Inclusive Investing: The Key to Wealth Building for Low and Moderate Income Women of Color

Fireside Chat (3 speakers maximum)

• Deliver Equity and Inclusion

financial security and equality, wealth building for women, radical partnerships

Recognizing that income alone is not sufficient to close the enormous gender wealth gap in this country, Commonwealth is focused on opening new 21st century pathways to wealth creation for low and moderate income women. Women Invested is a multi-sectoral initiative that includes: a Framework for Inclusive Investing report developed for the NASDAQ Foundation in partnership with the Aspen Financial Security Program a partnership with Logica Research and Public.com (an investing platform) a detailed study with 1,500 women earning $30,000 to $80,000 annually a six-month investing pilot with 240 women of color both qualitative and quantitative research broad dissemination of research findings and publication of research insights. It builds on Commonwealth’s 20+ years of primary research work with this population. Women Invested reveals the importance of social networks in helping to shape a person’s investor identity and ability to take part in the investing journey. It details investing experience (or lack of it) of women living on low- to moderate-incomes, the barriers they face, three distinct investing personas, how those in their social sphere have impacted their perceptions of investing and financial decisions, as well as the specific types of help/support that are proving most effective. While a majority of Black and Latinx women in the study said they wanted to invest, they didn’t know where to start and faced other systemic barriers that do not support their needs. This work is not possible without collaboration across industry sectors, and Commonwealth is finding that both the types and number of interested partners have been expanding, particularly since the advent of COVID. Women Invested is part of Commonwealth's larger, strategic wealth building initiative that also includes: collective ownership, access to credit and blockchain as the potential foundation for real estate tokenization. Desired Outcomes: The development of new investing tools, access methods and models that educate, support, empower and arm women living on lower incomes to become more fully engaged in the capital market as an avenue to financial security.

• Corporate & SME

• Entrepreneurs

• Service Providers