NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Antidotes to Fascism — Conversations with Jed Emerson (Program 1 of 2)

Context, History, and the Stakes for the Impact Economy

How democratic backsliding, media realignment, and policy “deconstruction” are reshaping the playing field for impact investors and entrepreneurs.

Program overview
The impact community doesn’t operate in a vacuum — it sits inside a rapidly shifting political economy where norms, institutions, and information channels are being rewritten in real time. In this opening Deep Dive of a two-program exploration, inspired by a new series of Substack posts, Jed Emerson traces the road to the present moment and makes a clear case for why “business as usual” in impact finance is no longer sufficient. We’ll examine how governance erosion, ESG/DEI backlash, and the migration of public attention away from legacy media alter risk, narrative, and execution for impact practitioners — and why recognizing an “anti-impact context” is a prerequisite to effective action.

Topics covered

• What changed: from institutional guardrails to politicized markets — a brief historical arc
• Narrative power: the shift from legacy media to newsletters, podcasts, and short-form video
• ESG/DEI backlash and regulatory chill: practical implications for capital formation and deployment
• Why impact’s inside-baseball debates miss the moment — and how to reframe
• Reading the landscape: sources and signals every impact leader should track

About Our Deep Dives

Deep Dives are hour-long Zoom Meetings: Live Q&A Sessions (as opposed to our Zoom Webinars, where the audience is in View-Only Mode) between the author(s) or subjects of related articles and our members. Be sure to read the articles in question and come bearing questions!

Jed Emerson

Jed Emerson is a pioneer of purpose-driven capital with 30+ years in the field. Co-author of the first book on impact investing — and seven others on impact and social entrepreneurship — he founded Blended Value Group, advising investment firms, funds, family offices, and foundations on strategy and execution. In the late 1990s he coined “blended value,” the now-influential idea that social, environmental, and economic value are inseparable; his book The Purpose of Capital explores aligning wealth and purpose across generations. Emerson serves as Senior Strategic Advisor at AlTi Tiedemann Global and Senior Fellow at ImpactAssets; he advises Happiness Capital and sits on the board of the Katapult Foundation. He is a Senior Fellow with the University of Zurich’s Blended Finance Initiative and a Senior Research Fellow at Heidelberg University’s Center on Social Investing, and has held faculty appointments at Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford, with teaching roles at Kellogg and NYU–Abu Dhabi. Earlier, he helped found REDF and Larkin Street Youth Services.

Time: 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM