This refers to anything that has economic value.
Groupings of investments that exhibit some similar characteristics and are generally subject to the same regulations. Examples include equity (i.e., owning a portion of a company), commodities (basic goods, such as agricultural products, that can be transformed into other goods or services), and real estate.
A socially constructed category related to norms and expectations of people with different sex characteristics.
A person's internal understanding and experience of their own gender.
Incorporating a gender analysis into financial analysis in order to get to better outcomes.
The gender binary (male-female) influences what societies and cultures consider “normal” or acceptable. These relate to expectations regarding the behaviors, dress, appearance, and roles of women and men. Gender norms continue to dictate that anyone variant from what is deemed acceptable will experience discrimination and oppression at an individual and systemic level. Gender norms can contribute to power imbalances and gender inequality in the home, workplace, markets, and in society as a whole.
Any act of violence, that causes physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to someone based on their gender. This definition encompasses all forms of violence that women and gender-diverse people experience (including physical, sexual, financial, emotional, and cultural violence). Gender-based violence is a violation of human rights and a life-threatening health and protection issue. It includes acts of violence, sexual harassment, and threats of harm or coercion in public or in private life, including in homes, workplaces, social contexts, on the street, in schools, or online by perpetrators either known or unknown to the victim-survivor.
Investments made with the intention of generating positive social and/or environmental return alongside financial returns.
Coined by the American law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, this term signifies a lens through which to analyze how oppressions along multiple vectors – race, gender, class, sexuality, and more – interact to affect an individual's experience. This approach calls for analyzing oppression through a multitude of social, cultural, biological, and geopolitical factors.
This acronym stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer, and the ‘+' signals inclusion of further identities and experiences not named in the acronym. Certain Global South scholars have argued that the acronym potentially imposes limits on identification not reflective of dynamic identities and experiences.
This term refers to any factor that is deemed relevant in terms of affecting a company’s performance.
People whose gender identity does not conform to a male-female binary.
An investment opportunity refers to a situation in which one can place money into an asset that has a chance to gain value in the future.
The collection of assets owned by an investor or fund, often comprising of multiple asset classes.
In the context of sociology and political science, this is defined as the capacity of an individual to lead, dominate, or otherwise influence the actions, beliefs, or behavior of others.
The chance that an investment's gains will differ from an expected outcome or return. In general, investment risks fall into two broad categories:
This acronym stands for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (the shorter SOGIE is also used). While not as widely popularized as the LGBTIQ+ acronym, some scholars argue that it is more representative of how gender and sexual identities are formed in different global contexts.
The physical characteristics with which a person is born, such as anatomy and chromosomes.
How people experience sexual and romantic attraction, including sexual orientation.
The process of predicting a company or other asset’s future value based on analyzing its current assets, potential for growth, and possible risks.
Social Media Promotional Kit for Convergence XXI
On June 24 2024, Joy Anderson, Founder and President of Criterion Institute, was recognized with the prestigious Joan Bavaria Award alongside Suzanne Biegel and Jackie VanderBrug for their groundbreaking contributions to gender lens investing.
As GBV can proliferate in complex emergencies, it can also exacerbate the risk of humanitarian conflict or crisis, disrupting states’ stability and economies writ large. This then threatens the stability of financial markets and financial forecasting.
Over the past three years, with support from the government of Canada, Criterion has been able to formalize a system of standards of practice.
1k Churches Bible Study Resources
In 2012, Criterion Institute launched the Leaders Shaping Markets initiative to build and support leaders who work on changing the rules of market systems.
In the fall of 2017, the Siebert Lutheran Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, invited Criterion Institute to consider the possibility of focusing its many resources for using finance for social change on a specific place, the greater Milwaukee area, and to do so in collaboration with local Lutheran congregations and leaders and other ecumenical partners.
This Blueprint has been prepared as a guide for Christian faith-based organizations actively seeking to create transformative social change, whatever their specific issue focus or context.
This framework will act as a guide to pre-emptively consider how a proposed program or project might be shaped by, impact upon, or meet the different needs of women, men, and gender diverse people.
In this report, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Criterion Institute have partnered to highlight the critical opportunities that child-lens investors can unlock by embedding a strong nutrition focus within their work.
Coralus' non-traditional approach to selection and allocation demonstrate how power can be shifted within investment approaches. Below, we identify six of these, with an evaluation of how they disrupt traditional power dynamics.
Our mission is to broaden what matters in our economic decisions by expanding who has power and influence in the work of reinventing the economy.
This overview of a recent Criterion report provides guidance about the power dynamics that underlie field-building.
Not every congregation will have the same access to capital, the same financial savvy, or the same investment goals. Congregations will be drawn to a range of mission priorities. We have identified ten areas of social concern that are relevant cultural and social issues, and influenced by economic structures.
Criterion Institute is making a long-term commitment to addressing gender-based violence, directing one third of our resources over the next five years toward re-imagining possibilities for using finance as a tool to effect change on this critical issue.
Since our founding, we have partnered with churches because they inspire a large number of people to imagine greater possibilities.
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.
Building on years of existing work and partnerships, Criterion Institute launched the Power of Policy Program this February of 2020.
This poem was inspired by a wonderful quote used by both Martin Luther King Jr., and President Barack Obama in their speeches: “the arc of the moral universe — of history — is long but it bends toward justice…”
From the beginning, Criterion has played a significant role in establishing the field of gender lens investing. We began with (re)Value Gender, which built key research methodology that bridges gender expertise and finance expertise and creates a space for leaders to practice, build insight, and produce evidence. We looked for examples of bias in investments, where gender patterns were undervalued and, as a result, risks and opportunities missed.
The State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing report was published in October 2015. This groundbreaking piece of research culminated from Criterion’s many years of field building and relationship cultivation through sixteen innovative Convergence gatherings.
The "Gender Lens Investing" champions a holistic approach towards integrating gender equality into financial systems, underpinning the belief that finance can and should be a force for social good.
The purpose of Criterion Institute is to expand who sees themselves as able to use finance as a tool for social change. At the core, we are changing “how” social change happens. As a result, over the past 20 years, Criterion has had a significant focus on our “how.”
In recent years, a variety of financial innovations enabled by Web3 and blockchain technology have emerged as transformative forces, aiming to challenge the status quo and address the systemic inequities ingrained in traditional financial systems.
Criterion Institute, in partnership with UNICEF, created a guide for investors to understand the risk their investments are exposed to as a result of gender-based violence, and to incorporate that risk assessment into their existing due diligence process.
The Values-Aligned approach is primarily for investors in public markets.
The Thematic Strategies approach is for impact investors in private markets who aim to generate positive environmental and social impact while also generating market-rate returns.
The ESG-integrated approach is for investors in public equities and fixed income who are integrating ESG considerations to help identify risks and opportunities that would impact the financial return of the investment.
The Catalytic Strategies approach is for investors in private markets who are willing to apply patient, flexible, risk-tolerant, and appropriately termed capital in pursuit of positive outcomes.
Criterion Institute, in partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, created a guide for investors in the Pacific region to understand the risk their investments are exposed to as a result of gender-based violence, and to incorporate that risk assessment into their existing due diligence process.
Joy Anderson, Dolika Banda, and Hiro Mizuno discuss what it would take to 100X gender-smart investing at the 2021 GenderSmart Investing Summit. Moderated by Laurie Spengler.
Investments in climate mitigation and adaptation continue to increase, but the impact of these investments on children – both positive and negative – is not being systematically considered.
The Blueprint is a document about social change, written for change makers. The focus of the Blueprint is to show how individuals working within grassroots organizations can use finance as a tool in their work
Meet Rev. Philip Waite, a new friend of Criterion Institute, who has a passion for connecting faith and finance to do God’s work in the world. Rev. Waite is pastoral team leader of College Mennonite Church on the campus of Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana.
Now in our third year of interest-free lending to small businesses in greater Austin, University United Methodist’s most valuable “dividend” is our relationships with our neighbors providing the “sweat equity” to start or grow those businesses.
Hope was the first word spoken. Members of the 1K Churches team at Napa Valley Lutheran Church (Napa, California) had been asked to use one word to express what they were feeling now -- four years since they first began with the Bible study.
In God’s economy, members of the human family work together for the common good – producing, growing, building, trading, serving and caring for one another.
Suva, Fiji — How can finance be a tool for social change? Fifteen women’s rights leaders wrestled with this question on a floating restaurant outside of Fiji’s capital city.
Following four years of engagement with Grand Challenges Canada, an initiative funded by the Canadian government, Criterion is excited to share insights and learning in "Implementing Grand Challenges Canada's Gender Strategy.
This re-cap of the gender lens investing field-building event hosted in February by Investing in Women partners was contributed by ANGIN (Angel Investment Network Indonesia).
More than two years ago, The Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) in Ruxton, Maryland, launched its Micro-Lending Program. To date they have made 11 loans totaling $34,750. How did they do it?
Pacific RISE is using an investment thesis to engage with investors and broaden the sense of possibilities about what types of opportunities exist in the Pacific.
The State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing in Asia was published in September 2015. This report is a summary of a year-long collaboration between USAID’s Patty Alleman and Criterion’s Joy Anderson, during which they engaged 200 leaders working on gender lens investing in Asia.
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.
This is a guide for organizations and individuals actively seeking to create gender equitable social change. In particular, it equips women’s funds to design strategies that use systems of finance and investments as tools to create the social change they seek.
This is a season of gifts. A gift is most wonderful when it is wrapped in a moment of grace and new sense of possibility.
Criterion Institute's develops congregational guides and support in an initiative to build a base of congregations and individuals committed to discovering God’s Economy and transforming our own.
Since 2016, Criterion Institute has been delivering our signature workshop, TOOLKIT for Using Finance for Social Change to audiences throughout the globe.
As an intern with Criterion this semester, I’ve gotten the chance to listen to some pretty powerful conversations with some pretty amazing men and women.
“We’d love to have a gender lens, but we’d have nothing to invest in.” I rocked back on my heels, absorbing this statement from the head of the Africa division of a large social investment fund.
One of the most inspiring speakers during the opening session of SOCAP 12, an annual event that brings together investors, philanthropists, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs, was Jackie VanderBrug.
Joy Anderson, President and Founder of Criterion Ventures, spoke to fellows at the Unreasonable Institute in June
Within the Women Effect Investments initiative, we bump up against the same question all the time.
Upon retirement in July 2010, a certain part of my brain became free and clear of the clutter associated with a normal 60-hour week business environment
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.
“Though religion and money aren’t usually what motivates 25 people into an engaging, insightful, and inspiring conversation on a Wednesday night
Gender norms and their associated power dynamics are shaped during childhood through a complex interplay of factors.
While there have been notable positive social impacts from blended finance to date, these initiatives tend to be limited by assumptions of what finance should be and how it historically operates.
Child lens investing is an emerging field that intentionally integrates considerations of child rights and wellbeing into investment processes.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) offers a comprehensive grounding that outlines the rights and entitlements of every child
Criterion Institute will hold an interactive discussion in November 2023 about our work expanding what is possible for using finance as a tool for transformative social change.
A feminist financial imagination is a solutions-oriented mindset that facilitates the formation of new ideas, visioning of alternate futures, and uncovering of possibilities
Criterion Institute held a quarterly dialogue series on key issues impacting the field of gender lens investing on Monday, March 13, 2023.
In March 2023, Criterion Institute hosted a virtual training on "Using Finance as a Tool for Social Change.”
Over the last 21 years, Criterion Institute has been a sustained experiment in systems change, particularly systems change in and through market systems and systems of finance and investment.
In January 2023, Criterion Institute hosted a virtual training on “Using Finance as a Tool for Social Change.”
We examine the quality of the gender lens investing field’s underlying gender analysis to assess how a field built to redress marginalization analyzes that marginalization.
The Criterion Institute worked with Capital 4 Development (C4D) Partners to examine their approach to investment processes for their portfolio in India.
Criterion Institute held an interactive discussion in November 2022 about our work expanding what is possible for using finance as a tool for transformative social change.
This Roadmap lays out strategies for development finance institutions (DFIs) to incorporate gender-based violence (GBV) risk assessment and mitigation
The Taliban’s take-over of Afghanistan in August 2021 marked a devastating blow for women’s rights and a reversal of recent progress the country has made toward advancing gender equality.
This innovative GBV Risk Score methodology and tool, created in partnership with Equilo and with support from UNICEF
By Joy Anderson, President and Founder of Criterion Institute and Teresa Wells, Managing Director and Partner at Tiedemann Advisors More than 29,000 acts of rape or sexual assault are committed against women in the U.S. while at work each year.
Criterion Institute invites you to an interactive conversation with our network about what we have achieved and what we have learned in our work on systems change over the past two decades.
Observing the chaos caused by the recent polarization of news and obfuscation of “facts,” we are reminded of the power held by the legitimation and amplification of information.
Over the last few decades, there have been significant innovations in faith-based investing. However, social investment strategies by Christian denominations have not yet extended to the issue of gender-based violence.
Analyzing a market’s political stability and volatility is core to investment risk analysis and decision-making about where and how to invest.
Pacific RISE was established by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2016 to promote the development of an impact investing market across the Pacific.
Pacific Readiness for Investment in Social Enterprise (Pacific RISE) is a pilot initiative of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports have emerged about the gendered aspects of its impacts in Kenya.
As the world’s political leaders come together in Paris this week for the Generation Equality Forum, Criterion Institute is proud to be joining our partners UNICEF and Ford Foundation
Gender lens investing has become increasingly dominant within sustainable and impact investment approaches in Australia and globally over the last few years.
The success of the field of gender lens investing is dependent on the elevation of translators and translation: individuals, organizations, and processes that facilitate understanding between gender and finance expertise.
In the world, there is a small, but mighty, cadre of people working to innovate in finance. They may not be doing deals every day, but they are shaping the activity, the ideas and the connections between people that form the field.
Impact investors, development finance institutions, and grassroots gender-basedviolence organizations co-creating solutions for how investment can shift exploitativepower dynamics in supply chains
Gender-based violence has significant consequences for the health and well-being of individuals, families, communities, businesses, states, and countries.
Investing in research on norms change can help investors better predict when gender-based violence moves from a chronic to an acute market risk
Developing and testing a methodology that values violence against women as an early indicator of state instability
Empowering impact investors to structure targeted gender-based violence informed investments and encouraging the coordination of their efforts to reduce gender-based violence in Kenya.
Leveraging finance to increase the political will of the Victorian governmentto achieve its policy goal of ending family violence by 2027.
Influencing development finance institutions and multilateral development banks to recognize gender-based violence as material to their infrastructure investments’ processes and investment decision-making.
Making direct investments into growth companies addressing gender-based violence in the safety sector to drive innovation.
Identifying alternative structures to finance the reduction of gender-based violence
Increasing the cultural power and influence of media and entertainment companies addressing the root causes of violence.
Creating standards and a framework that private market investors can use to reward and influence practices that mitigate violence and enable survivors to thrive.
Inviting private investors to imagine how to shift power dynamics within financial systems to finance the reduce the reduction of gender-based violence
Using a gender-based violence lens to analyze existing datasets to better understand a company’s practices and culture
Creating standards and an investment framework that enables public investors to screen companies for potential operational upside and reputational risk related to gender-based violence.