Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott wants her grants funded from mission-aligned investments, shining a light on how philanthropies handle the money they don’t give away.
Also in today’s edition: Inside British International Investment’s Africa strategy, and taking nuclear power off the table.
Money with a mission
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At the end of 2024, MacKenzie Scott made a bold move, announcing in essay format that she wanted to fund her philanthropy not from traditional portfolios, but from “mission-aligned ventures … with leaders from the populations they are serving, or from generally undercapitalized groups like women and people of color.”
“We spend so much time focusing on the 5% of annual giving … no one talks about the other 95%,” says Naina Batra of AVPN.
Values-aligned investing is gaining traction, but even those in the industry aren’t always clear on the terminology, writes Lauren Evans for Devex. “Impact investing” targets private ventures with social or environmental benefits. ESG — or environmental, social, and governance — applies broader sustainability principles to public markets.
One major myth? That ethical investing means lower returns. “The biggest bugaboo,” says Lauren Sercu, chief investment officer at the Sorenson Impact Foundation, is the belief that all impact investing is concessionary. Not true. In fact, philanthropy insiders tell Devex that financial sacrifice isn’t a given when investing ethically.
One of the keys, they say, is strong leadership. At the Ford Foundation, it took President Darren Walker pushing the board to “think critically” that got it to funnel $1 billion from its endowment to mission-related investments over a decade. That’s still a relatively small portion of its reserves — but a few foundations, including Sorenson, have now committed to fully aligning investing with their values.
The bottom line, as Sercu says, is that “you can do well and do good at the same time.”
Read: Foundations own huge amounts of stocks. Are they using them for good? (Pro)
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BII any means necessary
As traditional donors scale back, development finance institutions such as British International Investment are under growing pressure to deliver — especially where capital is scarce. It’s a “pivotal moment” for global development finance, said BII’s Chris Chijiutomi at a recent Devex Pro event. With U.S. aid in flux and European budgets tilting toward defense, DFIs must step in. “A key part of our mandate is to make sure we’re not leaving countries behind,” he said.
At BII, the term “fragile states” is out — and “frontier markets” is in. Through ARIA, a joint platform with the Dutch and French DFIs, BII targets countries such as Liberia and Ethiopia, where “a lack of capital and persistent underdevelopment” stalls progress. But mobilizing private capital there means doing the groundwork.
“The first thing is to understand what BII’s sector focuses are, and the countries we invest in,” he said, encouraging alignment with NGOs, governments, and foundations such as Rockefeller. As for financing, he advised DFIs to forget the idea of a cookie-cutter strategy. BII blends equity, debt, and flexible vehicles designed for long-term investment.
Looking ahead, Chijiutomi sees more focus on mobilizing African capital and risk-sharing with donors. Because in these markets, “investing is never just financial — it’s fundamentally political, institutional, and human,” as my colleague Raquel Alcega writes.
Read: Inside BII’s strategy to unlock private capital in Africa’s fragile markets (Pro)
+ Next up in our “Road to Sevilla” event series previewing the Financing for Development conference starting later this month is a briefing with Ahmed Saeed this Friday, June 13. Saeed has worn many hats in the development space — he worked for two U.S. Treasury secretaries, was a public finance leader at J.P. Morgan, a vice president at the Asian Development Bank, and now CEO of Allied Climate Partners. He will offer critical insights into what it will take to mobilize climate finance at the speed and scale the crisis demands. Save your spot now.
Learning curve
Since USAID’s dismantling in January, 396 education programs across 58 countries have been canceled. The U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is also set to “deprioritize education,” triggering even deeper cuts.
UNICEF, facing a 20% income drop, has already scaled back programs in Bangladesh, affecting 230,000 Rohingya refugee children. Giulia McPherson of the Global Campaign for Education warns, “Not only is there no alternative to U.S. funding … but the U.S. departure has left a gap in leadership that few can fill.”
While countries such as Ireland and Japan have upped their support, Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly of the International Parliamentary Network for Education says those efforts are tiny amounts compared to what has been lost. An EU spokesperson was blunt: “The EU cannot fill this gap left by others.”
Philanthropies are trying: the Gates Foundation just pledged $240 million over four years, and the Prevail Fund aims to raise $1 billion. But some in the sector are calling for a full rethink, sources tell Devex contributor Gabriella Jóźwiak.
“The way of financing aid, development, and humanitarian support is going to change,” says Nasser Al-Faqih of Education Cannot Wait. “It’s a call for reform.”
Al-Faqih says education must stop framing itself as a charity case. “It's not charity, it's part of what they do for their future peace of mind and stability and economic prosperity.” He’s pushing for investment models like debt-for-education swaps.
“We will continue to make the case to our policymakers here in the U.S.,” McPherson adds, “as to why investing in education is key to our own national security and the stability of our nation.”
Read: As education funding crumbles, the sector must ‘get its house in order’
Power cut
Africa’s biggest electrification push in decades is moving forward — but nuclear energy isn’t coming along for the ride. That’s the message from Kevin Kariuki of the African Development Bank, who tells Devex, “I cannot be an evangelist of nuclear in Africa, because I know it's not practicable. At least not with the level of technology that we have today.”
Mission 300, launched with the World Bank, aims to connect 300 million more people in Africa to electricity by 2030, writes my colleague Ayenat Mersie. So far, 12 countries have detailed their national energy compacts, with 20 more set to reveal theirs by September. The plan involves building “compact delivery and monitoring units” at top government levels to ensure follow-through.
AfDB’s approach focuses on an “optimal generation mix” across gas, hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal — but excludes coal and nuclear.
Even if nuclear were allowed under AfDB policy — it’s not — few countries could realistically handle it. Most African power systems are too small to absorb even small reactors. Plus, cost overruns make nuclear risky. “For poor countries, the opportunity cost of losing that is very huge,” Kariuki says.
Momentum for Mission 300 is growing, with high-level support from countries such as Norway, Germany, and France. The next wave of compacts will be unveiled at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Read: Top AfDB official rules out nuclear in the mission to electrify Africa
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In other news
Hundreds of U.K. Foreign Office staff who expressed disagreement with their government’s approach to Israel’s conduct in Gaza were told by senior members to consider resignation. [BBC]
The Israeli government is planning to deport climate activist Greta Thunberg and her companions after their charity boat bound for Gaza was intercepted. [New York Times]
The World Bank has greenlit $1.5 billion in loans to support infrastructure development in South Africa. [Bloomberg]
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About the author
Helen Murphy
Helen is an award-winning journalist and Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development in the Americas. Based in Colombia, she previously covered war, politics, financial markets, and general news for Reuters, where she headed the bureau, and for Bloomberg in Colombia and Argentina, where she witnessed the financial meltdown. She started her career in London as a reporter for Euromoney Publications before moving to Hong Kong to work for a daily newspaper.
