#66: Designing Finance for Context: A Conversation with Joanna Levitt Cea
In this episode, Joy sits down with Joanna Levitt Cea, Founder and Principal of Valiente Capital Design and lead of the Gender Funders CoLab report Moving Beyond Grant Capital: Meeting the Moment with Innovative Finance. Together, they unpack what it means to truly design finance for context - not just replicate existing models - and explore how fund design can become a tool for shifting power and advancing gender justice.
The conversation dives into the challenges of translation between finance and community knowledge, the pitfalls of “landscape mapping” without real co-design, and the importance of experimentation over perfection. Ultimately, Joy and Joanna invite listeners to imagine finance as an evolving language of possibility - one rooted in courage, care, and collaboration.
00:27 - Introduction
04:37 - Start with context, not track record
08:49 - Separating design from management
12:27 - The danger of hidden rules in design
16:34 - Translation: finance language and context
24:43 - Valiente’s brave translation work
31:15 - Move resources now: plurality and iteration
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