Transformative 25: Catalytic Funds Raise $1 Billion for Non-extractive Finance
“If you care about racial inequality, the climate crisis, and how finance is wrecking our democracy, the Transformative 25 list is a must-follow,” said Leslie Christian, CFA, Senior Investment Advisor, Northstar Asset Management.
T25 funds employ a mix of holistic strategies such as diverse leadership, integrated capital, creative financial tools, regenerative returns, values-aligned mission, and democratic ownership and governance to drive transformative change in finance.
The T25 Selection Committee includes 23 members from multiple sectors who reviewed a diverse group of funds that drive innovative solutions to address wealth inequality, the climate crisis, unbanked entrepreneurs and families, and racial and gender discrimination. The funds provide holistic solutions and wealth building assistance to entrepreneurs, cooperatives, Native communities, the underhoused, and underemployed.
Diverse Leadership is Key
The T25 Committee notes that diverse leadership teams are able to identify overlooked investment opportunities and create the kind of informed and culturally relevant support that unbanked and underbanked communities need.
Ninety-six percent of the 2024 funds identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color-led (BIPOC-led), meaning they reported 50% or more of the fund’s leadership self-identifies as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.
For the second year in a row, five (19%) Indigenous-led funds showcased in the T25 list demonstrate how Indigenous communities around the world are building economic power and self-determination.
Seventy-five percent of the funds self-identify as women-led (cis and trans), femme-led or gender-expansive led (50% or more leadership).
Non-extractive Finance Attracts $1.13 Billion
Cumulatively the 90 funds listed on the T25 since 2021 have raised $1.13 billion dollars in grant and investment capital for impact-first funds attracting capital from a wide range of investors and donors. “With well over a billion dollars in dealflow, the annual T25 list underscores that there are absolutely no excuses for investors who truly seek to make impact-first investments,” said Taj James, Co-founder, Full Spectrum Capital Partners and Movement Strategy Center.
The T25 List includes a range of funds and finance strategies including:
- Dearfield Fund for Black Wealth empowers Black families in Denver, Colorado with down-payment assistance and wrap-around support for homeownership to bridge the racial wealth gap.
- FINAPOP: Popular Financing for Healthy Food Production in Brazil finances cooperatives and associations producing healthy food in Agrarian Reform settlements with climate-friendly agroecology.
- People’s Solar Energy Fund advances energy democracy with non-extractive finance, technical assistance and peer-learning for community-owned solar developers in underserved communities in the United States.
- NDN Fund tailor’s loans to support Indigenous-led and community-based solutions for small-medium business and medium-large projects, grounded in Indigenous systems thinking and the interconnectedness of all things.
Collective Action for Just Finance, a project of Possibility Labs, has published the complete 2024 Transformative 25 List and its Report here: https://iciaptos.com/the-transformative-25/
Climate Change, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Energy & Climate, Impact Investing, Sustainable Business