Catalyzing change at the climate-gender nexus: Launching the Heading for Change Investment Toolkit
“Our investment toolkit is designed to support investors, field builders and other ecosystem players working at the nexus of climate and gender with practical guidance and tools that are robust, easy to use and adaptable. In this way, we aim to demystify and simplify sourcing, assessing and investing at this nexus thereby unlocking more capital and impact.”
We believe that building a more just, resilient future requires not just capital, but also by advancing capacity and commitment with tools and spaces for collective action.
The Heading for Change Investment Toolkit represents a bold step forward in the movement for gender-smart climate investing. It is a set of open-source tools designed not only to guide and support investment decisions, but to empower a growing community of investors, advisors, and changemakers who are committed to advancing gender and climate investing.
Women, particularly those in frontline communities, are disproportionately affected by climate change — and yet they are leading the charge in developing and deploying innovative, community-based solutions. Investing at the intersection of gender and climate isn’t optional, it’s essential for creating meaningful change and advancing resilience.
We’ve drawn on the expertise of our partners and community to ensure these tools reflect real-world complexity, while remaining practical and accessible.
The Scorecard evaluates investments across five dimensions: Climate, gender, climate & gender integration, organizational strength, and fund terms — scoring them 1–5 to guide selection, due diligence and post-investment support. Complementing this, a Climate and Gender Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ) assesses how funds integrate climate and gender, emphasizing women as ‘agents of change’ and examining impact, team strength, and community alignment, as well as broader social justice dimensions.
“What sets Heading for Change’s Toolkit apart is its truly integrated approach — embedding both climate and gender considerations at every step. Our tools are intentionally designed to help investors craft strategies and build portfolios that reflect the critical role of women in advancing climate solutions, and how a gender lens can be applied across the investment thesis and process, as well as at both fund manager and portfolio company level. From our DDQ — centered on uncovering how gender is embedded in a fund’s climate thesis, strategy and actions — to our Scorecard, which explicitly evaluates the depth of that integration, each tool guides investors in creating their own approach to finding and evaluating high-impact opportunities at the climate-gender nexus.”
— Rose Maizner
If you’re working at the climate-gender nexus, or are just beginning your journey, this toolkit is for you. We hope it will be a springboard for deeper engagement, more rigorous due diligence, and more inclusive investments.