WFCO Gender Lens Impact Investing Platform

The $5,000,000 campaign will expand The Women’s Foundation of Colorado’s ability to deploy impact investing alongside grantmaking—so more capital reaches women-led social ventures and community initiatives that conventional funders often overlook.

In a moment when women, especially women of color, continue to face barriers to start-up and growth capital, the campaign enables timely, flexible financing that can move promising ideas into action.

Building on WFCO’s decade of experience, the campaign will increase below-market-rate loans and other mission-aligned investments, guided by a rigorous 100% gender-lens investment strategy. It will deepen existing investments, advance new opportunities under active consideration, and support co-created investment vehicles with partners.

Investments will be deployed in priority areas already reflected in WFCO’s work, including affordable housing, newcomer support, maternal health, and Indigenous-led media, with an explicit aim of measurable social benefit alongside financial return.

Major donors and partners can participate through tailored collaboration—deepening an existing investment, exploring current opportunities, or co-creating a new idea with WFCO to put capital to work for equity across Colorado.

This campaign matters now because WFCO is actively using impact investing—alongside grantmaking—to reach entrepreneurs, social ventures, and community initiatives that conventional funders overlook. In a moment when women, and especially women of color, face persistent barriers to accessing start-up and growth capital, flexible, trust-based financing can be the difference between an idea that stalls and one that transforms a neighborhood.

Waiting risks missing the “right investment at the right moment.” WFCO is already deploying below-market-rate loans and mission-aligned investments in areas like affordable housing, newcomer support, maternal health, and Indigenous-led media; timely capital allows WFCO to respond to community need with the kind of innovative, accessible terms that traditional financing often does not provide.

If this campaign succeeds, more capital will be put to work beyond traditional philanthropy—through impact investments and low-interest loans—so that every dollar in WFCO’s ecosystem is actively advancing gender, racial, and economic equity.

The campaign will deepen existing mission-aligned investments, pursue new opportunities under active consideration, and enable co-created investment vehicles with partners who bring their own vision and resources. The result is a stronger, more flexible platform for deploying generous, accessible capital to women-led social ventures and community initiatives—especially those overlooked by conventional funders—grounded in WFCO’s rigorous 100% gender-lens investment strategy.

This campaign will deliver increased deployment of mission-aligned capital through WFCO’s impact investing strategy—expanding below-market-rate loans and other investment vehicles that provide flexible, trust-based financing to women-led social ventures and community initiatives. It will also strengthen and extend WFCO’s ability to invest in priority areas already reflected in its work, including affordable housing, newcomer support, maternal health, and Indigenous-led media.

WFCO’s approach to impact investing is explicitly designed to generate measurable social benefit alongside financial return, using a rigorous gender-lens framework to ensure that 100% of investable assets meet mission-aligned criteria. The source material does not specify campaign-level numeric outcome targets or a public reporting cadence; WFCO will track investments and loans made through this strategy and assess them against its gender-lens criteria and intended social impact alongside financial performance.

$1,400,000 of the $5,000,000 campaign is already fulfilled

Partnership is intentionally flexible: there is no single entry point. Major donors can deepen an existing WFCO investment, join conversations about current opportunities, or bring an impact investing idea to co-create with WFCO as a trusted, experienced collaborator.

WFCO will build the relationship through direct dialogue and tailored collaboration, bringing a decade of impact investing experience, deep community relationships, and a rigorous gender-lens framework to ensure each partner’s capital is deployed with purpose toward equity for Colorado women and their families. The source material does not list giving levels or recognition benefits; interested partners are invited to connect directly with Maggie Stoot, Vice President of Development, at maggies@wfco.org.