Giving Compass' Take:

• This Forbes post examines the difficulties many women-led venture capital funds have raising money and urges impact investors to pay more attention to them.

• Want to see more gender equity? Consider the framework detailed here (via the Center of High Impact Philanthropy) for your portfolio: health, education, economic empowerment, personal safety and legal rights.

• Learn more about investing in girls and women from Maverick Collective Co-founder Kate Roberts.


While others may run from a problem, innovators approach it like what it is: an opportunity. Some problems may be so big and systemic that one innovator can’t fix them alone. These problems need an entire ecosystem built to address them... and money is a powerful tool for eliminating inequity.

The Center for High Impact Philanthropy (CHIP), a collaboration between the School of Social Policy & Practice and alumni of the Wharton School, developed A Comprehensive Framework for Improving the Lives of Women & Girls around five dimensions: health, education, economic empowerment, personal safety and legal rights. Donors can use this framework to understand how they can influence the outcomes they seek to achieve.

A cross between philanthropy and angel investing is SheEO. Neither philanthropic or investment but worth mentioning are Kiva and Capital Sisters International. Funders provide money to women entrepreneurs and get their money back but without earning interest.

People and institutions can use their investment portfolios not just to make a return on their investment but for social impact. While women are currently twice as likely as men to own impact investments (18% compared to 10% respectively), more than half of both men and women have an interest in social impact, according to 2017 U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth. Among these social impact investments are opportunities to invest, using a gender lens, in public stocks and fixed income securities, such as bonds, and private equity and debt that align with your values and fit every portfolio size.

Read the full article about investing in organizations promoting gender equality by Geri Stengel at Forbes.