The Asia Foundation’s 2021 Lotus Leadership Awards will honor Eileen Fisher and Women In Need for their work for women in Asia and the Pacific.
The 2021 Lotus Leadership Awards will be held virtually on Wednesday, April 18th at 6pm EST / 3pm PST (Image credit: Asia Foundation)
The 2021 Lotus Leadership Awards will honor Eileen Fisher for her pioneering leadership in women’s economic empowerment and sustainability, and Women In Need (WIN), a non-profit partner working to end gender-based violence in Sri Lanka. The celebration will take place virtually on Wednesday, April 28th and features appearances by ABC “Nightline’s” Juju Chang and “Law and Order: SVU” actor Mariska Hargitay.
Fearless Fund, a venture capital fund built to support women of color, has received a huge investment from Mastercard.
Mastercard has made a muti-million dollar investment to Fearless Fund to help black-owned businesses (Image credit: Fearless Fund)
Black women are building and growing businesses faster than any other segment and yet receive less than one percent of venture capital funding. In addition, only three percent of the people actually leading investments at VC firms are Black according to the National Venture Capital Association. To help further access to funding for Black women, Mastercard today announced a multi-million dollar investment in Fearless Fund, a venture capital fund built by women of color for women of color.
In response to the rise in anti-Asian hate in the U.S., Bank of America has increased its commitment to racial equality to $1.25 billion.
Bank of America announced a $1B commitment over four years in June 2020, but has decided to increase the donation in response to the rise in anti-Asian hate. (Image credit: Bank of America)
Bank of America today announced that it has increased its $1 billion, four-year commitment to advance racial equality and economic opportunity to $1.25 billion over five years. This effort further accelerates work already underway to address racial equality and opportunity through direct actions, investments and work to catalyze similar efforts across the private sector.
Girls Who Invest, being backed by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will bring 175 new students to its Summer Intensive Program.
Girls Who Invest works to include more women in the world of asset management and finances. (Image credit: GWI)
Girls Who Invest (GWI), a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in portfolio management and executive leadership in the asset management industry, welcomes a cohort of 175 scholars to its 2021 Summer Intensive Program.
Through GWI’s flagship ten-week program, each of these accomplished rising college juniors will complete a four-week rigorous program of study on the core tenets of investing. The program is taught by leading academics and industry professionals, including faculty from the Wharton School and UCLA Anderson School of Management. Scholars then complete six-week paid internships in frontline investing at one of GWI’s more than 100 partner firms. After completing the academic program (held virtually for the second year), scholars are equipped with the industry knowledge and financial, technical, and soft business skills required to excel in their internships and future asset management roles. The scholars participating in this year’s Summer Intensive Program will join more than 500 women who have successfully completed the program since 2016.
Fiona McKay’s website asks a simple but striking question: What would the world look like if more women controlled the money? It’s a question I often find myself pondering, too, as a social worker, a small businesswoman, a parent, and a gender equality activist.
Fiona McKay, author of the report, Trailblazing Women in Investment. (Image Credit: Fiona McKay)
McKay isn’t just pondering this profound question, though. She’s actively doing research on the way that gender norms shape our experiences, particularly in the financial sector. She is the author of Trailblazing Women in Investment, a new report that discusses gender lens investing and the barriers that women still face with controlling the money in finance.
More than half of the companies received an “F” that were rated on the Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact “Racial and Gender Pay Scorecard”.
The 4th edition of the “Racial and Gender Pay Scorecard” analyzed the quantitative disclosures of 51 companies worldwide. (Image credit: Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact)
The 4th edition of the Scorecard is being released by the investment management firm Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact. The grades are based on quantitative disclosures (versus qualitative assurances) by companies taking concrete steps to close racial and gender pay gaps. The 51 companies in the ranking have all been engaged by investors through the shareholder proposal process and asked to improve their public pay equity disclosures.
Jewelle Bickford explains how CEOs can and must use gender lens strategy to support women in documentary Covid, Women and the US Economy.
Jewelle Bickford, Co-Chair of Paradigm for Parity® is a renowned financial advisor with a clear 5-Point Action Plan to help CEOs use a gender lens. (Image credit: Crain’s New York)
In a BBC documentary about the impact of COVID on the economy and women in the workplace, Paradigm for Parity® Co-Chair Jewelle Bickford spoke with Nada Tawfik about the critical role CEOs play in achieving gender parity and the specific steps companies can take to support the advancement of women.
Bickford was optimistic that more employers will soon realize that hiring and advancing women of all backgrounds benefits everyone, saying “Those companies that have women on the board and in the C-Suite and throughout the company show 25% more profitability, so once companies know it’s more profitable, it lowers income inequality, and it helps stabilize the family structure, it’s a win-win.”
Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Connie Gallippi, Founder and Executive Director of the BitGive Foundation, which supports cryptocurrency-driven philanthropy.
Connie Gallippi, courtesy of Connie Gallippi
1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?
Prior to founding BitGive, I worked in another profession for 15 years. It was another world, so to speak. Entering the budding Bitcoin industry in its early years (2013), I wish I had known more to expect the challenge of aligning the perspectives of those in finance and tech with a vision of revolutionizing global philanthropy.
In my previous career, I worked with environmental nonprofits in California, advocating within the California legislature, and state and regional agencies. It was a challenge, but eventually we were able to get them to see the benefits of investing in natural resources. Shifting the perspective of tech- and finance- driven people to see how we could dramatically improve philanthropy, and to then take action and invest in our innovative approach, has been more of a gap than I anticipated; however, we are making great strides with our work and through our partnerships, and I can see a significant shift in sight!
Editor’s Note: The following letter is from Jacqueline Fuller, President of Google.org.
Google.org President Jacqueline Fuller and CEO Sundar Pichai have launched the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls. (Image credit: Google.org)
When women and girls have the resources and opportunities to turn their potential into power, it changes the trajectory of their lives and strengthens entire communities. I’ve seen this play out first hand while living in India, where public health programs that put resources and decision-making in the hands of women drove much stronger outcomes for their families and villages. I’ve seen this in my own life, when bosses — both male and female — gave me stretch opportunities and bet on my leadership.
If you’ve wanted to form an impact circle but aren’t sure how to get started, Invest for Betterhas the program for you. Applications are now open for the Spring 2021 Cohort of Invest for Better’sCircle Leader program. Kicking off on February 11th, this free training program offers the resources and know-how for women to form, lead, and grow their own impact investing circles.
The Spring 2021 cohort of Invest for Better’s Circle Leader training program begins on February 11th, 2021. (Image Credit: Invest for Better)
Invest for Better is a national initiative aimed at helping women demystify impact investing, take control of their capital and mobilize their money for good. It is non-profit and non-transactional, designed to address the “aspiration gap” between women’s interest and their action by overcoming obstacles to participation, and building trusted peer communities.
