Impact - Women of the World Endowment

We grant invest in solutions that create lasting change at scale.

We are driven to create change that is gender inclusive, resilient, and systemic.

Our work focuses on immediate actions for impact today while meeting the ambitious goal of changing norms, institutions, and systems.

We focus on removing friction that inhibits the progress of women actors who are building and driving solutions to today’s challenges.

“When women have access to more money, they build wealthier and healthier economies—at family, community, national, and global levels.”

We start with women changemakers. Our grant investments place women in positions of influence to accelerate opportunity.

We provide grant capital to organizations working to address today’s challenges through systems transformation and innovation.

We grant-invest in opportunities that connect to resilience through capital markets, creating a virtuous cycle of capital that spans the entire investment spectrum and maximizes outcomes for all.

We strategically grant invest to build up ecosystems.

We build portfolios that have more women allocating capital and more people accessing better healthcare, education, and financial services. We go further and invest in inclusive opportunity and build the pathways for greater resilience through more people, including women, developing solutions that work in their communities.

All of our grant investments must meet three strategic priorities—women as changemakers, systems-level change, and connection to capital markets.

Everything we do is shaped by our belief that more women in leadership, decision making, and problem solving will benefit us all.

WoWE and buildOn: grant investing for more sustainable communities

Since 2001, buildOn has partnered with rural communities in Haiti to increase access to quality education for residents of all backgrounds and identities. After an earthquake devastated southern regions of the country in August 2021, WoWE grant invested into buildOn’s Adult Literacy Program to help rebuild resilience in these communities.

Over the past 11 years, 4,431 adults have enrolled in buildOn’s Adult Literacy Program globally, 78% of whom are women. The program develops the agency of participants to affect change in their own communities while acquiring literacy, numeracy, and income-generating skills. Adult Literacy Program participants are encouraged to utilize these skills to start businesses that will strengthen their communities. In many cases, participants collectively establish a savings and loans programs, seeded by buildOn, to help launch these entrepreneurial endeavors and lend to others in their communities to do the same.

buildOn’s programs have a measurable, positive impact on the communities it operates in. In Haiti, Adult Literacy Program retention rates have grown from 47% in 2016 to 94% in 2018. Loan volume to community members has also significantly grown year over year. We are excited to launch this partnership with buildOn not only because of its track record of success in Haiti (and globally) but also because of its strong alignment with WoWE’s values and approach to driving change.