We can’t solve the climate crisis without women, says new endowment investing at the nexus of climate and gender

Media Release, April 10, 2023:

Women are currently overlooked and underinvested in as innovators and creators of climate solutions. The world won’t adequately address the climate crisis without them, says Suzanne Biegel, co-founder of Heading for Change (https://headingforchange.org), a new endowment tackling climate change and gender inequality through an exemplary multi-asset class portfolio.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world needs to urgently increase investment in climate mitigation and adaptation to 3-6 times current levels, if it wants to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C - the critical threshold for runaway and irreversible climate change.

But it is also essential that as we increase investment in climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience, we pay attention to how that investment is targeted.

According to a 2022 report from the OECD, women entrepreneurs and creators of climate solutions receive significantly less investment than men in comparable positions do, and are underrepresented in green infrastructure decisions and jobs.

Heading for Change seeks to change this disparity by directing smart capital and counsel to the critical intersection of gender and climate.

Heading for Change is the brainchild of Suzanne Biegel, a pioneer in the gender-smart investing field who has been investing at the nexus of gender and sustainability for more than two decades. As a cofounder of the global field-building organization GenderSmart (now 2X Global) and originator of its gender and climate investment working group, Biegel has also been instrumental in building the investment case for combining climate and gender, spearheading groundbreaking systems change work on how the two lenses interplay with each other, and how public and private investors are combining climate and gender in investment for greater impact.

“We will not get the climate solutions we need, and they won’t be implemented, if we are missing half the population,” says Biegel. “Women are not just disproportionately impacted by climate disasters. They are also entrepreneurs, leaders, and creators and disseminators of vital climate solutions.” Now, through Heading for Change, Biegel is seeking to put those insights into action on a bigger scale. Heading for Change will build a model portfolio of investments and grants at the nexus of climate and gender, and will openly share full details of the investment philosophy and criteria to motivate other investors to follow along.

Heading for Change will invest primarily in private market investment vehicles working at the intersection of climate and gender, fueling established and pioneer fund managers with the support they need to grow their work and scale their investment. The endowment will also allocate a smaller segment of its portfolio to best-in-class public markets funds and community investments.

Heading for Change will also provide philanthropic capital in the form of small targeted grants and recoverable loans to visionary systems change entrepreneurs and nonprofit entities whose work is building the capacity of the field to move more and smarter capital into climate and gender investments.

“By investing in funds and making grants to initiatives with catalytic potential, Heading for Change will play a vital ecosystem building role that will create impact that goes far beyond the endowment’s investments themselves,” says Joy Anderson, Founder and President of Criterion Institute, and a member of Heading For Change’s Global Stewardship Circle.

The endowment will launch with a $1 million investment from Biegel and her husband Daniel Maskit, and seeks to grow to $10 million by facilitating and activating like-minded investors and donors. Biegel’s hope is that the endowment’s investments will ultimately unlock tens of millions in additional capital to climate and gender investments such as those spotlighted by her own portfolio.

Biegel’s and Maskit’s wealth originated when she and her business partner sold their edtech firm IEC in 1998. Since then, Biegel has built a multi-million dollar portfolio of gender- and sustainability-focused private investments which will inform her investments in the endowment.

Heading for Change is operated through ImpactAssets, an impact investing firm whose innovative Donor Advised Fund enables donors to combine philanthropic giving with a 100% impact-focused investment portfolio.

“Private wealth holders need to be included in capital flows addressing the climate crisis,” says Hedda Pahlson-Moller, a long time impact investor and member of Heading For Change’s Global Stewardship circle. “Through its transparent allocations and publicly available demonstration portfolio, Heading for Change will offer an example to private investors of how investing at the intersection of climate and gender can enhance impact, to get beyond net zero to net positive.”

“I truly believe that by making these kinds of investments, private capital can join together with public capital to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis, and scale the tools and services needed for adaptation and resilience,” says Biegel. “Public investors can’t meet the urgent need for climate finance alone. The climate emergency is the greatest issue facing humanity, and by deploying our capital with an eye to sustainability, gender, and other forms of diversity, private investors can be part of the solution.