News and Updates
For 250 years, the American Dream has centered on the promise of economic mobility and agency. When that promise is repeatedly broken, the collective will and ability to defend democracy itself dissipates.
The experts know American democracy is at risk. The health of the democracy scores lower than it has in years, according to leading lawyers and scholars.
Fifty years ago, the vast majority of a company’s market capitalization was driven by its tangible, physical assets. Today, that reality has flipped, and nearly 90% of the S&P 500’s market value comes from non-tangible sources. These include intellectual property and brand equity, which are largely driven by a company’s workforce. Yet, while the engine of our economy has changed, the disclosures we use to assess corporate value are stuck in the past.
The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance applauds the introduction of the Workforce Investment and Sustainable Employment Reporting (WISER) Act (HB 5147 and SB 3975) by State Representative Mary Beth Canty and State Senator Omar Aquino of Illinois, which would require large companies to disclose key workforce data.
Advocates for a more sustainable, equitable U.S. economy faced an uphill battle in 2025. This was a year defined by a uniquely challenging environment, with market instability and uncertainty, growing unemployment across certain sectors and significant backsliding on recent public policies that would have laid the groundwork for greater economic opportunities in communities and a more transparent and accountable financial system overall.
The American economic landscape is defined by stark contrasts. Record corporate profits coexist with an accelerating affordability crisis. Technological advancements are boosting productivity but also causing layoffs.
In this challenging environment of deep uncertainty and pervasive volatility, we are witnessing the systematic erosion of corporate accountability.
The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance advocates for shared prosperity, accelerated by investments in robust pathways for economic mobility and opportunity. Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are essential to enabling those investments. They are the financial lifeblood of so many U.S. communities, giving the economy a competitive edge and helping so many fulfill their own American dream.
Shared prosperity is a shared responsibility.
In recent years, the United States benefited from a robust macroeconomic recovery from the COVID-19 and related crises, particularly compared to its global peers. Yet, despite record employment and historic investments across infrastructure and industry, many people across the country feel that the American dream is increasingly out of reach.
This is a moment that demands more from us as advocates and investors for a sustainable, equitable economy for all.
Read the “Private Capital, Public Good” report.
The results of the U.S. 2024 elections are a shock to the system – not just to our political system, but also in how our economy operates and our society functions. While the full implications of this moment will take time to understand, there can be no doubt that the communities across the country facing economic, social and environmental hardships need our support more than ever. The private sector must rise to the occasion – not just investors and financial institutions, but also businesses, philanthropies, nonprofits and other civil society organizations.
Impact investing is at a crossroads and in the crosshairs. That is a dichotomy we continue to revisit in our work to grow the practice of impact investing for a more sustainable, equitable economy.
Our field has grown exponentially and entered the mainstream, with the flourishing of funds incorporating ESG, sustainability and impact. There is growing recognition that issues like climate risk are synonymous with financial risk.
A suite of recent Supreme Court decisions will create regulatory uncertainty with significant implications for the private sector and stability of the capital markets.
On Friday, a Supreme Court decision was announced, overturning a longstanding legal standard known as Chevron deference, which enabled federal agencies and their subject matter experts to interpret ambiguous statutes.
The undoing of this doctrine is expected to lead to inconsistencies across the lower courts, if some strike down and others uphold the same regulatory guidance. In turn, businesses and investors would be forced to contend with years of inconsistent and unreliable guidance, as the courts work to resolve potentially conflicting regulatory standards across states.
In partnership with B Lab U.S. & Canada and over 50 investor, business and philanthropic organizations, the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance sent a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler urging movement on the long-awaited rulemaking on corporate human capital management (HCM) disclosures.
Investors are increasingly demanding clear, consistent and comparable information on material considerations such as a company’s workforce composition, compensation, health and safety, and diversity practices. In response to calls from investors, we encourage the Commission to pursue a comprehensive set of HCM disclosure requirements including universal quantitative and supplementary qualitative and information.
For years, investors have been demanding access to clear, consistent and comparable data from corporations on their climate risks and impacts. Last month, the SEC helped bring U.S. capital markets regulations into the 21st century by finalizing the climate disclosure rule, joining global regulators and standard setters in the pursuit of mandated, standardized corporate climate disclosures.
Unfortunately, the rule is now under attack, and impact investors must raise their voices in support at this critical moment. As the Alliance noted in our recent statement, we believe the SEC’s final rule represents an important baseline to build upon in the future, even with some provisions weakened from the original proposal. The SEC struck a careful balance based on significant consultation with investors, companies and other market stakeholders.
Climate risk is financial risk, a reality acknowledged by investors, asset managers, businesses, and regulators across the globe. As institutional investors, we are concerned by the recent departures of several large asset managers from Climate Action 100+, an essential investor-led initiative improving corporate accountability on climate risks in our investment portfolios.
The authors of this statement are leading foundations committed to practicing and promoting the principles of impact investing – investing for measurable and positive social, economic, and environmental impact alongside financial returns. Read the full statement.
Last week, the impact investing community celebrated an important step forward in ensuring that U.S. communities' priorities are centered in the clean energy transition. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the eight recipients of funding under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s (GGRF) National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Fund.
The past several months have seen a troubling surge of litigation threatening investor rights and the ability of regulators to respond to market imperatives. These attacks stem from the same desire to halt progress by private sector leaders and regulators toward a more transparent and accountable economic system. The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance has been working to counter the anti-environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement, and we see the same anti-ESG forces now mobilizing to undermine everything from climate disclosures to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). This piece analyzes the legal challenges that impact investing advocates should be tracking – some more high-profile than others, but all with the potential for significant ramifications for our collective ability to manifest a thriving, competitive economy.
Today, the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance applauds an important milestone for corporate transparency on climate factors. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a long-awaited final rule requiring U.S.-listed companies to disclose information related to climate-related risks and their material impacts.
“Climate risk is financial risk, and investors need access to clear, comparable data on these factors from companies to inform their decisions,” said Fran Seegull, President of the Alliance. “Though there is room to strengthen certain provisions, we still believe the SEC’s final rule marks progress in advancing fair and efficient markets. Today signals a win for investors, U.S. economic competitiveness and market stability.”
Last week, the Coalition on Inclusive Economic Growth wrote a letter to the Department of Commerce sharing support for the establishment of the Business Diversity Principles Initiative (“BDP Initiative”).
The 60+ members of the Coalition, co-led by the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance and B Lab, represent businesses, investors, and nonprofits, all of whom see the BDP Initiative as a step forward in advancing a more equitable economic landscape.
It is essential that our regulators prioritize enhancing transparency and accountability for the small business ecosystem. The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance applauds President Biden’s veto to protect significant strides made toward this goal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) earlier this year.
The President’s veto rejects a Congressional Review Act Resolution that would have nullified the long-awaited implementation of a Dodd-Frank provision requiring small business lenders to collect demographic information about their clients and applicants.
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