Newsletter

Financial Innovations Labs Newsletter: 2025 Recap and 2026 Updates

9 Feb 2026

Topics

In This Newsletter

Financial Innovations Labs Updates
Continuing Lab Outcomes
2025 Events and Convenings Highlights
Recent Publications
Upcoming Events

Financial Innovations Labs Updates

Current projects underway:

Financing the Future of Cancer Care: Investing in Prevention, Early Detection, and Diagnosis—The Financial Innovations Lab (FIL) and Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration teams, in partnership with the American Cancer Society and its investment arm, BrightEdge, convened a roundtable of 47 cross-sector leaders—including representatives from finance, biotech, clinical practice, health systems, philanthropy, and patient advocacy, and private employers—to explore financial models that address the critical market failures and mobilize capital toward cancer prevention and early detection.
New Models for Financing Community Violence Interventions at Scale—Community violence interventions (CVI) programs and organizations often struggle to secure the capital needed to operate long-term and expand as they are reliant on grant funding from the government and philanthropy. Our FIL and Strategic Philanthropy Environmental and Social Innovation teams, in partnership with Fund for a Safer Future, hosted a roundtable workshop with about 40 participants at our DC office in July to further design a few financing recommendations—credit enhancements, a thematic impact fund, and pay-for-performance models that have the potential to create more sustainable and scalable funding streams for CVI.
Unlocking Private Investment for Preventative Healthcare in the UK—The Milken Institute’s Project Prevent, a cross-pillar collaboration among the Milken Institute Health, Europe, and Finance teams, designed innovative financing models—including blended finance funds, business relief funds, and social impact bonds—to address funding and financing gaps in preventative health care and improve health outcomes across the UK. In January, the Institute convened its Advisory Council on Preventative Health, bringing together leaders from health, policy, and finance to refine these models and identify priority areas for investment. The roundtable focused on advancing scalable, sustainable financing solutions for community-based prevention initiatives across the UK.
Innovative Financing Models for Resilient Communities—The FIL and the Pathways to Capital teams are partnering with Marsh McLennan to address the market failures in financing community-level resilience. As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, public funding sources are decreasing and are unable to keep pace with the scale of damage. At the same time, insurance markets are retreating, resulting in longer rebuilding and recovery timelines that can render entire neighborhoods unlivable. Participants will examine emerging funding models and best practices to codesign solutions, map implementation pathways, and drive private-sector investment in resilient communities. The Lab focuses specifically on funding and financing community-level infrastructure and will use the region as a case study to develop scalable solutions transferable elsewhere. Recognizing the devastation and ongoing on-the-ground recovery efforts in Los Angeles one year after the fires, the Lab, held in late January, will focus on medium- and long-term solutions.
Innovative Approaches to Catalyze Funding and Financing for Basic Science in Cancer Research—FIL and Milken Institute Health’s FasterCures teams are partnering with Cancer Research UK and its global cancer research initiative, Cancer Grand Challenges, to strengthen funding and financing for high-risk, high-reward discovery science. Through this Lab, we are identifying long-standing funding gaps that have widened amid recent uncertainty in federal research funding. By convening asset owners, financial institutions, philanthropists, scientific leaders, and policy experts, the Lab is exploring ways for public, private, and philanthropic investors to share risk, align incentives, and build collaborative funding platforms. Our goal is to mobilize more—and better—capital to support the foundational science that drives advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Continuing Lab Outcomes

A Collaborative Network to Advance Women’s Health—In May, the Milken Institute launched the Women’s Health Network, a global community of leaders dedicated to accelerating research, innovation, and investment in women’s health. On November 4, the Steering Committee and more than 100 members convened in Washington, DC, for the inaugural meeting—a dynamic day of insights, connection, and collective action. The team is now expanding the Network’s resource and engagement platform while advancing new funding initiatives. Members are actively participating in working groups focused on coverage and reimbursement, access to cancer care, and catalyzing capital for the field.

2025 Events and Convenings Highlights

February 11–12: The FIL team gathered in New York City for a 2025 strategy and team-building retreat.

February 19: Director Kanika Singh participated in a precursor to the Mines and Money Miami 2025 Conference, hosted by P2P Strategies and their Global Supply Chain Task Force, to discuss increasing access to and securing critical mineral supply chains while meeting surging energy demand amid heightened geopolitical tensions.
February 23–26: At BMO’s Global Metals, Mining, and Critical Mineral Conference in Hollywood, FL, Singh co-moderated an invite-only session with C-suite mining companies on “Unlocking Critical Minerals Investment.”

March 5–6: At Milken’s Future of Finance Forum in Washington, DC, Singh moderated an invite-only session, “A Critical Conversation: Innovative Financing Empowering Communities in Onshoring Minerals Supply Chains,” which focused on ensuring host communities share in the economic upside of projects, supporting best practices, and securing the social license to operate. Managing Director Caitlin MacLean moderated, “Sovereign Wealth Funds: Lessons for the US.”

Ashley at Critical Minerals Conference (March 2025)

March 20–21: Associate Director Ashley Campany served as a panelist at the Critical Minerals and Energy Investment North America Conference in NYC, presenting financing and funding models.
March 31: MacLean and Campany met with Chair of the Women’s Health Network Dr. Jill Biden in Washington, DC, to discuss the Network’s strategy and implementation.
April 24: MacLean participated as a panelist on “Integrating Climate Change into Business Strategy” at the BMO Climate Solutions Conference in San Francisco
May 4–7: At the Milken Institute’s Global Conference, the FIL team contributed to the following sessions:

May 4–7: During the Global Conference, Singh spoke with Worth Media, The Hill, and Amazon’s futurist team about innovative financing, ongoing FIL initiatives, and potential future work in climate finance and sustainability.
May 8: Campany attended "The Health of Women Investor Summit" at the New York Stock Exchange, featuring a fireside chat between Esther Krofah and Dr. Jill Biden.
May 12: Théo Cohan attended the Obama Foundation's invite-only special community roundtable at Snapchat HQ in Santa Monica. The discussion featured a Q&A with Ben Rhodes and Evan Spiegel, followed by impact stories from Obama Leaders USA alumni, and a workshop on how Hope to Action Values can strengthen and reimagine the skills needed to build trust and advance change.
May 13: Campany attended “Funding the Future of Women's Health," discussing strategic areas where philanthropy and high-net-worth individual funding are valuable for women’s health.
June 24–25: Former Senior Associate Ivy Hsu attended the Rebuilding with Resilience in LA conference hosted by The Resilient Company, where leaders explored aligning insurance and lending with resilient construction and addressing the disproportionate impacts on underserved populations to rebuild communities impacted by the LA fires.
June 25–27: At the Women’s Health and Menstrual Health Funders Forum at the Gates Foundation Europe and Middle East Office in London, UK, MacLean and Campany met with funders and innovators.
July 16: Our FIL and Strategic Philanthropy Environmental and Social Innovation teams, in partnership with the Fund for a Safer Future, convened 40 leaders at our Washington, DC, office to develop financing solutions—credit enhancements, a thematic impact fund, and pay-for-performance models—to help scale and sustain CVI efforts.
August 23: “The Economic Power of Women's Health: Why Investors Can't Ignore It” at the Hamptons Dialogues explored how capital from philanthropy to market-rate investment can address these gaps, drive innovation, and generate both social impact and competitive return.
September 9: Associate Director Yun Fu spoke at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies.
September 24: At Worth Magazine’s Techonomy Impact: Power in Progress Conference, MacLean and FIL Lab partner Marsh McLennan explored how innovative finance and insurance strategies are critical to managing climate risk.
October 8: MacLean spoke on “Private Markets and the New US Sovereign Wealth Fund” at the Future of Asset Management North America event.
October 21: MacLean moderated a roundtable discussion on “Financing Women’s Health: From Gaps to Growth in Mexico and Globally,” gathering innovators and investors with Esther Krofah and Dr. Jill Biden at our Global Investors’ Symposium, Mexico City.
November 4–6: Future of Health in Washington, DC:
- Inaugural Women’s Health Network meeting, featuring discussions that offered valuable insights for addressing the complex and urgent challenges facing the women’s health ecosystem (including translational research, technology, regulation, payment, and catalyzing capital), and the presentations highlighted new and engaging data.
November 10: At the first Global Investors’ Symposium in São Paulo, ahead of COP30, Singh moderated:
- a public panel, “Building the Future: Strategic Leadership in Critical Minerals,” highlighting Brazil’s leadership in sustainable minerals, with policy assistance and embracing innovations, and
- an invite-only session, “Carbon Markets at the Crossroads: Building Value, Integrity, and Scale,” focused on investment and Brazil’s role in the space in elevating the asset class to the next level.
November 12: To further highlight FIL work and recommendations developed with SAGE, MacLean spoke on a panel at the SAGE 2025 National Housing Symposium.
December 4–5: Middle East and Africa Summit in Abu Dhabi
- MacLean moderated “Real Estate in a Repriced World,” examining emerging trends and opportunities driven by evolving workplace patterns and demographic shifts.

Recent Publications

Innovative Financing Models for Resilient Critical Mineral Supply Chains—In September 2025, the FIL team issued the report, which reflects extensive research, more than 100 off-the-record stakeholder interviews, and four invite-only convenings with members of the investor network alongside Milken Institute conferences. The report identifies the main challenges and three financing recommendations that emerged from this work, including the need to finance innovation, ensure host communities share in the economic upside of the projects, deploy public capital more strategically to establish guardrails, and ensure project completion. The report attracted interest from Brazil, supported by the Latin America team’s outreach that publicized the findings. The research also informed the curation of a public panel on critical minerals at the Institute’s first Global Investors’ Symposium in São Paulo, Brazil, in November.
Models for Financing Affordable and LGBTQ+-Affirming Elder Housing at Scale—Published in collaboration with SAGEUSA, this report summarizes key findings on the current landscape of LGBTQ+-friendly elder housing. It presents a menu of recommendations to sustainably finance affordable, inclusive elder housing and services and has been cited in numerous media publications as a path forward for LGBTQ+-affirming housing developers.

Upcoming Events in 2026

January 27: FIL Lab in Santa Monica, CA, on “Innovative Financing Models for Resilient Communities” with 40 stakeholders and investors to workshop solutions. Findings will form upcoming panels and private sessions at the Finance Forum and Global Conference and result in a report.
January 28: MacLean spoke at a SAGE event, “Laying the Foundation: LGBTQ+ Affirming Elder Housing and Services in Baltimore,” discussing models from the FIL report to actively engage local leaders in crafting and launching effective financial strategies.
February 10: “Women’s Health is Our Health: Investing for Impact and Outcomes” roundtable and reception in London, focused on women’s health innovation and investment.
March 3–4: Finance Forum, Washington, DC
April: Funding Basic Science Research for Cancer Financial Innovations Lab
May 3–6: Global Conference, Los Angeles