Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · 18d

In a nutshell: Addressing societal issues is increasingly about strategic capital allocation, but the challenge is not only to mobilize more money but also to better coordinate the capital we already have.

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · 18d

My latest in the @ssir.org, basically an executive summary of our white paper titled "Financial Backbones: Capital Orchestration for Systems Transformation".

ssir.org/articles/ent...

Financial Backbones for Strategic Capital Orchestration (SSIR)

A new kind of infrastructure for collective impact initiatives.

ssir.org

1 2 3

Reposted by Dominic Hofstetter

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Oct 29

In recognition of us doing fuck all to reduce emissions, let me remind y'all that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is useless unless we decarbonize drastically.

rdcu.be/dbFbB

Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution — we need to change the narrative

Drastically reduce emissions first, or carbon dioxide removal will be next to useless.

www.nature.com

110 970 3.6K

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · 24d

A sobering article by @dwallacewells.bsky.social, arguing that the spirit of Paris has dissipated and that global climate politics has drifted into a slumbering, complacent mood underpinned by voters wanting climate action in theory but not when it costs much.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/m...

It Isn’t Just the U.S. The Whole World Has Soured on Climate Politics.

www.nytimes.com

2 4

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Jun 10

The practical workstream is focused on the design and establishment of a capital orchestrator in the real world, specifically in the American Midwest, with a focus on catalyzing regenerative agricultural transitions. Check out the official announcement: transformation.capital/places/finan...

Financial innovation for regenerative agriculture: we announce the Design Council – TransCap Initiative

Twenty leading investors, funders and farming organizations join forces to design innovative financial infrastructure for regenerative agriculture in the Midwest

transformation.capital

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Jun 10

One workstream has consisted of a multi-stakeholder inquiry into why capital orchestration isn't routinely done as part of collective impact initiatives and how financial backbones could close that gap. We'll be publishing a report on this soon (for a teaser: shorturl.at/OKYUf).

New report on capital orchestration and financial backbones | Dominic Hofstetter posted on the topic | LinkedIn

I just finished lead-authoring the manuscript of a report that represents the most profound piece of conceptual work I've done since writing the "Transformation Capital" white paper in 2...

shorturl.at

1 1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Jun 10

Over the past 12 months, @transcap.bsky.social has been deeply involved in trying to understand what it means to orchestrate financial capital for systemic change. 1/n

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Apr 1

I’ve written a piece on the importance of impact investors working in context, published this week in SSIR. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Stanford Social Innovation Review @ssir.org · Apr 1

"Our experience has led us to question whether solutions aimed towards universal scaling run the risk of overstating impact or overlooking more impactful, context-specific approaches."

New must-read piece for impact investors and their partners from @hofstetter.bsky.social

The Limitations of Investing in Universal Solutions (SSIR)

Systemic investing requires embedding investments in their context.

ssir.org

2 5

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Mar 24

In response to the story broken by @theatlantic.com , let’s all reread this gem: www.theguardian.com/news/oliver-...

Everyone is totally just winging it, all the time

Oliver Burkeman: Every time a public figure behaves with less-than-stellar competence, we're incredulous. We probably shouldn't be

www.theguardian.com

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 26

In today’s Bloomberg newsletter: BP announces a divestment from renewables and an increase in oil & gas capex, and Mercedes reverses a previous decision not to develop new combustion engines by developing a new V8 combustion engine.

We’re backsliding.

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 25

There’s something to be said about making transportation cool, which this kind of metro train does.

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Feb 25

**RESPECT POST**

RESPECT RECIPIENT: the front seat of the Copenhagen metro
RESPECT REASON: pretend to be driver
RESPECT QUANTITY: 13 respects
RESPECTED AT: 2025-02-25 07:11 UTC

1 1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

We'll make formal announcements and publish results and outputs from all this work in the coming weeks. So stay tuned!

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

7) We've finalized the manuscript of a practice guide to systemic investing.

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

6) We've made significant progress in our innovation partnership with Mútua on the use of AI/LLMs in systems analysis.

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

5) We've progressed our systemic investing prototype around the transformation of the Swiss Food System. As part of that, we've significantly advanced our understanding of how to quantify "system financing needs".

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

4) We've run 8 workshops with 23 members of a practice community on strategic capital facilitation (foundations, asset owners, investment managers, system innovators) to define and design "financial backbones".

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

3) Under the leadership of Jess Daggers, and with the generous support of @mitsloansusty.bsky.social, we've completed an initial inquiry into what a systemic approach to impact measurement and management (sIMM) could look like.

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

2) We've started a new prototype around systemic investing for urban transformation, partnering with @cpi-foundation.bsky.social and a major capital city in Europe.

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

1) In partnership with TWIST, we've been busy organizing the second Systemic Investing Summit, happening in London (UK) from 10-12 March 2025 with more than 160 participants.

1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 21

We've been busy at @transcap.bsky.social! Time to catch you up on some of what's happened in the past few months:

1 1

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Feb 5

Observation from the past 6 months of fundraising for the TransCap Initiative: most foundations want to fund the doing, few want to fund the thinking.

I have sympathy for that position. After all, we need to act with urgency. But what if the action is based on the wrong thinking?

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Nov 28

My colleague Jess Daggers wrote an insightful departure blog to an inquiry into the conceptualization and measurement of impact in the context of impact investing and systemic investing.

TL/DR: There's a problem.

medium.com/transformati...

Systemic investing, impact measurement, and evaluation

What might it mean to measure impact when working in complexity? And what can we learn from the evaluation domain?

medium.com

2 3

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Nov 22

If you're interested in questions of funding systems change (in the context of our sustainability challenges), check out this paper by Penna et al., which is making a great contribution to the literature.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Transformative investment: New rules for investing in sustainability transitions

Closing the financial gap for promoting systemic socio-economic transformations to achieve sustainability requires both a substantial increase in inve…

www.sciencedirect.com

1 2

Dominic Hofstetter @hofstetter.bsky.social · Nov 21

I sort of resent the fact that it takes Taylor Swift to increase the priority level for climate change adaptation. But alas, we take any help we can.

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Confronts the Climate Crisis

The pop star’s gig in Brazil over the weekend wasn’t the first to be affected by climate change — and it won’t be the last.

www.bloomberg.com

Reposted by Dominic Hofstetter

David Hall @dvdhll.bsky.social · Nov 19

The New Zealand Government recently consulted on its Emissions Trading Scheme, and also the prospect of a biodiversity credits system.

For anyone interested, here is Toha's submission to both. #greensky #climatesky

Toha Network Biodiversity Credit System Submission

Recently the NZ Government opened public consultation on the development of a biodiversity credit system for Aotearoa New Zealand. You can read the Toha Network Trust's submission here.

substack.toha.network

1 2 9