Women’s Initiative

Activating women’s foundations, funds, and individuals to move money to women-led businesses, social ventures, and nonprofits through education and hands-on learning.

Events

What We’re Doing

Impact Finance Center (IFC) identifies, educates, and activates impact investors, and develops community infrastructure to support community-based financing. We do this through courses (e.g. online, in-person workshops, and hybrid), podcasts, case studies, tools, and thought leadership articles. We also provide education through our Impact Investing Institute and modeling Main Street solutions through events like CO Impact Days. Our goal, set out in the article “Laying the Groundwork for a National Impact Investing Marketplace,” is to move $1T to social ventures by 2030.

The First Step: Identify

National Women’s Impact Investing Landscape Scan: 

We are excited to share our recently published report, the National Women’s Impact Investing Landscape Scan, and provide more ways for you to engage in the movement we are building to increase the flow of capital to women.

2024 Final Report Release: National Women’s Impact Investing Landscape Scan

Complete a quick form to download the full report: Impact Investing Landscape Scan Report

Watch the webinar recording on the Impact Finance Center Institute: Webinar Recording Sign up and create a free account using these simple instructions.

Impact Finance Center (IFC) was awarded a grant by Wallace Global Fund to develop the first National Women’s Impact Investing Landscape Scan to document and establish a baseline measure of which women’s foundations and funds are:

1) currently using financial innovation and impact investing for their own assets; 

2) providing services for their members, grantees, and members; and 

3) determining the in-demand services and tools. 

Why? Women and millennials stand to inherit $30T by 2030. But, since 2011, the amount of venture capital dollars granted to women-only teams has ranged from 1.8% to 2.7%. And, Black female startup founders received just 0.34% of the total venture capital spent in the U.S. in 2021.

With the upcoming wealth transfer, women need support investing their resources into women for positive impact. Women’s foundations and funds can help. Women’s foundations and funds need a knowledge base and capacity-building tools to help women on their impact investing journey. 

This Landscape Scan hopes to provide a key piece of evidence of where assets are currently invested, and to inform funders how to shift resources to ensure that the upcoming wealth transfer results in a shift in greater impact for women and women-led businesses.  

Our success depends on your engagement: We need a diverse group of passionate community leaders who are dedicated to planning and implementing this strategy to harness resources toward women.

Are you a women’s fund or foundation? Or do you hold assets at a women’s fund or community foundation? If you are willing to spare a moment to help leverage change for women-led investments, please fill out this 5 minutes survey – or encourage your community foundation to fill it out! 

Not only will you receive access to our online Women’s Initiative courses, we’ll make sure to keep you apprised of the survey results and next steps.

Answer our 3-question survey here to make your voice heard!

We’ll make sure to keep you apprised of the survey results and next steps. 

The Second Step: Educate

Who’s Who in Women’s Impact Investing: We are currently seeking nominations for women and non-binary leaders who are making a difference by investing in social ventures benefitting women.

One-Day Workshops: IFC offers in-person workshops for women’s foundations and funds to gather and explore financial innovation, full spectrum capital, and impact investing in a small group format.

Webinar Series: IFC also offers online education for women’s foundations and funds to learn from each other. In 2024, IFC will host public webinars to showcase the women leading through impact from the National Women’s Impact Investing Landscape Scan (above).

Impact Investing Institute: Beyond live events and webinars, IFC offers access to recorded educational content on the Impact Investing Institute that women’s foundations and fund leaders can engage with at their own pace.

Courageous Capital Stewards Podcast: Dr. Steph and IFC Senior Advisors interview those women’s foundation and fund leaders taking brave steps to align and leverage the assets they steward for their communities.

Learning Circles: Our small group learning experience is for cohorts of women’s foundations and funds interested in going on a journey to learn about full spectrum capital, the IFC toolbox, and community infrastructure.

Impact Investing Giving Circle: Our large group experiential learning journey provides individuals with the experience of a giving circle, adding impact investing education, and instead of simply donating the capital, the members make full spectrum investments that can be recycled in future circles.

Learn more about giving circles here

The Philanthropic Opportunity Scan: Ready to put your newfound financial innovation, full spectrum capital and financial innovation knowledge into practice? IFC offers advisory services to support women’s foundations and funds to facilitate their own Philanthropic Opportunity Scan with the main goal of sourc impact investments within their own philanthropic portfolio.

Women’s Investor Club: IFC hosts virtual and in person marketplace events for impact investors and social ventures focused on supporting women to connect in an effort to move capital to social ventures led by and benefiting women. These SEC-compliant demo days are both effective ways to participatory mapping both the capital stewards and community stewards and increase flow of capital.

CO Impact Days: As part of the 3-day conference, women are invited to learn full spectrum capital and participate in an experiential learning opportunity. As part of this workshop, participants listen to social venture pitches and create full spectrum capital stack investments on the social venture’s terms.

Design an Impact Investing Strategy in 5 Steps

  1. Map Nonprofit Grantee Investments: Philanthropic Opportunity Scan
  2. Map Intermediaries: National Intermediary Landscape Scan
  3. Map Women’s Foundation and Fund Impact Investing Leaders: National Women’s Impact Investing Landscape Scan
  4. Map Individuals, Foundations, Family Offices, and Corporations who want to invest
  5. Develop the strategy

Design an Impact Investing Strategy in 5 Steps

  1. Map Nonprofit Grantee Investments: Philanthropic Opportunity Scan
  2. Map Intermediaries: National Intermediary Landscape Scan
  3. Map Women’s Foundation and Fund Impact Investing Leaders: National Women’s Impact Investing Landscape Scan
  4. Map Individuals, Foundations, Family Offices, and Corporations who want to invest
  5. Develop the strategy
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