New Project! Women’s Democracy Action Fund: Exploring Social Financing Solutions for Women and Gender Diverse Electoral Candidates.
Access to financial resources and capital are important for electing political leaders. For some women, particularly newcomers, racialized and other equity-seeking groups, there is less access to formal/ informal wealth networks. Through this initiative, Equal Voice will explore how a new mix of social finance tools could give women the financial resources they need.
What is the Democracy Action Fund?
Equal Voice has been selected for the Investment Readiness Program (IRP) through Canada’s Women Foundation. The IRP is aimed to support social purpose organizations (SPOs) in building their capacity to participate in Canada’s social finance market. Through the IRP, the Canadian Women’s Foundation aims to boost sector participation of women and gender diverse people in social innovation and social finance.
Why This Project Matters
This exploratory work through June 2023 to March 2024 would allow for relevant stakeholders to work with us to test and validate assumptions, to plan and design potential options and scenarios and then to begin to take steps towards putting a financing platform together.
With the technical expertise and support of legal researchers, by engaging with other partner organizations, we want to be able to build out viable models for a national fund and identify prospective funding partners.
Proposed Timeline and Activities
