Change demands the cultural work of shifting the imagination: the issue, the problem, and the boundaries of the system.
Our most significant impact over the past 15 years is grounded in a series of reframes. Reframes shift people’s imagination to see possibilities where they saw barriers. Reframes help build bridges by employing empathy to understand how people see the world differently and what lenses can broaden the vision. A reframe is in itself an invitation to engage in a different conversation, but also to see yourself in the conversation in a new way. The work of reframing requires constant adjustments and adaptation as we learn how these reframes shape who sees themselves in the conversation and how.
We have demonstrated reframes in both our gender work and our church work, and we continue this work every day. The State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing report reframed the practices of financial analysis to incorporate gender analysis in order to get to better outcomes and to allow innovators within the field to create a new set of investment opportunities. Healthcare_Uncovered, a venture funded by Rockefeller Foundation to discover the root causes of medical debt and the design of an innovative approach to alleviate the burden, reframed the American healthcare system’s cash market and offered a new vision of healthcare that results in greater access to health-directed purses, increased transaction transparency for patient and provider, and enhanced financial control for individuals and families. You can read more about that project’s outcomes in the Resources section of our site.
We measure our current work against these past successes by continuing to research, write, and amplify thought pieces that articulate reframes for church communities engaging in the economy and for finance as a tool for gender equitable social change.
Our theory of change contains six foundational elements: cultural reframes, invitations to simple action, a base of leaders equipped for this work, design and demonstration of new possibilities, institutional structures to sustain leadership, and amplification of the work.