Giving Compass' Take:

• Wharton Social Impact Initiative interviews Ruth Shaber, founder of Tara Health Foundation, about investing using a gender lens, reproductive health and how it all ties into changing the way philanthropy works.

• What can we do to shift the typical power dynamics in grantmaking, as Shaber urges? How much does more strategic research play into this effort?

• Here are ways we can fund collective impact for gender equity.

The practice of choosing investments that take gender into account, specifically those that address women’s issues and promote female leadership, is gaining ground. One philanthropist making a difference in this arena — which has become known as gender lens investing — is Ruth Shaber. A devoted physician and disciplined researcher, Shaber is the founder of Tara Health Foundation, which aims to improve the health and well-being of women and girls through the creative use of philanthropic capital. She recently spoke to Sherryl Kuhlman, managing director of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, about how her organization is doing things differently in the philanthropy space.

"Our overall mission is to improve the lives of women and girls, and we’re doing that by demonstrating creative uses of philanthropic capital," said Shaber. "That means that we’re looking at 100% of our assets — from how we make grants, how we develop the fields, how we do direct and private investing, and how we use the largest part of our endowment in public equities and public investing. We want to have 100% mission alignment in our specific area of social interest, which is in reproductive health."

Watch the full interview about flipping the paradigm on social change at Knowledge@Wharton.