Published: 23 April 2026

Dear IFI Community

Something I keep coming back to is how much of this field's most important work happens between institutions, in the margins of existing categories, and through practitioners who are simply not waiting for permission. This month's showcase reflects exactly that. A peer community forming to unlock billions in dormant philanthropic capital. A freely available contract instrument to make impact-linked investing more accessible. A framework for thinking about change when the future and the present have collapsed into the same moment.

 

Different contexts, different tools, different scales - but all of it pushing on the same question: how do we build financial and institutional infrastructure that actually serves the mission?

 

1. Voices from the Field

Nearly $330 billion sits in donor-advised funds across the US, stewarded by roughly 3.5 million holders - most of whom are navigating questions of values-aligned deployment largely on their own. A new piece in GreenMoney by Alex Hammer Ducas, Claire Raffel, and Laura Francis (founders of the Collective Climate Justice Fund and Sea Forward Ocean Health Fund) makes a compelling case for why that isolation is both a problem and an opportunity. DAF capital, they argue, is uniquely positioned for deep impact investing - freed from shareholder pressure, legally already committed to impact, and capable of taking risks that conventional portfolios won't. The piece accompanies the launch of DAF Commons: a peer community being built by and for DAF holders who want to pool learning, lower barriers to entry, and move capital collectively. In just over a year, the two collaborative funds behind this initiative have mobilised nearly 100 donors and over $6 million into values-aligned investments - without formal staff. A genuine proof of concept, and an invitation to get involved.

🔗 Read the full piece on GreenMoney 

🔗 Learn more and join at dafcommons.com

 

The Three Horizons framework has long been a touchstone for systems change practitioners: stabilise the present (H1), navigate the transition (H2), imagine and build the future (H3). The implicit assumption was that these would unfold sequentially - with enough time between them for institutions to deliberate, adapt, and absorb. That assumption, Indy Johar argues, is no longer holding. Technological acceleration, geopolitical instability, and ecological disruption are compressing these arcs into simultaneous demands. Resistance, transition, and reimagination are no longer phases of development - they are concurrent responsibilities, colliding within the same decision window. For those working in finance and investment for systemic change, this reframing has immediate practical implications. A rigorous and generative read for anyone navigating the gap between what institutions were designed to do and what the moment now requires.

🔗 Read the full piece on Substack

 

What does it look like to build a portfolio around the idea that all life has equal value? Trimtab Impact's first portfolio Additionality Report offers an early answer. The impact-first holding company - whose portfolio spans a fund electrifying villages and adding hospital beds in Africa, a forestland protection fund in the US, and a small business lender in conflict-affected northern Syria - reports that it is on track financially while maintaining significant capacity for frontier-level risk, with impact depth performing above expectations. The broader argument is a compelling one: that an adaptable, opportunistic strategy is well suited to today's fragmented catalytic markets, where collaboration and flexibility matter more than scale or certainty. A grounded and quietly radical piece of reporting for those thinking about what wealth actually optimised for impact could look like.

🔗 Read the full write-up on ImpactAlpha

2. Tools & Market Infrastructure

For practitioners who have been exploring the Simple Agreement for Future Impact (SAFI) as a tool for impact-linked growth capital, there is now a free model contract available to download - developed through a collaboration between Roots of Impact and Grant Thornton Netherlands. This is a meaningful step toward standardisation and practical accessibility. SAFI is designed to offer highly flexible, impact-linked capital that keeps entrepreneurs accountable to mission while giving investors a structured path to align financial returns with real-world outcomes. If you're new to the instrument, Roots of Impact's website holds a full resource library including a practitioner Playbook. If you're already using it, Björn and the team would love to hear how.

🔗 Access the free SAFI model contract 

🔗 Explore the full SAFI resource library

 

ImpactAlpha has launched ImpactAlpha Edge, a structured data and market intelligence platform designed for the impact investing ecosystem. Drawing on thousands of LP and GP profiles and allocation data built up over more than a decade of reporting, the platform aims to surface better matches between fund managers and allocators, enable peer-to-peer pipeline sharing, and provide actionable intelligence for ecosystem builders mapping where capital, demand, and opportunity converge. Early adopters include family offices, emerging fund managers, and impact-first holding companies who've used it to identify aligned partners and accelerate due diligence. Worth exploring if fundraising, deal sourcing, or market mapping is part of your work.

🔗 Learn more or book a demo 

3. Opportunities & Field-Building

Corporate ownership isn't just a technical detail - it defines who decides, who benefits, and where an organisation is headed. IFI has been supporting this conversation in Latin America for some time, exploring how alternative ownership structures can align purpose, governance, and returns in ways conventional models simply don't allow. This Friday, Purpose LatAm - alongside key voices from across the region - is convening an online forum to explore exactly these questions, and what the emerging landscape of mission-aligned ownership looks like in the Latin American context.

📅 Friday | April 24 | 11:00 AM Chile Time

🔗 Register here

4. Take Action: LISI Funds ITS Market Survey

The LISI Funds ITS Market Survey is gathering practitioner data on how impact term sheets are being used across fund structures in the ecosystem. If you work in fund management, as an LP, or as a legal advisor working on innovative fund structures, your input would directly contribute to building a clearer, evidence-based picture of where the market stands - and where it's heading. The survey is open now.

🔗 Take the survey here

Thank you, as always, for continuing to share your thinking, your experiments, and your openness with the community. The more we illuminate what's being tested and built across the ecosystem, the more the field can mature - together.

Chat soon,

Aunnie & The IFI Team

P.S If you missed our March Showcase mailer, you can find the open link here