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The Women INvesting in Women INitiative will combine
philanthropy and impact investing to unlock alternative
financing for thousands of women....
Calvert Foundation today announced the launch of the Women
INvesting in Women INitiative (WIN-WIN)™, which will invest
at least $20 million in high-impact organizations and
projects worldwide that create opportunities for women
lacking access to traditional credit and funding sources. A
$1 million grant from the Citi Foundation will allow Calvert
Foundation to efficiently deploy these funds to microfinance
institutions (MFIs) and community development financial
institutions that are investing in women-focused small
businesses and critical services impacting low-income women
and their families. The funding will make it possible for
borrowers to build small businesses, improve their living
conditions, and invest in education and childcare in order
to build more secure and prosperous futures. Today’s
announcement coincides with International Women’s Day, a
global movement to empower women and
expand equal opportunity.
WIN-WIN will be led by Calvert Foundation, an
internationally recognized nonprofit that has nearly $200
million invested in 250 community organizations, in all 50
states and more than 100 countries. Calvert Foundation is
capitalizing the initiative with donations as well as
investments raised from the private sector.
“Investment in the ingenuity and ambition of women is
critical if we hope to have any success as a more equitable
global society,” said Citi CEO Vikram Pandit. “Expanding
financial inclusion and fostering innovation are both
central to Citi’s mission, and the WIN-WIN program embodies
both of these core commitments. The Citi Foundation’s
support of this cutting-edge Calvert Foundation initiative
will provide critical financing with the power to advance
economic opportunity for underserved women around the
world.”
The World Bank calls investing in women ‘smart economics’
because research shows economic growth for women has an
important multiplier effect. Women reinvest - they spend
more earned income on food, healthcare, home improvement,
and schooling for themselves and their children than their
male counterparts. Further, projections show that reducing
the financial barriers to entry for female labor force
participation could drastically increase national
productivity in developed countries.
“Because women are more likely to share their economic gains
with their families and communities at large, we are excited
to create a portfolio dedicated to helping women succeed,”
said Lisa Hall, President and CEO of Calvert Foundation.
“And we are so glad to have the Citi Foundation share this
vision of women’s economic empowerment and opportunity with
us.”
"We are excited to support WIN-WIN because it provides the
platform for women to become agents of their own economic
power and opportunity,” said Pamela Flaherty, President and
CEO of the Citi Foundation. “WIN-WIN is an innovative model
for financial inclusion that sources and directs capital in
new ways to improve the lives of women, their families and
their communities.”
WIN-WIN will support women like Jane Skeeter, founder of
UltraGlas Inc. Jane has run her own business for nearly 40
years, in an industry typically dominated by men. Like many
entrepreneurs, Jane’s business has faced numerous
challenges, yet her history and growth potential convinced
Calvert Foundation borrower and Los Angeles-based CDFI
Valley Economic Development Center (VEDC) to provide her
with a loan to purchase equipment that has increased
production while using less power. More importantly, Jane’s
success means she is poised to create 65 more jobs before
2014.
MFIs and CDFIs like VEDC fill a critical financing gap for
entrepreneurs that cannot access traditional sources due to
short credit history or an impractically small loan request,
sometimes as low as $1,000. WIN-WIN will make it possible
for these organizations to support more women worldwide. In
addition to lending in the U.S., WIN-WIN will lend
approximately 25% of the fund internationally.
WIN-WIN also makes use of a strategy to not only leverage
private sector capital to improve the lives of women, but
also seeks to mobilize women investors as lead providers of
capital to the fund. Women comprise nearly half of the
nation’s top wealth holders and control $20 trillion in
spending globally. WIN-WIN specifically seeks to attract
women's investment capital and its huge potential to
transform the lives of women around the world.
WIN-WIN is the latest instance of Citi supporting Calvert
Foundation’s efforts to expand opportunity for underserved
populations. The organizations previously collaborated in
2010 on the launch of the Communities at Work Fund, which
has since invested more than $100 million to create jobs and
improve communities in the U.S.About Citi
Citi, the leading global financial services company, has
approximately 200 million customer accounts and does
business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi
provides consumers, corporations, governments and
institutions with a broad range of financial products and
services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate
and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction
services, and wealth management.
Additional information may be found at
www.citigroup.com
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About The Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation is committed to the economic empowerment
and financial inclusion of individuals and families,
particularly those in need, in the communities where we work
so that they can improve their standard of living. Globally,
the Citi Foundation targets its strategic giving to priority
focus areas: Microfinance, Enterprise Development, Youth
Education and Livelihoods, and Financial Capability and
Asset Building. The Citi Foundation works with its partners
in Microfinance and Enterprise Development to support
environmental programs and innovations. Additional
information can be found at
www.citifoundation.com .
About Calvert Foundation
Calvert Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides
the opportunity for investors to achieve financial returns
while empowering people living in low-income communities in
the United States and around the world. Calvert Foundation
believes in creating a win-win, improving both the lives of
those who receive investment dollars and the lives of our
investors. A pioneer in the social impact investment field,
Calvert Foundation investors have helped to create over
528,000 jobs for low-income individuals, built or
rehabilitated over 20,000 affordable homes, and financed
close to 27,000 nonprofit facilities and social enterprises
through their investment in Calvert Foundation’s Community
Investment Note. Learn more at
www.calvertfoundation.org/winwin.
You can also follow this effort on
www.facebook.com/womenwinwin
on Twitter @WomenWinWin
or
www.youtube.com/user/calvertfdn.
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