Investing to improve the lives of women and girls is a powerful catalyst for positive social change. Another way to get involved is to support and participate in the larger ecosystem of networks and organizations that engage investors, the business community, and leaders in gender lens philanthropy, investing, and social justice work.
-> Click each Category at the bottom of page for a full listing
Selected Resources
Some resources are sourced from the Tara Health Foundation
Gender Equality Funds
November 2018 / Visit Online Tool
The Gender Equality Funds tool by grantee As You Sow enables individual and institutional investors to apply a gender lens to mutual fund and ETF investments. It screens about 5,000 of the most commonly held U.S. mutual funds – including financial giants like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street – against a database detailing individual company performance on 12 key gender equality performance indicators.
The Gender Finance Ecosystem Map
Streamlined Map | Tuti Scott & Lex Schroeder
October 2018 / View Map
The Gender Finance Ecosystem Map presents a detailed, comprehensive picture of the actors, tools, initiatives, and types of capital that comprise the gender lens finance system, as well as the barriers to and leverage points for systemic change. It can be used by investors and changemakers seeking to understand and discover high-impact levers for change.
Gender Equality Global Report & Ranking: 2024 Edition
February 2024 / Download Report
Equileap‘s report on gender equality presents the world’s top 100 companies and key findings per theme, country and sector. These rankings are used by many including investors wanting to align their capital with their values. Through their data, Equileap seeks to close the gender gap by promoting corporate transparency and investment in gender equality.
Gender Equality in the U.S. : Assessing 100 leading companies on workplace equality including healthcare benefits
February 2019 / Download Report
Equileap’s Gender Equality in the U.S. 2019 Report measures companies on healthcare factors. The Tara Health foundation is proud to have supported the development of this report, and remains committed to using evidence-backed standards to measure and track progress in gender equality and women’s health and well-being in the workplace. Read the press coverage of Equileap’s report on CNBC.
Four for Women: A Framework for Evaluating Companies’ Impact on the Women They Employ
October 2018 / Download Report
Four for Women: A Framework for Evaluating Companies’ Impact on the Women They Employ was created by the Wharton Social Impact Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania with the support of the Tara Health Foundation. Researchers rigorously studied hundreds of independent, peer-reviewed academic studies in order to create this framework. Four for Women identifies the four critical factors that positively impact female employees: Representation, pay, health, and satisfaction.
Project Sage: Tracking Venture Capital with a Gender Lens
October 2017 / Download Report
The Project Sage: Tracking Venture Capital with a Gender Lens report by grantee Wharton Social Impact Initiative maps the landscape of private equity and debt funds that have taken a gender lens investment approach. The field of gender lens impact investing has grown significantly in the past several years. With increased funding pouring into the space, there are now more options for venture capital and debt that aim to put funding behind products and companies that benefit women and girls. Also, read Project Sage 2.0, a landscape survey completed one year later and 7 Takeaways from this follow-up report.
The XX Factor: A Comprehensive Framework for Improving the Lives of Women and Girls
2017 / Download Report
The XX Factor examines the inequalities and opportunities experienced by women and girls, providing the first comprehensive and evidence-based framework to help funders take action. It was created by the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy (CHIP) with the support of Tara Health. The report identifies the five dimensions of a woman’s life that are critical to her flourishing, and identifies ways to measure progress in the lives and well-being of women:
Economic Empowerment
Education
Health
Legal Rights
Personal Safety
Veris Wealth Partners: 2018/2019 Impact Investing Report
2019 / Download
This is “the latest in a series of annual updates summarizing key developments around the world. The report is also an affirmation that the impact investing community is making good on its value proposition: To deliver market performance and positive social and environmental impact.”
Highlights: This comprehensive, 28-page report offers insight about important developments in the field over the past year, including the following:
• A strategic assessment of where impact investing is headed
• Four macro trends that gained momentum in the past year
• Veris’s accomplishments in advancing impact investing
• A retrospective about transformative business over the past 50 years
• A scorecard quantifying the results of impact investing worldwide
• The positive impact of active ownership of public companies
• A snapshot of Veris’s five key investment themes
• An overview of our commitment to diversity and reducing our carbon footprint”
Women’s Philanthropy Institute’s Women Give 2019: Gender and Giving Across Communities of Color
March 2019 / Download
“The first study to explore the intersection of race, giving and gender. The report finds that generosity is a value shared by all communities, and that women across race and ethnicity are leading through philanthropy.
As communities of color grow in wealth and influence, the study demonstrates the unique perspectives women of color bring to philanthropy and underscores the importance of understanding and engaging donors from diverse backgrounds.”
Women’s Philanthropy Institute: Measuring gGiving to Women’s and Girls’ Causes
2019 / Download
“Women’s and girls’ issues have received increased attention in recent years, but for a number of reasons, quantifying charitable giving to these causes has been challenging.
Until now. With the creation of the Women & Girls Index, which identifies 45,000+ organizations in the United States dedicated to women and girls, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute can measure giving to these organizations from individuals, foundations and corporations.”