A 7-Step Framework for Impact Private Credit with Drake Hicks of Variant Investments

Drake Hicks, Vice President and Head of Impact at Variant Investments, joins host Georges Dyer for a grounded, practitioner-level conversation on how private credit can be structured to deliver measurable social and environmental outcomes without sacrificing market-rate returns. Before joining Variant — an alternative credit manager with nearly $3 billion in AUM specializing in uncorrelated, income-generating assets across niche private markets — Drake built the impact investing mandate at the JPB Foundation (now Freedom Together Foundation), a $5 billion private foundation, and served as Head of ESG at Base Ten Partners, one of the largest Black-led venture capital firms. For institutional investors, this conversation offers a rare inside look at how impact discipline is operationalized at the deal level — not just articulated at the strategy level. Variant's impact fund deploys capital across 27 countries and nine thematic areas aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and this episode examines the frameworks, governance structures, and measurement tools that make that work rigorous and replicable.   Topics covered in this episode: - Private credit as a non-extractive capital structure, and why it suits certain impact applications better than equity - Variant's seven-step impact underwriting framework: from exclusion screens to IRIS+ reporting - Using loan covenants to embed decarbonization milestones and EV adoption targets directly into deal structure - Deal-level case studies: SME lending in Kenya and lease-to-own vehicle financing in emerging markets - Building an impact carve-out portfolio at a major private foundation — governance, pilots, and board alignment - Measuring impact across heterogeneous themes and geographies: SDGs, IRIS+, and 60 Decibels - The maturation of impact private credit as an institutional asset class - What investment committees get wrong — and what it actually takes to start Essential listening for CIOs, endowment and foundation investment staff, private credit investors, and capital allocators working at the intersection of private markets and intentional capital. Resources Mentioned: ImpactAlpha - https://impactalpha.com/ General Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction — Drake Hicks and Variant Investments 04:15 What Is Impact Private Credit? Asset Class Fundamentals 09:30 Variant's Seven-Step Impact Underwriting Framework 18:45 Deal Examples: Kenya SME Lending and Lease-to-Own EV Financing 27:00 Lessons from Building an Impact Portfolio at a Private Foundation 36:20 Measuring Impact Across Themes and Markets: SDGs, IRIS+, and 60 Decibels 43:10 The Maturation of Impact Private Credit as an Asset Class 48:30 What Institutional Investors Should Do Now 52:15 Vision for the Future of Finance -- The Future of Finance podcast is produced by the Intentional Endowments Network, serving institutional investors working to align capital with long-term financial and systemic goals. -- The Future of Finance podcast is produced by the Intentional Endowments Network, serving institutional investors working to align capital with long-term financial and systemic goals.   *Disclaimer* Before investing, it’s important to understand the risks of the Variant Impact Fund. The Variant Impact Fund is a continuously offered, nondiversified, registered closed-end fund with limited liquidity. The Fund seeks to provide a high level of current income, with capital appreciation as a secondary objective, while also pursuing positive social and environmental impact. There is no guarantee these objectives will be achieved. An investment in the Fund is speculative and involves substantial risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. Fund shares are illiquid, and investors should not expect to sell shares at will. Although the Fund offers a share repurchase program, repurchases are limited and may not fully meet investor requests. The Fund invests in private and other illiquid securities and may use leverage or derivatives, which can increase volatility and magnify losses. Before investing, carefully review the prospectus, available at www.variantinvestments.com. The Fund is distributed by Distribution Services, LLC, an unaffiliated distributor.