Gender Lens Investing & Engaging Women as Investors
March is Women’s History Month, an excellent opportunity to reflect on women as impact investors and efforts to improve the life and livelihoods of women and girls through gender lens investing opportunities.
Members of Mission Investors Exchange and others are actively creating and seeding impact investments, and investing in efforts to support the well-being of women and girls.
Members of Mission Investors Exchange and others are actively creating and seeding impact investments, and investing in efforts to support the well-being of women and girls.
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Calvert Foundation, a well-established investor in the space, just shared results of their investor survey to mark the five-year milestone of its Women Investing in Women Initiative. CEO Jennifer Pryce and Senior Investments Officer Najada Kumbull tested a number of hypothesis about investor behavior and shared some of feedback in their blog, Do women invest differently?
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Over the years, MIE members including Arabella Advisors, Bader Family Foundation, Cornerstone Capital, David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Omidyar Network, Zevin Asset Management, and many others, have dedicated their resources and thought leadership to issues that impact women and girls.
In another field and pipeline-building effort, InFaith Community Foundation and Veris Wealth Partners, in coordination with new MIE member Sonen Capital, have created a new gender lens investment opportunity. The WomenInvest Portfolio expands donors’ options and moves beyond the traditional approach of investing in companies that support women’s workplace advancement. This fund also seeks to address the root causes of violence against women by investing in opportunities to improve women’s lives through economic opportunity, access to education, and avenues to create gender equality. InFaith is seeding WomenInvest with an initial investment of $10 million and invites others who are utilizing the power of their investments to catalyze gender equality to explore this and similar opportunities.
Finally, a follow-up to the Engaging Women as Impact Investors project first reported in the November 2016 issue of the MIE newsletter. The MIE partnership with Phillip Fisher of Mission Throttle, Ellen Remmer of The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), and two dozen other global advocates and field builders, has released the TPI report from its Boston convening, “Women Leading the Way in Impact Investing: A Call to Action.” The report indicates that while there is an overwhelming amount of interest in impact investing among women, few women have yet to act with their portfolios. The report shares cause for optimism, however, that more women can be engaged and ultimately commit to impact investing with additional awareness, inspiration, support, and tools.
Members agree: no matter what your gender or portfolio size, this is the time to engage in impact investing. Mission Investors Exchange looks forward to continuing our work together with you to align more assets to mission and have a greater impact on the social and environmental challenges before us.
Finally, a follow-up to the Engaging Women as Impact Investors project first reported in the November 2016 issue of the MIE newsletter. The MIE partnership with Phillip Fisher of Mission Throttle, Ellen Remmer of The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), and two dozen other global advocates and field builders, has released the TPI report from its Boston convening, “Women Leading the Way in Impact Investing: A Call to Action.” The report indicates that while there is an overwhelming amount of interest in impact investing among women, few women have yet to act with their portfolios. The report shares cause for optimism, however, that more women can be engaged and ultimately commit to impact investing with additional awareness, inspiration, support, and tools.
Members agree: no matter what your gender or portfolio size, this is the time to engage in impact investing. Mission Investors Exchange looks forward to continuing our work together with you to align more assets to mission and have a greater impact on the social and environmental challenges before us.
