Organizational Models for the Equality Fund Initiative

Overview

In late 2018, Jackson and Associates was engaged by the MATCH International Women’s Fund, a Canadian development NGO, to provide strategic planning and research services in support of the design of a new Equality Fund Initiative (EFI), to be financed by philanthropic and private investment along with matching funds from Global Affairs Canada. In turn, the EFI would undertake an ambitious agenda of grant-making to women’s civil-society organizations and gender lens investing in the public and private markets. A working group on the EFI led by MATCH brought together women philanthropists, private investors, community foundations, other development NGOs and, later, a major Canadian bank. To support the deliberations of the working group, Jackson and Associates compared the advantages and disadvantages of various features of two options:  scaling up the MATCH Fund versus creating a new Foundation.