While enthusiasm for systems change has grown steadily over the past decade, we find a significant gap persists between this enthusiasm and execution. Funders attempting to implement systems change consistently face 9 challenges, including unclear outcome attribution, long commitment horizons, and complex stakeholder coordination.

This report comes ten years after the first Criterion State of the field of gender lens investing report. In 2015, the field’s broad aim was to prove that gender mattered in investing. Today, field builders are asking bolder questions: How do we shift power? What does it look like to invest in healing, not just scaling the field? Which systems should be redesigned? It is a snapshot of ambition rather than a map of all activity. It makes visible ideas, organizations and activities that don’t always attract headlines or capital. It invites funders to expand what they see as “fundable.” And it offers a broader story of what gender lens investing could be when defined by those closest to the work.