, and helped form 10 of them¹. While we don’t have a formal IAC ourselves, as a Public Benefit Corporation, our board of directors is legally bound to hold us accountable for both our financial performance and our impact performance. We also supplement the voices and accountability of our formal board with our Advisory Board, who we call upon regularly to weigh in on our plans and progress.

There are clearly many approaches that can be effective. The goal is to always be learning and looking outward for ways to improve, and to have others who can hold you accountable for that.

Spotlight: Lumos Capital Group’s IAC

Lumos Capital Group was founded in 2019 by Victor Hu and James Tieng as an independent investment manager focused on technology-enabled growth-stage companies in the human capital development sector that are bringing transformative products and services to improve the quality of and access to education and training, from early childhood education to workforce development. Lumos’ investment thesis is that the global status quo is unsustainable (most of the global workforce has less than a college degree, annual earnings of <USD20K, and is in danger of being left behind due to accelerating automation), that education is THE crucial lever for systemic change, and that purposefully investing in impactful private sector innovation will drive a more prosperous and inclusive future for everyone.

Lumos’ Impact Advisory Council meets virtually on a biannual basis, and consists of 4 LPs with deep experience in the sectoR (Strada, Steyn Family Office, American Student Assistance, Impact Engine) along with representatives of the investment team. There are three primary objectives for the IAC: 1) To provide an external feedback loop to hold the firm accountable on its impact commitment, 2) To help decide on which impact management and measurement practices to adopt, especially when LPs have different preferences; and 3) Create a trusted group where Lumos can have honest conversations about the numerous challenges of impact management.

Some of the recent topics discussed or considered at the Lumos IAC include:

• Decision to join Impact Capital Managers (ICM) (a member network of private capital fund managers investing with a focus on impact)
• Decision to implement the Impact Management Project’s five dimensions of impact framework throughout the investment process.
• Drafting a theory of change framework with three core pillars to understand market gaps and drive meaningful systemic change through the business models of the portfolio companies.
• Understanding the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and what is appropriate ESG management for a growth equity investor
• Review of individual portfolio companies & potential new investments’ impact merits and risks. For example, Lumos was looking at a software tool used in schools to prevent bullying and was struggling with how to balance that outcome with the privacy concerns it entailed.
• Discussion on how to increase the proportion of diverse founders at the top of the funnel.
• Discussion on how to codify impact into term sheets with companies.

¹As of the date of this article Impact Engine has allocated capital to 17 different managers; having a formal active role in 15 of them. In firms where an IAC may not exist we find other ways of helping shape the IMM of that firm through other bodies like an LPAC.

How Impact Investing Changed in 2023

By Jessica Droste Yagan and Priya Parrish

The end of one year and the beginning of the next is naturally a time for reflection. And, wow, did 2023 have a lot to reflect on! It was a paradox. It both flew by and also seemed to last forever. It was both full of volatility and new challenges and also reinforced many things we already knew and believed. It was both heartbreaking and hopeful. We expect 2024 to be similar in many ways, and while we remain optimistic, we are also grateful that our team brings the experience necessary to manage through a variety of markets, so we can face whatever might come our way.

The venture capital and private equity markets experienced a meaningful slow down this year. After a multi-year period of significant capital inflows for funds and companies, investors slowed their pace of deployment into illiquid assets as they evaluated the changing macroeconomic environment. Companies with cash runway, or options to extend cash runway sustainably, waited to raise more capital or exit, hoping to see the market shift back in their favor. In the meantime, the muted exit market meant that fund managers slowed distributions to investors. This in turn led to investors slowing commitments to new funds. This cycle is still in play, and it shifts the negotiating power to funds with dry powder that are in a very strong position to find great companies at lower prices.

We are seeing all of the above across our firm, and have been focused on supporting our portfolio companies while remaining disciplined about deploying new capital with the capital we do have. Our team includes investors and operators that have managed through these market cycles before and know that those companies that make it through will be the leaders. We are confident that many of our companies and our funds’ companies will be the leaders not only from a financial perspective but in scaling market-driven solutions to critical social and environmental challenges. 

A big positive this year was continuing to see more investors move from talk to action and from indifference to acknowledgement regarding the impacts of their investments. Family offices and individuals continued their steady movement in this direction, often driven by younger generations taking on more power and influence, but the real shift we saw this year was from charitable foundations, whose legal responsibility it is to address social and environmental issues.
Charitable foundations have long drawn a line between their grant and investment decisions, assigning the former to drive the mission and the latter to fund it. A handful of very early leaders started decades ago in acknowledging that their endowments and investments often affected their missions, whether they wanted them to or not, and started acting intentionally to shift their investments as much as possible toward achieving those missions, or at least not working against them. As they demonstrated the possibilities of that approach over time, while continuing  to meet their fiduciary duties and financial needs, others have had the confidence to follow. Now we are starting to see them follow in larger and larger numbers.

On the down side, fewer investors of any type are willing to invest in managers without a track record, and the vast majority of impact funds as well as funds led by women or people of color are in that category (also known as emerging managers). So, while impact investing dollars continued to increase in 2023, it is almost entirely going to mega firms who are raising separate sleeves of capital to capture impact demand. We are worried about what that means for emerging managers and how it might lead the industry to backslide on its progress toward more diversity and more impact. We hope to collaborate with others to support this segment of the industry. 

Government’s role in all of this will continue to be important as well. This year, we saw the government play two notable roles in the evolution of impact investing, both generally positive. 

First, both European and US governments began to step into a gap in regulation related to impact investing. In the US, the SEC shared draft rules related to transparency marketing around ESG and impact. In Europe, the interpretation and implementation of SFDR articles 6/8/9 were in full swing. Second, the US government's decisions about what and how to impact market forces continues to affect the work we do. For example, the end of ESSER funding has affected the ability of schools to afford education tools from the types of edtech companies we invest in, while on the other hand the IRA created notable tailwinds for the clean energy transition, which was already gaining steam. 

All in all, this year has seen some major challenges and we will continue to face them and more in 2024, not least of which is political risk as 2 billion people around the world will go to the polls this year to elect their leader, including here in the United States. But, as in 2023, we believe that impact investing and intentional management of ESG factors in business will only continue to grow.

We are seeing increased sophistication of impact management and measurement even from the largest, most mainstream players, as well as multiple industry-led efforts to create alignment around what and how to report data in this space. The political backlash against ESG is not going to stop what is fundamentally a market driven movement: a demand for corporations, which are enabled and supported by governments and therefore the people, to be a net positive for those people. This is the future of capitalism and we are proud to play a role in its progression.

We are grateful to all those who partner with our team on this, including our investors, the GPs we invest in, the CEOs we invest in, and all others doing their part to make capitalism the best it can be. Happy New Year - more to come in 2024!

12 Reasons we're optimistic about 2024

In last month’s newsletter, we reflected on the fear and violence rippling around the world. Despite the year’s challenges, we are hopeful that 2024 will bring new waves of opportunity to make the world a better place. Optimism is one of our values here at Impact Engine, and one we find crucial to be intentional about, especially during trying times. As this year comes to an end and a new one begins, we are sharing some of our optimism with you, and support you to find your own.

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Ander Iruretagoyena: In times of conflict, there remains a powerful reason for optimism as exemplified by the remarkable ability of humans to unite despite differences. This was vividly demonstrated during my wedding this past October, where my Mexican family and my wife's American family came together seamlessly, transcending cultural disparities and celebrating our shared values of love and unity. The event served as a poignant reminder that, even in the face of broader societal conflicts, the fundamental human capacity for understanding and acceptance can prevail. It reflects the potential for collective harmony when individuals focus on shared humanity, fostering connections that go beyond borders, backgrounds, and divisions, ultimately paving the way for a more hopeful and inclusive future.

Anna Reilly: I am optimistic about the future for female investors and founders. While the negative statistics around investing/financing for women are often called out (and necessary to be aware of and act upon), I have been encouraged by the number and the quality of conversations I have had with both female investors and founders in the past couple of months. The women I have spoken to, or in some cases read about, are building increasingly essential, incredibly unique investment firms and companies. These interactions have ranged from a super-sharp fellow education investor’s willingness to connect after a cold outreach to hearing about a former physician’s mission to make healthcare more accessible in rural Kentucky. It is these conversations combined with my own experience as an investor, where I have been empowered by both my male and female colleagues and connections, that fuel my optimism for a more diverse future for both investing and founding.  

Cara Wood: The arts make me optimistic. I’m naturally a numbers person, numbers and processes are the way I best know how to enter the world and help the team. These things can be beautiful too, but often I discover more realities than dreams. The arts help me remember the beauty in the world when I am tempted to be overcome by grief from all of the wrongs I’d like to right. I can think back to the first time I heard Cynthia Erivo sing “I’m Here” in the musical The Color Purple, or I remember how captivated I was the first time I went to the Musee d’Orsay, or the levity and connection I felt listening to Trevor Noah’s memoir on audio book.  All these things were reprieves from the stresses I was experiencing in daily life, but more recently I have been touched and pushed to dream by the art being created within the hardships. The poems coming out of Gaza and the art I see on social media or on the walls of buildings that allow people to share their support or remembrance for people they love. These are not a step away from real life, rather they create a way through. I still hold my memories dear, but I am using this more recent art as a catalyst to keep fighting for the things I believe in and to not lose sight of beauty still being created while we work for a better future.

Chris Wu: The record setting level of participation, and the amount of new pledges, at COP28 give me hope and optimism. While certain aspects of COP can be frustrating and is not without controversy, this year’s event drew over 100K attendees and mobilized over $57B in its first four days. In particular, stories from folks that were on the ground and in the meetings, like this one from Dawn Lippert on LinkedIn, only reinforce that hope: “Momentum is built in moments. On Sunday from 10pm-1am I had 3 hours of the most electrifying climate conversations that I can remember. CEOs, investors, and leaders of major agencies seemed animated with a sense of purpose. This electric energy and quest for ambition has already influenced major decisions that will never be reported in official COP commitments.”

Jessica Droste Yagan: I’m optimistic that what we each choose to do with our time and money matters. It’s so easy to feel like whatever I do is inconsequential and will be meaningless against the giant challenges we face in the world. But then I look around and notice every single good thing, every single thing moving in the right direction is happening because of the individuals who chose to act positively. From the woman I met last week pushing her state pension toward deeper engagement with public corporations, to the industrial manufacturing company board member I spoke to last month who is pushing her board to ask questions about supply chain impacts, to my mom and her friends who decided their county of 21,000 people in rural Illinois should have an Arts Council and so started one. It all matters. That gives me the energy to wake up every day and do the things I can do to inch humanity forward - perhaps imperceptibly in the scheme of the universe, but it matters!   

Leslie Polster: I feel hopeful and optimistic about humanity. I’ve been listening to an NPR podcast called My Unsung Hero that shares short stories of simple acts of kindness that leave lifelong impressions. For example, there was a story about an English teacher’s response to a stuttering student that ended up changing that student’s life, a mother traveling through the airport with her 3 kids who was assisted by a stranger that noticed she was struggling, a trash collector going out of his way to tell a man who recently lost his mother that she was the nicest person in their route. These stories of humans helping and being kind to one another–without an expectation of receiving something in return–give me faith in the inherent goodness in human nature.

Maggie Stohler: I'm optimistic about the power of collective action. Prior to joining the Impact Engine team earlier this year, I spent four years working closely with Catholic and faith-based institutional investors who were aligning their investment portfolios with their faith values and moving more capital into social and environmentally impactful investments. I met many different communities of impact-focused investors, and their work gives me great hope about creating systems-level change. No group demonstrated the power of collective action better than the nuns. Initiatives like the Religious Communities Impact Fund, a group of 32 Catholic women’s religious congregations that allocate capital to economic justice debt and equity investments, and the Climate Solutions Fund, a group of 16 congregations of Dominican sisters who pooled together $130 million to invest in financing climate change solutions, remind me that there is transformative power in collaboration!

Priya Parrish: I believe that the success of impact investing as a movement will be largely driven by the talent behind it, and the quality I've seen come into our field this year gives me confidence in our future. This month, I finished teaching my annual impact investing course at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and was taken aback by the shift in students who come into business school already knowledgeable about impact investing. The rigor and creativity I saw these MBA students put into their final projects, the design of their own impact funds, grew tremendously compared to prior years. Imagine what the field will look like ~10 years from now when they are the leaders! It's true, the demand for impact investments continues to grow even in a tough fundraising year, yet the real story is the supply side of investors.

Rahul Bhide: In the backdrop of increased income and wealth inequality, as well as other sustained economic pressures, it was heartening to see the number of conversations this year focused on ‘impact’ in some shape or form across conferences and events, even in spaces that have not traditionally focused on it. 

Roger Liew: It’s been a challenging couple of years in the startup space as capital became harder to come by. I’m buoyed by the progress many of our portfolio companies have made in tough times. For example, PadSplit was featured in the New York Times by Nicolas Kristoff as “The Old New Way to Provide Cheap Housing,” and BookNook published research results that certified their literacy product as ESSA Level 1 which “represents the strongest level of evidence and, therefore, the strongest level of confidence that a strategy will work”. 

Sophia Friedman: While we are inundated with negative news cycles and so much suffering in the world, my role in health equity reminds me every day of recent breakthroughs and innovations in healthcare. 2023 saw several new product approvals in the US, offering treatments for diseases that previously had few treatment options. These include (amongst others): The approval of the first CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing therapy to target sickle cell disease - a major advancement in the field of gene therapy and a first for this disease state where there is significant unmet need and few treatment options. The first FDA approved RSV vaccine for expectant mothers aimed at protecting their unborn babies. The Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab won full FDA approval and clinical trials showed that the drug slowed cognitive decline by ~30% over 18 months. The first oral pill to treat postpartum depression became available by prescription in the United States. It’s incredible to think about the progress made this year - some have even called this the ‘golden age’ of medicine - and is inspiring to think about what new advancements might be made another year from now.

Tasha Seitz: This has been a tough year in private markets, but despite the headwinds, I remain optimistic. Having managed through several challenging economic environments during my career as an investor, I have seen well-run companies survive — and even thrive — during difficult times. I’m thankful to be surrounded by talented teammates, entrepreneurial leaders and fund managers committed to building businesses that improve economic opportunity, health equity and environmental sustainability.  They inspire me and fuel my optimism about the future!

Sector Spotlight: Environmental Sustainability Investing

Sector Spotlight is a periodic series highlighting each of the individual impact areas we invest in.

This month we sat down with Impact Engine Vice President Chris Wu to learn about his speciality, environmental sustainability investing.

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Why are you personally drawn to environmental sustainability investments?

Prior to Impact Engine, I spent the majority of my career focused at this intersection between the natural and the built environment. I studied civil & environmental engineering in college. My first job coming out of school was as a structural engineer designing buildings in New York City. I was really fortunate, my first project would end up becoming the first LEED Platinum skyscraper in the world, the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park. That experience went a long way towards seeding my interest in all things sustainability.

What’s an example of a recent E.S. investment we’ve made here at Impact Engine?

I’m really excited about our recent investment in a company called Circuit, which is an on-demand microtransit solution provider that uses fleets of electric vehicles specializing in pooled rides to fulfill the first/last-mile gap that's experienced by municipalities around the world.

Circuit’s last mile solution has demonstrated that it can serve as a connector to public transit systems or mass transit hubs, and has effectively addressed transit deserts in places like West Dallas. The company has strong business traction with a diverse set of customers including cities, municipal partners, private inter-city rail companies, and real estate property owners. Circuit has delivered over 5 million rides to date, and in 2021 alone they served over 650,000 riders, reduced congestion by over 1,000,000 vehicle miles traveled, and prevented 535 tons of CO2 emissions. They are able to deliver all this to cities at a much lower cost than current options. Fixed route bus systems with low ridership can cost a city over $35 per ride, whereas Circuit successfully serves Pompano Beach, FL at just $2.28 per ride. 

When you’re evaluating a potential investment in this space, what are some special aspects you consider? Things you like to see in a company?

In general, I’m typically looking for a strong mission-driven team with a compelling and differentiated product that is addressing a large social or environmental challenge, which also represents an attractive market opportunity. I really like to see a founder who is steeped firsthand in the problem they’re trying to solve, and I look for companies where the impact is baked into the core DNA of the business so that the impact scales in lock-step as their revenue grows

In the sustainability space, I think it’s particularly important to have a team who can demonstrate that they are strong at customer acquisition because they may be selling to governments, utilities, or large enterprise clients where the sales process can be very long and challenging. Another special aspect to consider is the changing regulatory landscape, and how new legislation can help open up or accelerate new markets for sustainability companies.

Are there particular challenges to investing in the environmental sustainability sector?

Climate change touches every aspect of our economy, as a result sustainability is a very broad space that can cover everything from food & ag, transportation, and energy, to the built environment and the industrial sector. So it’s important to stay up to speed on a wide range of topics, but that’s also part of what makes investing in environmental sustainability so fun! 

Looking forward, what’s got you excited in the environmental sustainability space? Big opportunities on the horizon?

It’s a really exciting time to be investing in the environmental sustainability space. There’s a confluence of different factors all converging to drive strong tailwinds, including the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the SEC’s proposal to require publicly traded companies to disclose climate-related financial risks, seeing that 80%+ of global GDP is now covered by net zero commitments and 20% of the world’s largest companies have adopted net zero targets, as well as consumers shifting their sentiment towards more sustainable purchasing behavior. I’ve also seen an influx of new talent entering the space, I’ve met a lot of first-time entrepreneurs who come from traditional engineering and science backgrounds and are applying their expertise to help develop novel, highly scalable solutions to some of the biggest environmental challenges we face. Taken all together, it’s a great time to be building a climate tech startup, and I look forward to supporting them.

I also think the environmental sustainability space has a big opportunity in terms of driving more equity and inclusion. Disadvantaged communities and people of color are often on the frontlines of climate change, and are disproportionately impacted by its negative effects related to health, quality of life, and economic outcomes. Climate justice is becoming more top of mind for folks in the space, as demonstrated with initiatives like Justice40 as well as the work of organizations like the Greenlining Institute and Browning the Green Space, and I look forward to seeing more progress on this topic moving forward.

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Browse our environmental investment portfolio.