What we do

The Gender Scaling Financing Facility (GSFF) is an ambitious initiative to power the growth of gender-mainstreamed social enterprises across Latin America, promoted by LeFil Consulting and Pro Mujer with the support of the Swiss Development and Cooperation agency (SDC). It targets 140 impact-driven, market-based ventures operating in the region, ranging from small to large size, with no restrictions on sector. 

Our approach goes beyond traditional gender-lens investing. The current paradigm targets women-led companies, or companies that target (exclusively) women with their services. In our view, this approach has 2 major flaws: 

• Investing into women is no guarantee of gender inclusivity or lack of gender bias (for example, female entrepreneurs also have gender biases, which may reflect how they lead their venture)
• It is a niche endeavor, as it excludes many ventures that (could) promote or contribute to gender inclusion and equality in strategic and important ways.

We believe that gender can and should be mainstreamed: it is a dimension that is important across HR, leadership, governance, product, marketing and sales, supply, etc. For us, gender mainstreaming means identifying all the opportunities that an organization – any organization – has to improve and promote gender inclusion throughout its work. This does not necessarily or exclusively mean hiring more women, or targeting more female clients, but rather recognizing, understanding and accomodating the different needs, expectations and priorities that women and men have, whether they are customers, employees, suppliers or board members. We see 2 crucial benefits with this new paradigm: 

• With the right support and approach, almost any social enterprise can be gender-mainstreamed, independently of the gender of the entrepreneur or that of its clients/beneficiaries. 
• Gender mainstreaming drives powerful transformation, with long-lasting benefits in terms of business and impact. 

How we do it

Our approach entails embarking social enterprises on a long-term transformational journey that embeds gender mainstreaming into their DNA. 

It is organized in 3 phases:

1. Gender mainstreaming training (October 2022-June 2023)

The participating enterprises start with a training, which combines self-learning/independent work based on online resources with facilitated virtual group workshops, where participants receive personalized feedback on their work from trainers and peers. The 3 modules help the participants i) gain awareness about their own gender biases, ii) discover the many opportunities they have to reduce such biases and promote gender inclusion within their specific venture, and iii) zoom into a few of those opportunities which they want to focus on in priority. The training spans 6 weeks and is delivered by Pro Mujer or LeFil in cohorts. 

By the end of the training, each participating venture has identified two concrete initiatives to use gender as a business and impact performance lever for their organization. These initiatives are designed to be pragmatic, feasible and strategic. They are set by each entrepreneur, depending on his/her own priorities, sector and circumstances. Through the initiatives, the ventures will discover and learn how and how much can gender contribute to their success.

2. Implementation of strategic gender initiatives (Jan 2023-Dec 2024)

Each venture works with Pro Mujer or LeFil to further refine their two initiatives, including a workplan and budget. The ventures are expected to carry out the iniviatives mainly with their own resources, but the GSFF also provides small grants (typically USD 1k-5k) to cover part of the expenses. This funding, albeit limited, is an important element of our approach, as it not only reduces the financial hurdle for the ventures, but it also serves as a “pull factor”, incentivizing the entrepreneurs to work on this topic. Each team also picks specific indicators and targets to track the performance of their initiatives over time, choosing from a list of 30+ standard KPIs created by LeFil, which encompass a wide range of outcomes both on the business and social impact sides.

The organizations then start working on their initiatives independently, with quarterly touchpoints with Pro Mujer for further support and progress reporting. This is typically where the true transformation starts: by engaging actively with concrete initiatives, and seeing first-hand the impact they can generate, most ventures start to realize the full potential of gender inclusion to drive growth and impact, which often leads them to go beyond the initial design and objectives and embrace gender mainstreaming as a core part of their DNA and mindset.

3. Access to larger investment to fuel gender-powered growth (Oct 2023-Dec 2024)

Ventures that achieve good traction on their gender initiatives and show the “mindset shift” described above are then offered the opportunity to access bigger investments to fund their growth, through a combination of donor funding from SDC and private capital from partner investors. We purposely offer a range of investment types and ticket sizes, both to cover the diverse financing needs of the ventures, and as a proof of concept to assess which financing modalities prove most attractive and effective for the ventures and investors. We will also design hybrid financing mechanisms, where donor funding can be leveraged in flexible ways, linked with the achievement of impact targets, to incentivize private investments in gender-mainstreamed ventures. LeFil facilitates the matchmaking by curating a pipeline of relevant ventures among GSFF participants, organizing pitch days with interested potential investors, and/or facilitating direct introductions on a case by case basis.

Who we are

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is the agency for international cooperation of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). SDC is the sponsor and funder of the GSFF, as part of its efforts to promote gender equality.

LeFil Consulting is a consultancy specialized in social innovation and impact. Over the past several years, LeFil has helped hundreds of social entrepreneurs incorporate gender as an impact and performance lever. Building on this experience, LeFil designed the GSFF. LeFil is in charge of overall design and management of the GSFF, and leads partnership development with investors and other stakeholders.

Pro Mujer is a nonprofit development organization, driven by the mission of advancing towards gender equality in Latin America. It is the implementation parter of GSFF.

Partner investors

The GSFF establishes partnerships with several investors which share an interest in supporting ventures that are actively promoting gender inclusion.