Gender + ESG: our intersectional strategy delivers strong returns.
We believe applying an intersectional investing approach across our public and private markets portfolios will yield risk-adjusted returns comparable to an allocation to the broader market as well as deep impact returns.
We invest in, influence, and advise gender-informed sustainable solutions.
We construct our portfolio based on risk and return profiles, as well as deep impact potential.
All investments are diligenced through a positive impact tools-driven process.
We invest for a range of outcomes that improve the lives of women and girls across five gender-focused dimensions. We also intentionally avoid investing in companies with a known history of harm. Then, we go further in our due diligence to review for equitable access and inclusive opportunities—investing in the pathways to better health and wealth for more people.
Investment focus and process
WoWE’s investment focus is on earning market-rate financial returns and creating impact returns. While traditional investing is returns-focused, it has limited or no focus on ESG or driving impact.
WoWE works across the investing spectrum—from ESG risk-management to ESG alpha-seeking, impact driving, and systems change philanthropy.
We leverage positive and negative screening, access investing, opportunity investing, and grant investing to accomplish our goals. Here’s how:
Positive & Negative Screening
WoWE invests for a range of outcomes that improve lives, including the lives of women and girls, across five gender-focused dimensions. Additionally, WoWE intentionally avoids investing in companies with a known history of harm of communities.
- Women in Leadership
- Women in Finance
- Companies Having Positive Impact on Female Employees
- Products & Services Improving Women’s Lives
- Companies Improving Women’s Lives in the Ecosystem
- Fossil fuel-free
- Deforestation-free
- Tobacco-free
- Alcohol-free
- Military weapons-free
- Civilian weapons-free
- Prison Industrial Complex-free
Access Investing
We conduct diligence to determine whether an investment improves and/or provides unbiased treatment and access to critical goods and services for undercapitalized communities.
- Financial Products & Services
- Healthcare Products & Services
- Learning & Education
- Clean Water & Sanitation
- Livable Housing & Communities
- Telecommunications
Opportunity Investing
We extend beyond unbiased access and emphasize investments that will also drive forward inclusive opportunity. By offering gender diverse teams the chance to catalyze profitability and growth. We create a virtuous cycle of intersectional impact.
- Financial Products & Services
- Health & Care Economy
- Business & Entrepreneurship
- Agriculture & Food Systems
- Climate Resilience
- Racial & Social Justice
- Technology & Data
Grant Investing
We deploy the capital generated from investment returns to organizations that centralize women as changemakers, catalyze systems-level change, and create connections to capital markets.
- Programs centralizing women as actors
- Financial tools that promote gender intersectional investing
We are powering our capital with data
WoWE uses the comprehensive datasets and screens to construct a balanced and thoughtful portfolio that intersects values—gender, climate, racial equity, health, etc.—with strong financial performance.
We use As You Sow’s robust datasets to inform our mutual fund portfolio construction and monitoring and Ethos ESG’s comprehensive data and tools to build our single name security portfolio. For our private markets portfolio, we leverage Toniic Tracer, an impact measurement and benchmarking tool.
We go the extra mile to partner with, invest in, and advise these organizations. We are smarter because we participate in the development of ESG and learning tools to ensure maximum impact.
Our grant investing builds more sustainable and resilient communities.
WoWE’s grant investments channel capital to organizations that are centralizing women and girls as solutions drivers who build the systems and innovations to transform our society in ways that enable all people to achieve their full potential. We support data aggregation, strategic capital generation from experts, development of investable solutions, and implementation of solutions. We work with others by syndicating our grant investment opportunities to like-minded entities.
WoWE and Ethos ESG: active user, seed investor, advisor, and strategic partner
Ethos ESG is a FinTech platform designed to align investor capital with the values that matter most to them. The platform aggregates millions of data points to create standardized impact ratings on causes, such as gender equity, climate change, racial justice, and more. These ratings are applied to assess thousands of companies and funds, enabling financial advisors and asset managers to better understand the impact of their allocations, engage with clients about ESG, and streamline transformative capital to critical causes.
As an active user, we leverage Ethos’ rich ESG data capabilities and platform to construct our own public markets portfolio. Our intersectional screening approach begins with gender and extends to other sustainability themes. We apply positive and negative screens to identify the most impactful single name securities in the MSCI ACWI index. Ethos’ platform supports our identification of opportunities yielding strong risk-adjusted returns.
As an investor and strategic partner, WoWE helps guide and influence the growing ESG field. As ESG investing is new and growing, it is critical to have women informing the field’s development from the start. We collaborate with Ethos to influence gender-focused investing infrastructure.