By Grace Powell

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. One of the most interesting conversations that I got the chance to listen to focused on the theme of collaboration—what it would look like, how we might get there, what benefits it could offer the field of gender lens investing. The conversation itself was just a first step, but raised some fascinating questions and ideas to focus on when moving forward.

I heard throughout the conversation a very real desire to come up with some clear goals that could be achieved through collaboration between asset holders and fund managers. I also heard some very real challenges raised in the conversation, and a desire to work around these challenges in order to come up with solutions.

Participants in the Conversation

Kathleen McQuiggan, Pax World Management
Connie Evans, AEO
Catherine Gill, Root Capital
Leslie Cordes, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Joy Anderson, Criterion Institute
Margot Kane, Calvert Foundation
Heidi McPherson, Chester County Fund for Women and Girls
Carol Patrick, Dallas Women’s Foundation
Katherine Collins, Honeybee Capital
Julie Hammerman, Silver Bridge Investors

The Future

This conversation, in and of itself, was a very solid first step in laying the groundwork for collaboration. However, the participants in the conversation also expressed the desire to come up with some sort of product, eventually, as the outgrowth of this collaboration.

A good starting point for this product might be a product that would incorporate asset holders, who would play the role of providing risk capital to fund managers that have already developed portfolios using gender lens investing (i.e. Root Capital).

The table also discussed an event or potential roadshow where this product could be marketed to individual investors or groups of investors. Participants debated where such a project might sit overall, and Women’s Funding Network seemed a plausible option.

Setting an Example

The strongest theme I heard throughout the conversation was excitement. Everyone at the table was excited about the prospect of what collaboration could bring, and though the next step was not necessarily clear, everyone was ready to be involved in the process.

Participants seemed to agree that the benefit of eventually creating some sort of product would be that it could provide a model of collaboration between two different groups: traditional asset holders and fund managers of social entrepreneur organizations. This type of model offered the possibility of setting an example for others in the field that were trying to come up with ways to fit the goals of different stakeholders together. The excitement coming from this conversation marked only the beginning of a process to get an idea on the table and expand upon it in the future.

I also heard a clear desire to use this experiment in collaboration to help raise the profile of the field in general. As one person said, “Let’s identify a pool of people that want to turn this into a great story that shows how we can make something happen!”

Semantics?

People raised a few areas of concern that should be considered when talking about the prospects of collaboration. The issue of defining a gender lens investor was of common interest.  No one wanted to exclude anybody from the community of gender lens investing; a definition might provide an opportunity to reach out to more stakeholders and interested participants, and expand the field of gender lens investing even further. A more narrowly focused definition, however, might provide more rigor and consistency across the field. Though it wasn’t discussed, it’s possible that this could be part of the collaboration initiative; developing this definition could even be the first project all participants collaborated on.

Hard Numbers

Throughout the course of the conversation, I heard a definite demand for clear numbers to use when talking to people who don’t understand gender lens investing. Everyone agreed that it was often frustrating to have the introductory conversation about the possibilities of gender lens investing without clear data or statistics.

Developing clear metrics for the size of the market the groups are trying to penetrate, numbers that could be shared with potential investors, could be helpful in raising the profile of gender lens investing. As someone explained, “numbers get [managers and asset holders] interested in a conversation about why they need to care about gender lens.”

The Money Piece

Perhaps the most difficult part of the conversation was the discussion about the flow of money. I got the sense that the way that money would move between groups when paying a product producer and organizing an event was as amorphous and confusing to members of the conversation as it was to me, and that this was a place where collaboration could get hung up. For example, when talking about the roadshow, the basic issue of who would pay for what (accommodations, for example) was a stumbling block. Yet I also sensed a real desire, and ability, to work through the issue, as some possible suggestions were raised.

One funding element that everyone agreed upon was the need for philanthropic capital. For example, one participant explained, “Philanthropists can take the approach of we’re trying to seed a broader investment market, we’re trying to create new products for the market that will be investable and taking that approach with their philanthropic investments would be incredibly helpful.” Someone else added, “The ability to get to more managers requires at some point an infusion of philanthropy for them to push to a different question.”

Moving Forward

As an objective observer to the conversation, and someone who is in the process of learning about gender lens investing, I got a general sense of hope about the ability of all involved participants to collaborate with one another. Though clearly in the first stages of coming up with a project to collaborate on, the commitment to work with one another, despite the possible stumbling blocks raised, came through loud and clear. Working out the details for this type of collaborative project will certainly be difficult, but one participant reminded the group to focus on the big picture.  As she said, “Why do we want to reach this goal? Because we can change lives and I think that if you keep coming back to the core reason that any of us are doing any of this work I think that then justifies any of the numbers.

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