Since our founding in 2002, we’ve created various tools and resources focused on transforming relationships of power in finance. We connect with social change leaders across different sectors, to bring people together to reframe and demonstrate new ways to shape our financial systems.
Below we’ve highlighted some of these and we will continue to add to this as new resources are created.
We hope you find these useful in your work and encourage you to reach out to share your thoughts at info@criterioninstitute.org.
Featured Resources
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Key Concepts in Gender: A Primer for Investors
Interest is swelling in gender lens investing across the globe. With this swell is an increased use of gender-related terms and concepts. Similar to many fields, the terms we use and the way we use them when we talk about gender is important and meaningful. When terms are misused,...
Reflection: Beyond Borders Forum – Building the Runway for Young Women to Enter the Global Workforce
By Amy Chen Last month, I had the privilege of attending the second annual Beyond Borders Forum, hosted by Women’s Education Project (WEP), in New York City. The Forum focused on two compelling issues: preparing young women for fulfilling careers in the global economy and creating a corporate climate...
Gender Lens Investing Tool: Designing an Action Plan
Gender lens investing is the incorporation of a gender analysis into the systems of investing to make better decisions. A gender analysis is a disciplined approach to understanding how differences in power impact the advantages or oppression people experience based on their gender. An intersectional gender analysis considers how ethnicity, socio-economic status,...
Criterion Connections: Building the Field of Gender Lens Investing with Oxfam America’s Laté Lawson-Lartego
This issue of Criterion Connections, featuring Oxfam America’s Laté Lawson-Lartego, is adapted from a Conversation for Change led by Criterion Institute’s Director of Engagement, Christina Madden, at Opportunity Collaboration. Oxfam America partnered with Criterion on the recently released Blueprint for INGOs on Using Finance for Social Change. The Blueprint provides...
Video: A Spiral Of Change: Understanding The Investment Impact Of Sexual And Gender-Based Violence
From Cornerstone Capital: 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, to discuss the role that investors and finance can play in addressing gender-based violence in companies and society....
Document: Framing Gender Lens Investing
Conversations about the intersection of finance and gender are gaining traction and generating exciting momentum for the field of gender lens investing. However, these conversations can be fraught with fear, including the fear of offending or saying the wrong thing. The language that surrounds gender is powerful. Therefore, how...
Audio: Interviews on Gender Lens Investing and Public Equities
As part of our ongoing sponsored research project into gender lens investing and public equities, we interviewed two of our generous sponsors, GCC and Calvert Foundation. These interviews look beyond public equities to understand how two investment funds far along in their gender lens investing journey have learned to see...
Design Session: Finance as a Tool to Address Gender-Based Violence
In July 2017, we partnered with InFaith Community Foundation and Futures without Violence to bring together a group of over 30 leaders from women’s rights organizations, philanthropy, and finance to think together about strategies to affect gender-based violence. The session was inspired by our partners at InFaith Community Foundation’s recent announcement of a...
2016 Recap: Notable Gender Lens Investing Resources
The resources below, represent a collection of notable resources on gender lens investing published in 2016. Jackie VanderBrug wrote the book, Gender Lens Investing: Uncovering Opportunities for Growth, Returns, and Impact. During the eight years Jackie spent working at Criterion she played a vital role in our gender lens investing program and...
Reflection: Experiencing TOOLKIT
Since 2016, Criterion Institute has been delivering our signature workshop, TOOLKIT for Using Finance for Social Change to audiences throughout the globe. Participants come from a wide variety of backgrounds and sectors, including foundations working to end domestic poverty, women’s rights organization promoting gender equality in government policy, t...
2015 Recap: Notable Gender Lens Investing Resources
The resources below, represent a collection of notable resources on gender lens investing published in 2015. Criterion Institute’s president, Joy Anderson, and Katherine Miles authored the State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing report documenting a comprehensive history of the field and strategies for the road ahead. Here are a...
Report: State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing
Criterion Institute’s President, Joy Anderson, and Katherine Miles authored the State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing report documenting a comprehensive history of the field and strategies for the road ahead. The report, published in October 2015, narrates the history of Gender Lens Investing, offers several strategic road maps for the...
White Paper: How to Upgrade Your Due Diligence with a Gender Lens
In 2015, Joy Anderson and Suzanne Biegel documented possibilities for upgrading your due diligence with a gender lens. Below is an excerpt from this work as well as a link to the white paper they drafted. Definition: The core of gender lens investing is to incorporate gender analysis into...
Reflection: Gender Lens Investing – From Margins to Mainstream
In this article, Stephanie Marton, Associate Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, presents a practical and strategical perspective to approach Gender-Lens Investment. Distinguishing the philanthropic cause of gender equality from pure market opportunities, Stephanie emphasizes that the message of gender-lens investing needs to be reframed in order to attract...
Demonstrating New Possibilities: Alternative Term Sheets as a Game Changer
Recently, social enterprise aficionado, Kerri Murphy, took the time to listen in on a call about a gender lens on alternative term sheets. Kerri works with us on a Gender Lens Investing Ecosystem Analysis project most of the time, but she had an interest in this conversation and took the time...
Gender Lens Investing: Notable Resources from 2012
We have compiled great articles from 2012 to help your understanding of gender lens investing. Goldman Sachs – Power of Purse As women gain more bargaining and consumer power, the way of household spending has been changing. This article goes deep into the changing pattern of household spending spurred...
Audio: A Panel Discussion with Root Capital and Calvert Foundation on Gender Lens Investing
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...
Report: The Landscape of Social Investing in Women
We are at a moment of great growth and innovation in the social capital markets, as we begin to apply investment capital toward solving some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems while also generating financial returns for investors. A critical component of the first phase of...
Framework: Defining a Gender Lens
We treat a Gender Lens as a viewfinder that reveals opportunities for the world of investing. In this new space of Gender Lens Investing, we have already seen proven opportunities to hasten economic development, increase profitability, scale social impact, and cement lasting change. To help structure the use of...
Guide: The Gender Handbook for Investors
So what exactly is Gender Lens Investing? The “Gender Handbook” provides the Who, What, Where, and most importantly, WHY for incorporating a Gender Lens in your investment strategy.