​​The first Project Sage, published in October 2017, tracked 58 vehicles deploying almost $1.3 billion in capital, almost half of which were launched that year and the majority of which were based in the US. Project Sage 2.0, published in November 2018, identified 87 total funds, along with exciting new developments in geography and theme. The most recent Project Sage 3.0, published in July 2020, has data through 2019, and has 138 funds and structured vehicles, collectively with $4.8 billion in capital raised.

We are now launching Project Sage 4.0 research. If you have a fund that might be considered for inclusion, we would love to know about your fund. We aim to continue to have the most comprehensive scan of gender lens funds, globally. Please email julie@catalystatlarge.com and copy suzanne@biegel.net to be considered. The research closes mid September (2021.)

Please follow this link to get in touch and please email julie@catalystatlarge.com with any questions.

More articles and press on Project Sage:

Project Sage 3.0: Key Insights from the Latest Gender Lens Investing Report

Gender-Smart Investing: More than two dozen new funds investing with a gender lens (Impact Alpha)

7 takeaways from Project Sage 2.0 (Wharton)

Project Sage 2.0: The rise of the intersectional venture fund (LinkedIn)

Project Sage 2.0: Social impact funds with a gender lens (LinkedIn)

Getting Gender Smart was a three-day intensive course introducing investors, fund managers, and philanthropists to the emerging world of gender smart investing.

A collaboration between Catalyst at Large and Carrie Gonnella of Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship, the course was designed to help participants quickly and easily integrate gender smart investing as part of their overall investing practice, including:

• Evaluating your own objectives and those of your key stakeholders;

• Exploring the markets for impact investing, including opportunities in both public and private markets;

• Integrating gender lens practices across the key steps of your investment process, including due diligence, structuring, and closing deals, governance, managing for impactful exits, and portfolio management.

• Evaluating and performing gender lens screening and due diligence of funds, both public and private, as well as of individual deals;

• Understanding current practices in impact measurement and management from a gender lens perspective and opportunities to improve gender outcomes in your existing portfolios; and

• Understanding the range of available resources and consultants available to help you along the way and how to select and work with them.

Getting Gender Smart took place March 11-13, 2019 and September 9-11, 2019 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. We will be offering the course again in late September, 2020, and if you want to be notified of future dates and registration, click here to share your contact information.

CDC is the United Kingdom’s development finance institution (DFI), investing public money into great businesses across Africa and South Asia.

Catalyst At Large works with CDC to support their gender-smart investment strategy, connecting them with the experts, information, and innovators they need to make strategic investments that meet their financial objectives while helping to shape a world of greater equality and opportunity for women and girls.

As part of this collaboration, Catalyst At Large supported CDC to create the Gender Finance Collaborative, a group of 15 DFIs working together to advance the standard and impact of gender-smart investing, through collaborative dialogue and a shared commitment to action.

Catalyst At Large also supports the key partners for the 2X Challenge, a commitment from the G7 DFIs and others to collectively mobilize US$3 billion to improve the access of women in developing countries to leadership opportunities, quality employment, finance, enterprise support, and other products and services that enhance economic participation and access.

Representing US$566 billion in global investment capital, college and university endowments are powerful institutional investors who are yet to be engaged in gender-smart investing.

Created in collaboration with Tara Health Foundation’s Ruth Shaber and Nexial’s Marshall Clemens and Alexandra Kanitz, the Gender Finance System Map presents a comprehensive illustration of the actors, tools, initiatives, and types of capital that comprise the gender finance system, as well as the barriers and opportunities for systemic change.

Women Effect is an initiative which transitioned in 2017 to the Wharton Social Impact Initiative (WSII) at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, to provide an information hub for content and experience in the field of investing with a gender lens, women as investors, and investing to have a positive effect on women and girls. Women Effect was originally an independent initiative, founded by Suzanne Biegel, fiscally sponsored by Criterion Institute and supported by a visionary group of funders. The initiative moved to WSII in March, 2017, with some significant changes, carrying forward a research and evidence building agenda and helping a variety of actors to make sense of this emerging field.

The work of many visionary leaders has inspired a movement that believes in the power of finance to achieve large-scale social impact and to address some of our most pressing economic and social issues. The goal with Women Effect was to increase the capital moving with a gender lens, creating durable and systemic change for women and girls worldwide – both as investors and beneficiaries of invested capital. As the initiative shifted to WSII, the work is framed in some new contexts. The field of gender lens investing is in its early stages and spans a broad diversity of actors and activities. In addition to her other industry roles and consulting, Suzanne Biegel is Senior Gender Lens Investing Adviser at WSII. This fits in with the broader work of Catalyst at Large to inspire and activate people and institutions to move more capital, more strategically, with more velocity, with a gender lens.

The SPRING accelerator ran from July 2014 to September 2019. During the 5 years of its duration, SPRING has supported 75 businesses in reaching 2,535,214 adolescent girls in 9 countries across East Africa (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda) and South Asia (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar).

SPRING was funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), with full support from the Nike Foundation in the first 4 years, and advisory support from Girl Effect in the design phase.