ICM Announces 2024 Impact Awards Winners

Nancy Pfund, Mark Berryman, and Adrianna Alterman Recognized by Peers

December 19, 2023, New York, NY - This week, the Impact Capital Managers membership association announced the three winners of the second annual Impact Awards. The Awards were launched in 2022 as a way to recognize distinction and excellence in market-rate private capital impact investing, celebrating professional achievements that exemplify the network’s mission - the realization of superior investor returns and meaningful impact - in addition to significant field-building contributions promoting growth with integrity and authenticity in the industry. In 2023 the Awards were given to David Kirkpatrick of SJF Ventures; Roy Swan of Ford Foundation; and Cassidy Leventhal of Achieve Partners. This year’s winners will be recognized at a formal dinner on February 1st, 2024 in New York City.

The 2024 Impact Award goes to Nancy Pfund, founding partner at DBL Partners. Nancy’s leadership and early success at DBL have paved the way for the rapid growth in market-rate impact investing. As a founding board member of ICM, she has helped the network establish strong yet realistic standards for impact measurement and management, and supported the advancement of traditionally underrepresented talent in the field by hosting several Mosaic Fellows. Nancy has also been an effective advocate for policy and regulatory frameworks to encourage capital formation for credible impact funds and to promote an enabling environment for climate and sustainability focused companies. She is the first Forbes 50 over 50 who is an impact investor. ICM Executive Director Marieke Spence noted: “Nancy is a flag-bearer for bringing market-rate private capital impact, mainstream. The climate investors of today stand on her shoulders.” DBL recently closed its 4th fund – a $600 million climate tech–focused strategy.

The 2024 LP Leader Award goes to Mark Berryman, Managing Director at Caprock, a multifamily office with over $8B under advisement. At Caprock, Mark has moved capital to over 100 impact funds (including close to 30 ICM members). Just as importantly, he has encouraged others to follow his successful example. Mark was an incubator of ICM’s new LP Advisory Council and as inaugural chair of that group, has skillfully brought others around the table to tackle substantive projects that will push the field forward - including standards on impact reporting and more transparency around the fundraising process. Mark has been an effective advocate for market-rate impact investing at conferences and widely valued for his thought leadership contributions. This year. he added educator to his toolkit, becoming Adjunct Professor of Impact Investing at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. In the words of one ICM member who nominated Mark: “From a GP’s perspective, he is the best kind of LP. Engaged and curious, committed, empathetic, and the best kind of cheerleader. Mark sets the impact bar exceptionally high, pushing us to be clear about impact measurement and reporting.”

The 2024 Emerging Leader Award goes to Adrianna Alterman, Director at Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund. Adrianna has shown both achievement and extraordinary potential as a rising leader in the impact investing field. A founding co-chair of ICM’s Emerging Leaders Affinity Group, she has generated valuable content and programming for that growing cohort and is a driving force behind a new Career Leveling Guide & Roadmap to be published next year as a free public resource. Adrianna brings a variety of important perspectives to her work as an investor: she was previously a Senior Associate at Amplify Capital, an early-stage impact VC fund, and was on the impact investing team at MaRS, Canada’s largest entrepreneurship center. She started her career in politics at an economic think tank, in the US Senate, and with President Obama’s campaign. In the words of one nominator: “Adrianna has been a phenomenal leader for the emerging investor cohort. She does a lot of work behind the scenes to organize conversations, make connections, and execute on important work that is valuable to the next generation of leaders.”

There is no geographic focus for the ICM Impact Awards. For GPs and Emerging Leaders, individuals at all ICM member funds are eligible. Self-nomination is allowed. Nominations are anonymous; the staff and Board of ICM conduct diligence on prospective winners and choose recipients from the nominee pool. For inquiries, please contact Marieke Spence at mspence@impactcapitalmanagers.com.