How do we disrupt the entrenched power dynamics in finance to advance a more equitable future? Join us for the Criterion Institute Podcast as Joy Anderson, a global thought leader in business and social change, leads us through a series of discussions, interviews, frameworks, rants, and re-frames that will help you better understand how to use finance as a tool for transformative systems change. Learn more by visiting us at www.criterioninstitute.org.
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#87: Thank You for Naming It: The Early Days of Gender Lens Investing
Season 1 · Episode 87
Thursday, September 10, 2026 • Duration 31:29
In this episode, Joy Anderson sits down with longtime collaborator Jackie VanderBrug to revisit the origins of gender lens investing and the work of building a field before most people believed it existed. Drawing on their years together at Criterion Institute, they reflect on the early efforts to identify, map, and connect investors, researchers, philanthropists, and practitioners who were already incorporating gender into financial decision-making but lacked a shared language or framework.
The conversation explores the importance of naming, the challenges of making gender visible within emerging impact investing conversations, and the tension between simplicity and rigor as the field developed. Joy and Jackie discuss the evolution of concepts such as "Women Effect," "Revaluing Gender," and "gender lens investing," as well as the role of leadership, philanthropy, community-building, and intellectual frameworks in making new possibilities visible. Ultimately, the episode is a reflection on how movements are built: through mapping, invitation, collaboration, persistence, and the willingness to claim possibility before there is permission to do so.
Episode Highlights
00:00 - Introduction to the podcast and guests
02:24 - Reflecting on the early days of gender lens investing
04:17 - The role of visibility and community in building the field
07:13 - Naming and framing the movement: Women Effect and gender lens
09:11 - Overcoming resistance and gaining acceptance
12:48 - The impact of mapping and community building
16:37 - The evolution of impact investment frameworks
19:54 - The importance of gender analysis over numbers
22:44 - Building the field without a central fund
25:39 - Legacy and ongoing influence of early efforts
28:55 - Reflections on collaboration and future impact
A foundational review of how gender lens investing evolved as a field, mapping the ideas, actors, products, and organizations that helped move gender from a niche concern to an established investment lens.
A framework for understanding how gender analysis can reveal opportunities, risks, and dynamics within financial systems, moving beyond simply counting women toward a deeper examination of power and value.
If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:
#86: A Tale of Two NAPs: National Action Plans and Much-Needed Naps
Season 1 · Episode 86
Thursday, August 27, 2026 • Duration 22:28
For the past several months, Criterion Institute has been wrestling with a deceptively simple question: how do you finance a National Action Plan (NAP) to end gender-based violence? Most NAPs contain detailed commitments, timelines, settings, and responsibilities, yet many remain chronically underfunded. In this episode, Joy takes listeners inside Criterion's thinking process as the team tried to translate these plans into pathways for finance. Along the way, they discovered that many of the frameworks they relied on for years were excellent at describing landscapes and systems, but less useful when reading a plan line-by-line and asking where money could actually move.
The episode introduces a distinction that became foundational to the work: the difference between an investment case and a financing mechanism. Costing studies and investment cases play an important political role by helping governments understand the economic consequences of violence and the value of prevention. But those arguments alone do not explain how capital moves, who bears risk, what financial structures exist, or how prevention becomes investable. Joy reflects on the false starts, AI-generated dead ends, framework redesigns, and countless synthesis conversations that ultimately led the team toward a more practical framework for financing National Action Plans. The result is not a finished answer, but a clearer way of thinking about how finance, policy, prevention, and systems change intersect.
Episode Highlights
00:00 - Introduction to financing national action plans
01:55 -The challenge of understanding how money moves in plans
02:53 -Distinction between investment case and mechanism
07:06 -Frameworks as tools, not solutions
10:08 -Applying frameworks to real plans and the need for reflection
14:57 -The five categories of financing for national action plans
#85: Changing Your Frame Not Your Mind: Ensuring Your Actions Follow What You See
Season 1 · Episode 85
Thursday, August 13, 2026 • Duration 25:23
A colleague recently asked Joy Anderson where she'd changed her mind—the kind of question you ask to find out whether someone is actually learning, or just defending old positions with better language. Her honest answer surprised her, and it probably won't be the one you're expecting. Because over 25 years, the changes that mattered most weren't reversals at all. They were quieter than that, harder to name, and they rearranged how she works, what she'll own, and where she draws the line.
Next, Joy walks through a handful of moments where nothing about the facts changed—same rooms, same partners, same work—and yet everything did. It's a reflection on the stories we tell ourselves about our place in the work, why they're so hard to let go of, and what becomes possible when we finally do. She closes by turning the question back on you: what are you looking at right now that might be ready to be seen differently?
Episode Highlights
00:00 - Introduction to the episode and core themes
02:35 - The question of changing one's mind and seeing differently
03:30 - Reframing support as infrastructure in social change work
07:21 - The shift from outsider to inside the work
09:16 - Personal reframing: recognizing limits as system design constraints
17:31 - The importance of seeing and acting on what you see
18:54 - Invitation to reflect on current frames and perceptions
If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:
#84: Narratives, Local, and the Stories That Shape Finance
Season 1 · Episode 84
Thursday, July 30, 2026 • Duration 48:41
What stories shape what we believe is possible in finance? In this episode, Joy Anderson sits down with Joanna Levitt Cea, Founder and Principal of Valiente Capital Design and co-lead of the Beloved Economies Collaborative for Narrative Infrastructure, to explore the role of narratives in creating economic and systems change. Together, they unpack the difference between stories, communications strategies, and narratives themselves, examining how underlying cultural assumptions influence the ways we understand ownership, investment, opportunity, and power. The conversation explores why narrative change is not simply about finding the right message, but about collective action, organizing, and reshaping the stories that define what people believe is possible.
The episode then turns to one of the most common and often unquestioned words in innovative finance: local. Joy examines five distinct narratives embedded within the concept. Rather than treating local as a geographic descriptor, she argues that each narrative carries a different theory of change and implies different practices around governance, ownership, expertise, and value creation. Together, these reflections invite listeners to ask not whether finance is local, but what narrative of local is being invoked and whether the structures of finance actually make that narrative real.
Episode Highlights
00:00 Introduction to the power of narratives in finance
01:20 Narratives shape what people believe is possible
02:18 The importance of stories in social and environmental finance
03:26 Ownership economy and its narrative shifts
04:54 The role of narratives in building intergenerational wealth
07:59 The collaborative approach to narrative change
10:20 Stories as drivers of policy and norm shifts
12:17 Narrative as a team sport and collective action
34:04 The multiple narratives of local in finance
36:29 Different stories of local and their implications
Relevant LinksDive DeeperIf you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:Part of the
#83: Trust as Infrastructure: Trade Lenda and the Power of Informal Markets
Season 1 · Episode 83
Thursday, July 16, 2026 • Duration 40:05
What happens when finance starts with trust instead of control? In this conversation, Joy Anderson and Adeshina Adewumi explore how Trade Lenda has built financial infrastructure around the realities of informal markets across Nigeria. Rather than treating informality as a problem to be fixed, Trade Lenda recognizes existing systems of trust, accountability, and economic participation and designs financial products that work within them. The discussion traces the full supply chain, from farmers and aggregators to manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, and examines why supporting the entire value chain creates stronger, more resilient markets.
The conversation also explores how power operates in financial systems. Adeshina explains how Trade Lenda rethinks creditworthiness, works with community accountability structures, develops Sharia-compliant financing options, and provides capacity-building alongside capital. Together, Joy and Ade examine how trust can become infrastructure: creating financial systems that move capital faster, expand economic opportunity, and preserve the community relationships that make markets function in the first place. The result is a compelling example of how finance can support dignity, shared prosperity, and transformative systems change.
Episode Highlights
00:28 - The importance of trust in finance and community systems.
01:28 - Understanding informal markets as systems to be supported.
04:10 - Trade Lenda's approach to financing entire supply chains.
05:06 - Why agriculture, retail, and essential services matter for economic growth.
07:43 - Rethinking collateral and credit access for underserved entrepreneurs.
11:01 - How speed and capital turnover drive successful trade finance.
14:22 - Diversifying within value chains to manage risk and strengthen markets.
#82: How Staying in Paradox Can Sustain Hope and Drive Systemic Change
Season 1 · Episode 82
Thursday, July 2, 2026 • Duration 36:23
In this episode, Joy Anderson responds to some listener questions, naming six paradoxes she encounters when working to shift financial systems toward gender justice and social change. Joy frames paradox as a discipline: holding two seemingly incompatible truths at once such as movement and field-building, urgency and patience, collaboration and competition and resisting the urge to resolve them prematurely.
Across themes ranging from pluralism in knowledge to the risks of public experimentation, Joy explores how finance simultaneously enables and constrains transformation. She emphasizes that these tensions are signals rather than problems, helping us see where systems are unstable and change is possible. The episode closes with practical reflections on working within paradox.
Episode Highlights
00:00 - Introduction to Paradox in Systems Change
05:01 - The Movement vs. Professional Field Paradox
10:44 - Long-Term Change vs. Immediate Harm Paradox
14:32 - Collaboration vs. Competition Paradox
18:16 - Public Learning vs. Risk Aversion Paradox
22:08 - Pluralism vs. Standardization Paradox
27:21 - Living with Paradox: Practices and Reflections
34:11 - Conclusion: Embracing Complexity in Change
#81: AI at the Door: Grace, Hospitality, and Who We Talk To
Season 1 · Episode 81
Thursday, June 18, 2026 • Duration 18:14
In this episode of the Criterion Institute Podcast, Joy reflects on a recent conversation with her brother, philosopher Joel Anderson, about how AI is changing the way we work. While AI can function like a team of highly capable research assistants by supporting analysis, drafting, and synthesis, Joy explores the unintended consequences of turning to machines instead of people. What appears efficient on the surface can quietly lead to a withdrawal from collaboration, reducing opportunities for shared thinking, disagreement, and collective insight.
Drawing on Criterion’s core values of grace, hospitality, and the power of invitation, Joy reframes how AI should be used in systems change work. These practices of inviting others into the work, sharing ownership of ideas, and creating space for multiple perspectives are essential to shifting power. The question is not whether AI is helpful, but whether it is being used to deepen collaboration or to avoid it. Joy challenges listeners to reflect on who they are inviting into their work, and whether AI is expanding or replacing those invitations.
Episode Highlights
00:28 — A conversation on AI and collaboration
02:30 — The metaphor of AI as research assistants
04:49 — Grace, hospitality, and invitation as operating principles
#80: What Are You Willing to See? Disruption, Fault Lines, and the Moments That Matter
Season 1 · Episode 80
Thursday, June 4, 2026 • Duration 33:39
In this episode, Joy Anderson reframes one of the most common narratives in moments of crisis: instead of asking how to stabilize and return to normal, she asks what disruption makes visible. Building on earlier conversations about systems opportunities, she distinguishes between disruptive events and the deeper structural patterns they expose, and highlights how moments of volatility can make long-standing dynamics of power, risk, and inequity harder to ignore.
The episode opens with a conversation with Rachel Sinha, a systems change practitioner and field builder, as the two explore the tensions inherent in building a field, from questions of legitimacy and power to who gets resourced and recognized. From there, Joy connects these themes to Criterion’s work on gender-based violence, feminist finance, and local capital, showing how disruption can reveal hidden costs and overlooked actors within financial systems. The episode ultimately challenges listeners to treat disruption as evidence and invites them to see systems more clearly and act with greater readiness.
Episode Highlights
00:00 - Introduction to Systems Change and Disruption
02:49 - Building a Field of Systems Change Practice
#79: From Invitation to Trust: Rethinking Relationships in Finance
Season 1 · Episode 79
Thursday, May 21, 2026 • Duration 24:35
In this episode, Joy Anderson reflects on invitation as a foundational practice for leadership, collaboration, and systems change. Moving beyond calendar invites, she reframes invitation as a form of power that determines whether participation is passive or meaningful. When people are explicitly invited into roles that matter, where their presence is needed and their contribution is clear, progress is made. In complex systems where hierarchy is unclear, invitation becomes the mechanism that supports coordination and shared purpose.
Joy then reframes the notion of “handholding,” a common phrase in investing that often implies lack of capability. What is really being described, says Joy, is about trust, proximity, and power. Advice in investing is rarely neutral, especially when tied to capital, and what is presented as support can become control without permission and alignment. Drawing from work with the Mastercard Foundation African Growth Fund, she outlines four conditions that make for better and more balanced investment relationships: permission, boundaries, protection of vulnerability, and moments to recalibrate. Together, these help us to rethink how relationships are built and how influence operates within financial systems.
Episode Highlights
00:00 Introduction to the episode and themes
01:49 Invitation as a form of power
04:14 Invitation in complex collaborations and consortiums
06:18 From presence to contribution: what invitation makes possible
08:40 Practices of invitation in leadership and systems change
10:03 Rant: unpacking the phrase “handholding”
12:30 Trust, vulnerability, and investment relationships
14:57 Permission, advice, and power in investing
Capacity, timing, and misalignment in support
#78: Intermediation Is Not Overhead
Season 1 · Episode 78
Thursday, May 7, 2026 • Duration 25:20
In this episode, Joy Anderson reflects on a renewed wave of conversations around innovative finance following recent funding disruptions across the feminist movement, particularly in the context of discussions surrounding the Women Deliver conference in Australia. Drawing from Criterion Institute’s long-standing work at the intersection of finance and social change, she introduces a set of reframes designed to move organizations beyond the narrow question of “how do we get more funding?” toward a deeper understanding of how capital actually moves within economic systems.
The episode outlines seven key reframes. Through these reframes, Joy highlights the importance of financial infrastructure—intermediaries, instruments, and systems that structure relationships and shape power. Ultimately, the episode argues that sustainable and equitable movement-building depends not on accessing more money, but on intentionally designing the relationships and systems through which finance operates.
Episode Highlights
00:00 - Introduction to Innovative Finance and Feminist Movements
05:14 - Understanding Economic Relationships in Movements
10:14 - The Role of Financial Intermediaries
15:08 - Reframing Funding and Economic Relationships
20:10 - Building Trust and Stability in Financial Systems
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This framework is referenced repeatedly throughout the episode as the starting point for understanding how finance can support prevention by integrating GBV as material risk, financing what works, and valuing the future created through prevention.
Joy explores the intersection of finance and gender-based violence, emphasizing infrastructure, leverage points, and systems change. This episode provides important context for understanding why Criterion's work has increasingly focused on the infrastructure needed to support GBV prevention.
A foundational episode exploring how financial systems can be used to reduce violence and introducing several strategic approaches that connect directly to discussions in this episode about financing pathways and systems change.
Provides historical context for Criterion's GBV work and explains why the organization chose to build a deep portfolio of ideas and strategies at the intersection of finance and gender-based violence.
Listeners interested in the systems-change dimensions of this episode will find a useful companion conversation on leverage, timing, relationships, and strategic action.
A natural follow-on episode about reframing, changing analysis, and understanding how shifts in perspective ultimately change actions and outcomes within systems.
This publication explores the role of imagination in creating alternative financial futures and aligns closely with Joy's discussion of reframing reality and expanding what becomes possible through new ways of seeing.
Framework for Financing the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence
The framework emphasizes finance as a system of power rather than simply a source of funding, echoing the episode's distinction between support work and infrastructure-building.
Reflection: Making Gender-Based Violence Material to the World of Finance
A classic Criterion reframe that demonstrates how changing the frame around a problem can fundamentally alter how finance interprets risk and opportunity.
This resource highlights the importance of imagining alternative futures and changing assumptions about what finance can do, themes woven throughout this episode.
#84: Narratives, Local, and the Stories That Shape Finance
Joy examines the tensions and paradoxes that emerge when trying to create lasting systems change, complementing this episode's exploration of competing frames and perspectives.
#80: What Are You Willing to See? Disruption, Fault Lines, and the Moments That Matter
A reflection on disruption as a tool for revealing underlying systems, making it a natural companion to this episode's focus on perception and awareness.
#79: From Invitation to Trust: Rethinking Relationships in Finance
This article examines how investment leaders are redesigning financial practices to address power dynamics embedded within investment structures. By highlighting innovations in governance, investor participation, accountability, and decision-making, it complements this episode's discussion of narratives by showing how underlying assumptions about authority, expertise, and ownership become embedded in financial systems and how those assumptions can be intentionally challenged and changed.
This resource examines how financial structures can be intentionally designed around local knowledge, governance, ownership, and accountability. It directly connects to the episode's exploration of local as democratic legitimacy, contextual intelligence, and economic self-determination.
This framework provides an example of how financial systems can be redesigned to address power dynamics rather than simply expanding access. It reinforces the episode's discussion of moving beyond surface-level solutions and examining the underlying structures that shape outcomes.
Joy Anderson and Joanna Levitt Cea explore how fund design can become a tool for shifting power, why context should come before replication, and how finance can be redesigned around community knowledge and lived experience.
This case study directly examines Trade Lenda's approach to designing financial systems around informal markets, community accountability, alternative underwriting, and localized financial infrastructure. It is essentially the written companion to many of the ideas discussed in the episode.
This framework provides one of Criterion's core approaches to understanding how financial structures influence social outcomes and how systems can be intentionally redesigned. Mentioned in related Criterion resource descriptions.
If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:
This episode explores trust as a foundational practice for leadership, collaboration, and systems change, making it the closest thematic companion to the Trade Lenda discussion.
A reframing of financial infrastructure and intermediation that connects directly to this episode's discussion of building systems that allow capital to move more effectively through markets.
A foundational resource on integrating gender and power into financial decision-making, relevant to the episode’s reflections on pluralism and standardized “proof.”
If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:
A systems-level framework that explains how financial structures, incentives, and norms influence the persistence of gender-based violence and how finance can be used to prevent it.
A case study showing how a feminist intermediary designs and uses financial and non-financial assets to reshape capital flows and build long-term movement-led financial infrastructure.
A publication that explores how reimagining financial systems can unlock new strategies and possibilities for advancing gender equality and social justice.
A report that outlines how to design investment vehicles grounded in local economic and social realities, rather than forcing existing financial models onto communities.
This report examines how power operates in emerging financial fields and how actors navigate existing systems while trying to change them. It highlights the tension between advancing new ideas and working within entrenched power structures, making it highly relevant to this episode’s focus on invitation, influence, and participation.
A deep dive into how investment processes reflect and respond to power dynamics, including how trust, transparency, and engagement shape relationships between investors and companies. The report emphasizes the role of intentional design in building more equitable investment relationships.
This report introduces tools for identifying and measuring how power shows up in investment processes—moving beyond representation to examine whose knowledge is valued and how decisions are made. It directly connects to the episode’s discussion of influence, control, and whose perspective shapes outcomes.
A framework for identifying and shifting power, privilege, and bias within financial systems by focusing on how investments are made. It highlights how changing processes—not just outcomes—can transform relationships and redistribute power in finance.
