In the context of finance, Localization is shifting the point of decision making to the closest point where that decision has implications, i.e. where the investment is taking place. Criterion is identifying the ways in which a localization lens enhances and informs a gender lens to lead to stronger social impact and financial returns.
The incarceration rate of women in the United States is at an all-time high, and most incarcerated women have experienced some form of gender-based violence whether before they were detained
Women historically experience significant challenges to accessing capital and resources in pursuit of starting and maintaining businesses.
In an aptly named recent NY Times article, Is Resilience Overrated?, Jami Attenberg wrote: “I want people to be proud of themselves for being resilient. It is an act of triumph to surpass challenges and traumas.
The COVID-19 health crisis has caused unprecedented impact on global supply chains and capital flows.
This paper argues for the application of a gender lens at the earliest stage of developing better infrastructure projects, both in terms of development outcomes and risk-adjusted returns for investors.
In this issue of Criterion Connections, Tia Subramanian of the Criterion Institute speaks with Jasmine Rashid, Director of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships at Candide Group, about investing for social change
Process metrics are indicators that allow an examination of progress on gender or social equity overall.
In this issue of Criterion Connections, Christina Madden of the Criterion Institute speaks with Tracy Gray, Founder and Managing Partner of The 22 Fund
In this issue of Criterion Connections, Christina Madden of the Criterion Institute speaks with Adrienne Becker, CEO and Co-founder of Level Forward
In this issue of Criterion Connections, Christina Madden of the Criterion Institute speaks with Gerry Hudson, Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union
Civil society plays a crucial role in bridging gaps between systems of finance and social impacts.
Criterion Institute, with the generous support of Dreilinden, has released “Investing with an LGBTQI Lens: Rethinking Gender Analysis Across Investing Fields,”
As COVID-19 has laid bare the inequities that have long plagued our nation’s economy, it is no surprise that women, especially women of color, have disproportionately borne the brunt of these disparities in the current crisis
Entrenched systems of power, including financial systems, tip the scales in ways that perpetuate inequality and deny many the resources they need to thrive.
Finance is one of the most powerful systems on earth. This opportunity brief from UNICEF and Criterion Institute explores how gender-based violence (GBV) in emergencies can be understood as material to investment decision-making.
The Tipping Point Our world has been turned upside down. In a few short months, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the rhythms of our lives and caused vast human suffering – physical, social, economic, spiritual.
By Catherine Poulton, UNICEF, and Tia Subramanian, Criterion Institute Criterion Institute and UNICEF have partnered to create a due diligence tool for investors to identify and mitigate the investment risks gender-based violence poses.
In this podcast episode, SheEO Founder Vicki Saunders sits down with Joy Anderson to talk about what’s broken with the current VC funding model,
“I love your materials!” That is a direct quote from Marlene Kroeker on a call with Criterion Institute via Zoom last week.
Like many small urban churches, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey, punches way above its weight.
Why make small loans then, when it is so much more satisfying and often easier to give outright and to serve directly? Why get involved with businesses at all?
Solomon Community Temple United Methodist Church is a small black congregation that sits amid Milwaukee’s north side
On December 31st, when you’re with family and friends, reflecting on your new year’s resolution for this coming decade, I invite you to join with Criterion Institute and name that our collective resolution is to direct every ounce of our power to be a positive force against systemic injustice.
In September 2018 the Criterion Institute, supported by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Pacific RISE, facilitated a four-day workshop in Melbourne, Australia.
Swapping stories is how we make friends. It is also how we learn from one another and build community.
Interest is swelling in gender lens investing across the globe. With this swell is an increased use of gender-related terms and concepts.
The Union Church in Waban, Massachusetts, extended its first 1K Churches loan in October, 2017 to Sandra Okiror-Njoroge, owner of Wham’s Café in Lowell, MA.
Gender lens investing is the incorporation of a gender analysis into the systems of investing to make better decisions.
Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Naples, FL conducted its first 1K micro-lending retreat in April, 2018. The retreat lasted 7 hours on a Saturday at the church.
On April 21st of 2018, Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Naples, Florida hosted a full day 1K Micro-lending retreat.
Most 1K Churches choose the simplest, most direct pathway for their loan to a small business.
Wharton Social Impact Initiative and Suzanne Biegel presented a generous group of investors, philanthropists, advisors and analysts from all sectors and asset classes.
Now is a critical moment to shape the terms of capital in Southeast Asia. More than ever, investments are being made in Southeast Asia by actors in and outside the region.
Conversations about the intersection of finance and gender are gaining traction and generating exciting momentum for the field of gender lens investing.
Recently, Cornerstone Capital’s Head of Impact Strategy, Katherine Pease, sat down for an in-depth discussion with two leading figures in the field of gender-focused investment and philanthropy
In October 2017, after nearly two years of study, prayer and planning, the Union Church in Waban, Massachusetts, officially became a 1K Church when they extended a $2,500 loan at 1% interest to Sandra Okiror-Njoroge
In September, we will be heading to Philanthropy Australia's National Conference which is focusing on the theme "Purpose: Is it enough?"
To help structure the use of a Gender Lens in investing, we identified three distinct, but interconnected, Gender Lenses that are particularly relevant to the investing community.
This is a refrain we hear constantly when we talk to people in finance about gender. Discussing whether or not something is “material” is a short-handed insult meant to dismiss and undermine.
Jakarta, Indonesia, 2 February 2018 – Over 70 investors, business and finance leaders, and gender experts from Southeast Asia came together at the Australian Embassy for two days
Criterion President and Founder Joy Anderson broke down the TOOLKIT boxes, demystifying financial markets while empowering this group of mostly younger women
When I was called to Amazing Grace 8 years ago, I had no idea how idea how this small urban congregation would be used by God to do such big things
USAID's Patty Alleman, and our very own Joy Anderson co-authored a serious of blogs documenting their travels in Asia as they sought to map the landscape
Challenges Canada Webinar on Gender Equality
In promoting women’s economic empowerment, the Investing in Women (IW) Initiative seeks to redress the socio-cultural barriers to women’s full economic participation
Criterion Institute’s Joy Anderson, Pacific RISE impact investing lead
Pacific RISE will use gender lens investing to incorporate gender into financial analysis
Resilience and Climate Change in the Pacific
Understanding Gender and Finance in the Pacific
Notable articles
Criterion Institute is making a long-term commitment to demonstrating possibilities for using finance as a tool to affect social change around gender-based violence.
Women’s experience and perspectives as land inheritors have been not fully understood in agricultural financing.
This article by Criterion founder Joy Anderson shares some early lessons learned from developing an investment thesis for the Pacific
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For five years from 2007 to 2012, Criterion, with Good Capital and the Access Project, examined the root causes of medical debt and designing an innovative approach to leverage financial systems to alleviate the burden.
Improving urban hospital systems’ access to rural women and children open up a significant market that allow for improvements in maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH).
Whether you are part of a foundation working to end domestic poverty, a women’s rights organization promoting gender equality in government policy, a not for profit building sustainable housing in Asia
Day to day, we are asked to construct our expertise and determine which expertise to trust. She knows your business can work because she’s got an MBA; he lived in Mali with a tribe and therefore can evaluate programs in the developing world.
Inspired by a meeting in London with Criterion's Joy Anderson and other leaders engaged with systems change, Linda Scott, the DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Saïd Business School at Oxford
In 2015, Joy Anderson and Suzanne Biegel documented possibilities for upgrading your due diligence with a gender lens.
In May of 2012, Root Capital and the Calvert Foundation joined a panel moderated by Jackie VanderBrug to discuss their experiences of incorporating a gender lens. Each organization now has a very clear initiative tied to mainstreaming gender lens investing considerations into their broader missions. We invite you to listen to this panel and comment if you like!
We launched the Leaders Shaping Markets initiative in 2012 and began by identifying the initial set of Community of Practice members. This group came together in Berkeley in May of 2012.
In March of 2012, the Calvert Foundation launched its first gender lens investing offerring through the Women Investing in Women Initiative (WIN-WIN).
Joy Anderson spent time with Angela Giacchetti, Associate at the Pipeline Fellowship, for an interview about gender lens investing as part of Pipeline's "Ask our Network" series.
We have compiled great articles from 2012 to help your understanding of gender lens investing.
London Dialogue Attendee Bios
The beauty of Convergence is its format. Convergence is not like other conferences. There are no speakers, no panels - just conversations designed carefully around the people who attend.
Criterion Institute and it's President & Founder, Joy Anderson, were asked to join other social change leaders at the Clinton Global Initiative America conference June 7th and 8th, 2012 in Chicago
A feminist financial imagination is a solutions-oriented mindset that facilitates the formation of new ideas, visioning of alternate futures...
See CampaignCriterion is developing a translation function within the system of finance to close the capacity gap that currently exists exists between gender and finance...
See CampaignRoadmaps are intended to outline pathways to action that represent the breadth of possibilities for financing the reduction of gender-based violence...
See CampaignIf we imagine a future where all children can flourish, how do we understand which investments might influence how that future is realized?
See CampaignProcess standards for investing aims to acknowledge, analyze, and address unequal dynamics of power in gender lens investing, impact investing, and innovative finance...
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The Blueprints demonstrate how a variety of social change organizations can design strategies that use systems of finance as tools to create positive social change.
These roadmaps lay out insights for how finance can be used to address gender-based violence in a range of sectors, asset classes, geographies, and investor types.
The TOOLKIT is designed to support your journey as you explore how finance can be used as a tool to create social change.
1K Churches was launched in 2012 to galvanize a movement in the faith-based community and engage US churches to invest in the local economy.
These gender-based violence due diligence tools analyze existing due diligence categories – including political, regulatory, operational, and reputational risks – and show how they can be affected by gender-based violence.
Gender-based violence is ubiquitous. More than 1 in 3 women worldwide experiences physical or sexual violence, and millions of men, boys, and gender-diverse individuals are affected by physical, sexual, and emotional abuse daily.
Our work depends on an ever-expanding community of team members, advisors, donors, and other partners who help us demonstrate our theory of change and ultimately achieve our mission. Learn more about how you can become more engaged in our work.
Invitations to Engage