Gender Search Fund

Criterion's President, Joy Anderson, listened to an interview about "search funds" on NPR’s Marketplace. She thought, “What if we had a “gender search fund”? What if we pooled capital for women of all identities who have been systematically stalled in their professional path but have amazing skills? The search fund could support them to buy companies that they could lead, catapulting them to CEO positions. We could do this (Gender Search Fund) as part of funds that are supporting women's entrepreneurship but rather than them building companies to get ownership, we buy them.”

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Joy then took to LinkedIn to share what seemed like a crazy idea. Turned out, not so crazy and aligned with what many are imagining and implementing. Soon the comment section was filled with suggestions on the idea. You can follow the discussion: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joy-anderson_mba-grads-look-to-search-funds-as-a-shortcut-activity-7178891748343971840-cjLa?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop Criterion is a nonprofit think tank. While we have influenced the development of many funds, we do not manage funds ourselves. Our interest is in how this model can spark imagination for different ways to use finance to create equitable social change.

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We are taking the discussion out of the comment section and convening virtually to bounce around ideas, share insights and imagine the impact that could be created.

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Join us.