Impact Minds 2025 felt less like a conference and more like an operating system upgrade for collaboration.

We left convinced that there is a large interest in Latin America’s impact ecosystem. The event succeeded at something rare: bringing the full spectrum of capital and capabilities into one well-organised, highly functional space. Philanthropy sat next to impact-first, who sat next to finance-first, who mingled with consultants, networks, technical-assistance providers, and social enterprises.

We attended representing Global Partnerships, an impact-first investor with a mission to expand opportunity for people living in poverty. Our goal was to identify strong partners, and the format made it easy to do so. The event’s app did the quiet, essential work of connective tissue: rich profiles, tags by theme, and simple scheduling. That design choice mattered. It allowed us to stack purposeful meetings, quickly test alignment, and say ‘let’s keep talking’ (or ‘let’s not’) without the awkward drift that often consumes conference hours. Some conversations at Impact Minds 2025 were exploratory and others immediately actionable, but the density and transparency helped us learn and move faster.

Impact Minds 2025 also made it easy to explain where Global Partnerships sits on the capital continuum: disciplined, impact-first lending that’s flexible enough to meet realities on the ground. Over our 30 years, we’ve learned that capital investment designed first and foremost to achieve impact for people living in poverty can help bridge the gap between traditional capital markets, philanthropy, and the public sector.

We heard fewer debates about who is ‘pure’ impact and more curiosity about how different instruments can advance the same goals at different stages. For Global Partnerships, it meant we could position debt not as a secondary option to grants or equity, but as a catalytic, repeatable tool, especially for organisations with proven cash flows, growing demand, and underserved customers. We found common ground with foundations experimenting with outcomes-based approaches, equity funds looking to deploy capital for disruptive models, and networks seeking scalable financing pathways for social enterprises.

Read the full article about Impact Minds 2025 by Aziz Baladi and Marcela Falquez at Alliance Magazine.