It’s not only banks and Blackrock — portfolio managers, impact investors, mixed or pure play, cleantech incubators, corporate finance departments, and other orgs, oh my!

A note before diving in… This can be a complex issue-area to summarize because it spans the NGO, government and finance sectors — from community, trust banks & micro-lending, to governments issuing bonds to improve their societies (infrastructure, health care, business start-up capital, other), to private sector finance organizations looking for both social and financial ROI. I’ve written and discussed the first two segments elsewhere, and will focus on private sector segment of finance-for-good (aka alternative investments) here. If you are interested in an overview of how to finance the SDGs, (the context, players, their roles, partnerships), email me and ask for your free copy of the 18 slide deck.

I will mention, however, that business incubators, often housed at University or government research centers, receive grants, channel “elbow grease” (aka bootstrapping or self-funding), and often connect their incubatees to potential customers and investors for their rounds of funding (after the family-and-friends round). Some will get venture capital or angel investor funding. The majority of these incubator, start-up business financial investments, however, are for the thrill of the business idea, scaling, and possible financial return, and less for it’s change-the-world social or environmental ROI. There are exceptions, such as the start-ups I had the privilege of coaching in Jordan, as part of an economic empowerment plan in the free economic zone (near areas made famous by Lawrence of Arabia),