Heading for Change celebrates $750,000 grant from RS Group

Heading for Change is thrilled to announce a $750,000 grant from RS Group, a Hong Kong based family office focused on sustainability.

$500,000 has been earmarked to support Heading for Change’s operational budget for the next  18 months so the organization can focus on creating an exemplary demonstration portfolio of  investments and grants to advance equity for women and girls and activate solutions to climate  and biodiversity challenges.

“As a funder, we have always been very supportive of capacity-building and sector-building  work,” explains Annie Chen, founder and chair of RS Group. “Most donors like to fund  programming, but without staff and everything else that keeps the lights on, it’s not possible  for organizations to do that program work.”

Heading for Change co-founder and trustee Suzanne Biegel says she is “incredibly grateful” for  RS Group’s support.

“This grant will be invaluable in supporting us to develop educational materials and tools that  will help us to support wealth holders and other private investors to invest with a dual climate  and gender lens, and catalyze the movement of global capital that is necessary to address the climate crisis,” says Biegel.

“I also believe that these materials will be a valuable resource for  entrepreneurs and fund managers, as well as advisors who are working to learn about this field  and to make recommendations for their clients. There is a whole emerging ecosystem of actors  with whom we are collaborating, to highlight their excellent work at the nexus of climate and  gender investing, and we look forward to spotlighting them.”

Chen says the grant was inspired in part by her admiration of Biegel’s work in the gender-smart  investing space. “I have known Suzanne and followed her work for almost a decade, and have a  great admiration for her contributions to the impact investment space,” she explains.

RS Group is also excited to use the partnership as a learning opportunity to bring a stronger  gender lens to its own portfolio. “RS Group has always focused on climate in our philanthropic  and investment portfolio, and we are excited to use our partnership with Heading for Change as an opportunity to learn more about how gender and climate can be combined in investment  for greater impact,” says Chen. “We are also keen to discover gender and climate pipeline opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.”

In the three months since its launch in April 2023, Heading for Change has grown from an initial  endowment of $1MM donated by Biegel and her spouse Dani Maskit, to $3MM, through the  contributions of over 50 individuals and institutional private wealth holders who have become  donor-partners.

Heading for Change seeks to continue to expand its donor-partner community  to have an even greater effect with its portfolio choices, meet investment minimums, provide  more meaningful grants, and educate and inspire more individuals to invest at the critical  intersection of gender and climate to advance long-term positive impact for women and girls,  including nonbinary individuals, and our planet.

“RS Group wants to use this opportunity to urge other funders to step up both on their climate  philanthropy, and on investments that will fuel systems change,” says Chen.