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The Criterion Institute Podcast

The Criterion Institute Podcast

By: Joy Anderson
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Summary
 How do we disrupt the entrenched power dynamics in finance to advance a more equitable future? Join us for the Criterion Institute Podcast as Joy Anderson, a global thought leader in business and social change, leads us through a series of discussions, interviews, frameworks, rants, and re-frames that will help you better understand how to use finance as a tool for transformative systems change. Learn more by visiting us at www.criterioninstitute.org.Copyright 2026 Joy Anderson Economics Management Management & Leadership Personal Finance
Episodes
  • #91: Beyond the Shiny Product: Designing Capital for Local Markets

    #91: Beyond the Shiny Product: Designing Capital for Local Markets
    Nov 5 2026
    In this episode, Joy challenges the financial sector’s fixation on the next “shiny” financial product. Drawing on Criterion Institute’s experience designing investment vehicles across markets, she argues that the problem is often not a lack of financial innovation but a mismatch between capital structures and the markets they are intended to serve. From instruments and fund domiciles to risk assessments and investor requirements, Joy asks what changes when we design investment processes and structures around local realities rather than imported expectations. How might we shift from asking whether communities are investment-ready to whether capital itself is context-appropriate?Joy is then joined by Gladys Kivati, economist, sustainability specialist, and Founder and CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting, who grounds these ideas in agricultural markets across Africa. Gladys describes how direct access to finance, market information, business support, and cooperatives can give women greater ownership, negotiating power, and influence across value chains. Together, Joy and Gladys move the conversation beyond counting how many women receive financing to ask: does investment actually change who sets prices, controls information, captures value, and exercises economic power?Episode Highlights00:00 Why better investment design starts with the market03:28 Imported fund templates and Africa’s capital misalignment05:23 Choosing instruments that reach local enterprises08:18 From de-risking to asking whether capital is context-ready09:42 Why local domicile requires investment in local capacity12:24 Domestic capital holders can shape investment norms14:06 Who sets prices, carries risk, and controls value?15:53 Gladys Kivati on moving women from takers to makers18:09 Why counting women financed misses changes in power20:31 Loans, market information, and agency in value chains23:25 How cooperatives build collective bargaining power26:20 Women’s economic power and more resilient economies32:04 Capital, information, and networks strengthen producers34:53 Four questions to improve investment vehicle design37:14 Criterion Institute’s systems-change workRelevant LinksCriterion Institute website and LinkedIn‍Joy Anderson’s LinkedInGladys Kivati’s LinkedInDive DeeperPacific Possibilities: Designing Better Financial Vehicles for the PacificA particularly direct companion to this episode. The report examines investment vehicles designed around the economic and social realities of Pacific markets, including trade-finance approaches, and explicitly argues for designing vehicles that “fix the capital” rather than forcing enterprises to fit conventional investment models.Addressing Power Dynamics in Investment ProcessesThis report examines how investment processes can respond to intersectional power dynamics in local contexts, using C4D Partners’ work in India as a case study. It connects closely to the episode’s argument that gender lens investing should examine how financial structures shift power rather than simply track participation.Other episodes you might also like:#01: Fix the Capital, Not the Company. Part One.This is probably the closest companion episode. Joy Anderson asks how investment vehicles can be designed for the context in which they invest, including why capital should adapt to enterprises rather than requiring enterprises to adapt to capital.#78: Intermediation Is Not OverheadJoy Anderson explores innovative finance through the infrastructure, intermediaries, instruments, and relationships that determine how capital actually moves, making it a strong continuation of Episode 91’s focus on designing the systems around capital rather than simply creating another product.#79: From Invitation to Trust: Rethinking Relationships in FinanceThis episode looks at power, trust, permission, and influence within investment relationships, extending Episode 91’s challenge to examine who has authority and negotiating power within financial systems.#88: The Politics of Time in Investing: Exit Horizons, Runways, and the Futures We FinanceA useful continuation of the design question: this episode examines how supposedly technical choices such as exit horizons, repayment schedules, liquidity, and fund structures determine whose needs and timelines capital ultimately serves.Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network
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    38 mins
  • #90: RedHat Impact: Fix the Capital, Not the Company, in Practice

    #90: RedHat Impact: Fix the Capital, Not the Company, in Practice
    Oct 22 2026
    What does “fix the capital, not the company” look like in practice? In this episode, Joy Anderson sits down with Cameron Neil, David Carbines, and Paul Howorth, the three founders of Red Hat Impact, to look back on ten years of experimenting with ways to help impact enterprises access capital without giving up unnecessary ownership or control. Their story begins small, with relationships, their own money, and a willingness to learn by doing, and grows into experiments with non-dilutive debt, trade finance, crowdlending and investor syndication.The conversation explores why the innovative finance needs may not always be a novel financial instrument. Sometimes it is about changing who has access to familiar instruments, how risk is understood, how quickly capital can circulate, and whose needs shape the terms. Along the way, they return repeatedly to trust: trust among partners, between investors and enterprises, and as a foundation for experimentation. Drawing on their work with Criterion around menstrual health businesses in the Pacific, the conversation offers a practical example of what it takes to move from talking about financial innovation to actually building and testing something different.00:00 - Introduction to Red Hat Impact and its mission02:35 - The origins of the founders' collaboration over sushi04:21 - Starting small and proving impact through proof points07:10 - The importance of trust and chemistry among founders09:35 - Relationship-based approach and candor in impact finance12:52 - Fixing the capital with non-dilutive, short-term instruments16:05 - Understanding investor expectations and market needs18:00 - The role of velocity and small bets in business growth21:14 - Building and structuring impact entities and instruments22:39 - The menstrual health trade finance vehicle and its evolution24:50 - Addressing power dynamics and systemic change in finance26:43 - The importance of play, experimentation, and relational work30:29 - Challenges and opportunities in impact finance markets33:21 - The need for innovation beyond traditional venture capital36:13 - Reimagining impact finance instruments and access39:04 - The role of imagination, mindset, and systemic change42:26 - Looking ahead: impact, trust, and systemic transformation43:29 - Closing remarks and call to action for impact changeRelevant LinksCriterion Institute website and LinkedInJoy Anderson’s LinkedInCameron Neil’s LinkedInDavid Carbines’ LinkedInPaul Howorth’s LinkedInDive DeeperAdvanced practices in local capital design: Trade LendaThis is probably the strongest companion piece. It examines another model that starts with the realities of underserved markets and asks capital to adapt, rather than treating the market or entrepreneur as the problem to be fixed.Innovative finance navigation guideA useful complement to the episode’s discussion of moving beyond a narrow set of financial instruments and asking how different forms of finance can serve mission-driven organizations. Criterion’s current Advanced Practice library identifies this as an existing resource published May 22, 2026.Fòs Feminista: Building Feminist Financial InfrastructureConnects to the episode’s larger argument that moving money differently requires infrastructure, intermediaries and relationships, not simply another financial product. Criterion’s current Advanced Practice library lists the resource under this exact title.Other episodes you might also like:#83: Trust as Infrastructure: Trade Lenda and the Power of Informal MarketsProbably the closest companion episode. Joy Anderson and Adeshina Adewumi explore designing finance around informal markets, rethinking creditworthiness, trade finance, capital turnover and the proposition that “capital moves at the speed of trust.”#79: From Invitation to Trust: Rethinking Relationships in FinanceExtends the RedHat conversation about finance as a relationship by examining trust, proximity, power and the conditions needed for healthier relationships between investors and companies.#78: Intermediation Is Not OverheadA particularly useful follow-on for listeners interested in the financial infrastructure underneath capital flows. The episode reframes intermediaries, instruments and relationships as essential infrastructure rather than overhead.Part of the
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    44 mins
  • #89: What the Task List Misses: Infrastructure, Care, and the Practice of Puttering

    #89: What the Task List Misses: Infrastructure, Care, and the Practice of Puttering
    Oct 8 2026
    In this episode, Joy Anderson explores puttering as a practice of grace, strategy, and organizational maintenance, arguing that some of the most important work in systems change happens outside formal plans, task lists, and deliverables.Many organizations prize productivity, efficiency, and execution. But what happens when the plan itself becomes too authoritative? Drawing from her own practice of reserving Fridays for what she calls "puttering," Joy reflects on the value of creating space to notice, repair, reconnect, reorganize, and follow the next natural thing rather than the next scheduled task. She distinguishes puttering from procrastination, describing it as a disciplined way of staying close to the work when priorities shift, opportunities emerge, and reality no longer aligns neatly with the plan.The conversation expands beyond personal productivity into questions of organizational design, power, care, and invisible labor. Joy explores how systems depend on maintenance work that rarely appears on project plans or performance metrics: repairing relationships, noticing what is breaking, clearing pathways, and strengthening infrastructure before crises emerge. Connecting these ideas to Criterion's value of grace, she argues that organizations pursuing ambitious systems change must make room not only for strategy and execution, but also for surprise, repair, and the human realities that make long-term change possible.Episode Highlights00:00 - Introduction to the podcast and guest00:36 - The promise and limitations of financial innovation01:36 - Moving beyond fixing capital to changing economic conditions03:24 - The practice of puttering and its role in organizational health05:17 - Puttering as wandering with intention06:46 - The discipline of staying close to the work08:41 - Using puttering to adapt to change and uncertainty10:05 - The value of grace in organizational work12:01 - Organizational maintenance and invisible labor13:24 - Designing organizations for puttering and repair15:20 - The importance of grace and gentle work17:18 - The limits of list-based productivity19:03 - Valuing small acts of care and repair21:00 - Who is always doing the unrecognized work?22:26 - Practicing grace through puttering23:25 - Practical exercises for puttering25:54 - The role of surprise and small moments in systems change27:22 - The balance between planning and grace28:31 - Closing thoughts and invitation for further engagementRelevant LinksCriterion Institute website and LinkedInJoy Anderson's LinkedInDive Deeper6 Approaches GuidanceCriterion's framework for understanding how social change happens through learning, teaching, amplification, design, field building, and influence. This episode's discussion of puttering highlights the often-unseen work that strengthens these approaches and creates the conditions for meaningful systems change.A Blueprint for Grassroots Organizations on Using Finance for Social ChangeThis Blueprint explores how organizations can build on existing relationships, networks, skills, and experience to create change. Joy's reflections on maintenance, repair, noticing, and working with what already exists align closely with the Blueprint's emphasis on identifying and strengthening assets rather than starting from scratch.A Blueprint for Women's Funds Using Finance as a Tool for Social ChangeThe Blueprint presents a framework for using finance as one strategy among many for social change. Like this episode, it encourages leaders to expand their imagination beyond familiar practices and pay attention to the underlying structures, relationships, and forms of power that shape outcomes. A Blueprint for Faith-Based Organizations on using Finance as a Tool for Social ChangeWritten for changemakers, this Blueprint examines how organizations can use finance alongside other strategies to influence systems and build new partnerships. The episode's focus on organizational infrastructure, grace, and creating space for emergence complements the Blueprint's emphasis on building change through relationships and collaboration.The Gift of ClarityIn this reflection, Joy writes about ambiguity, systems change, and the moments when clarity emerges from complexity. Readers who are interested in the episode's themes of slowing down, making room for surprise, and allowing the work to reveal what matters will find a natural extension of those ideas here. If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:#58: Check List or Trust List: Power, Performance, and the Politics of ProcedureA reflection on checklists, procedures, trust, and organizational power. This episode complements Joy's critique of allowing lists and formal processes to become substitutes for judgment and relationship.#71: Time to Pause: How We Learn to Let Go, Listen and PivotJoy reflects on releasing assumptions and creating space for new possibilities. Both episodes explore how slowing down can create conditions for better leadership and more ...
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    30 mins
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