This report presents the activities, outputs and outcomes of a joint initiative between Coralus and Criterion Institute, two organizations that are innovating finance for social good. The initiative broughttogether 45 contributors from Coralus and 15 experts from Criterion to explore how to design and implement financial models that support women and non-binary entrepreneurs in diverse and inclusive ways.
Criterion Institute and the Equality Fund explored these ideas in a recent webinar featuring Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of Madre, Joy Anderson, Co-founder of Criterion Institute, and Kat Im-Jenkins, Managing Director of the Equality Fund.
On 1 January 2023, the Criterion Institute released a new compensation structure for employees and contractors, aiming to create transparency in compensation throughout the entire organization. The new structure was aimed at supporting the diverse workforce drawn from a variety of backgrounds across the globe and to support continued pay equity across this workforce. Based on a lockstep model of equal pay for equal experience and roles, the compensation model removes all secrecy from pay structures.
Criterion has created this briefing to support civil society actors, donors, and others to analyze and identify how endowments might enable the use of systems of finance as formidable tools to bring about social change and advance social justice.
Growth, Resilience, Investment and Training (GRIT) is a six-year initiative funded by Global Affairs Canada to address the economic gap for women’s empowerment particularly in Northern Sri Lanka.
To support GRIT’s goal of building a gender-responsive entrepreneurial ecosystem, Criterion developed a portfolio of insights to expand thinking and perceptions around how finance could be used for social change.
Sri Lanka is currently in a phase of economic and social recovery following its severest crisis post-independence — a civil war followed by an economic crash.
As the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sri Lanka takes shape, incubators and accelerators can play an important role by moving beyond a focus on specific entrepreneurs to a broader field-building or ecosystem approach.
Our work depends on an ever-expanding community of team members, advisors, donors, and other partners who help us achieve our mission.