Criterion is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to expanding possibilities for how finance can be used for social change.
We work with changemakers, investors, governments, and institutions to shift who has power in financial decision-making.
Our Work
We work with changemakers, investors, governments, and institutions to shift who has power in financial decision-making.
Our WorkJoin us next March and April as we explore these and other questions with socially minded investors, systems thinkers, philanthropists, policymakers, and systems change activists, all working on a wide range of social justice issues.
By Joy Anderson, President and Founder of Criterion Institute and Teresa Wells, Managing Director and Partner at Tiedemann Advisors More than 29,000 acts of rape or sexual assault are committed against women in the U.S. while at work each year.
As an activist think tank, our day-to-day work takes many forms. Whether via interdisciplinary research, trainings for investors and social change organizations on how to engage finance for change, or the design of strategies and tools that enable actors to incorporate power analysis into existing processes, all our work ultimately furthers one or more of our pillars.
About UsOur work spans research, design, and field-building. Below is a sampling of some of our recent work.
Criterion’s work is about expanding what investors, governments, and civil society organizations see as possible for using finance to create transformative social change. Explore our resources based on the specific types of audiences they were intended to support.
Investments in climate mitigation and adaptation continue to increase, but the impact of these investments on children – both positive and negative – is not being systematically considered.
The Blueprint is a document about social change, written for change makers. The focus of the Blueprint is to show how individuals working within grassroots organizations can use finance as a tool in their work
Meet Rev. Philip Waite, a new friend of Criterion Institute, who has a passion for connecting faith and finance to do God’s work in the world. Rev. Waite is pastoral team leader of College Mennonite Church on the campus of Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana.
Now in our third year of interest-free lending to small businesses in greater Austin, University United Methodist’s most valuable “dividend” is our relationships with our neighbors providing the “sweat equity” to start or grow those businesses.
Hope was the first word spoken. Members of the 1K Churches team at Napa Valley Lutheran Church (Napa, California) had been asked to use one word to express what they were feeling now -- four years since they first began with the Bible study.
The Blueprints demonstrate how a variety of social change organizations can design strategies that use systems of finance as tools to create positive social change.
These roadmaps lay out insights for how finance can be used to address gender-based violence in a range of sectors, asset classes, geographies, and investor types.
The TOOLKIT is designed to support your journey as you explore how finance can be used as a tool to create social change.
1K Churches was launched in 2012 to galvanize a movement in the faith-based community and engage US churches to invest in the local economy.
These gender-based violence due diligence tools analyze existing due diligence categories – including political, regulatory, operational, and reputational risks – and show how they can be affected by gender-based violence.
Our work depends on an ever-expanding community of team members, advisors, donors, and other partners who help us demonstrate our theory of change and ultimately achieve our mission. Learn more about how you can become more engaged in our work.
Invitations to Engage