GENDERSMART

Campaigning for gender equity through impact investing

Countless research papers, reports and articles make the business case for women-led and gender balanced teams.

Yet in the UK only 14% of women hold executive director roles and only 8% of FTSE 100 CEOs are women. None of them are women of colour.

GenderSmart (now 2X Global) is a global initiative working to move capital and shift systems and institutions to work in more equitable ways. This can include everything from investing in women-owned businesses or integrating gender into the investment process itself.

We worked with GenderSmart to campaign for change through a multi-faceted PR and social media approach to influence the broader investor conversation around how to use finance as a tool for advancing gender (and other forms of) equity worldwide.

PR and Social

We worked closely with co-founder and globally recognised expert on gender lens investing, Suzanne Biegel, to showcase GenderSmart’s work through thought leadership pieces and reactive commentary.

We also managed GenderSmart’s social media platforms, growing the Twitter account by 18% and the LinkedIn account by 38%, over a six month period.

Thought leadership & Events

Catch also supported GenderSmart with communications and media relations around their State of the Field report and flagship global investing Summit, held in London in October 2022 where over 300 thought leaders, changemakers and investors came together to discuss the future of diversity in finance.

We secured media attendance at the Summit and coverage across national and trade press including Bloomberg, CityWire, ESG Clarity, Investment Week, Responsible Investor, and Pioneers Post.  

Strategic Merger Comms 

Catch acted as strategic communications advisors to GenderSmart as they merged with 2X Collaborative, an industry body for gender lens investing. In less than six weeks, Catch built a comprehensive communications strategy that defined key messaging to 60+ B2B constituents and seven audiences, consisting of working groups, advocates, supporters, media, members, and the advisory council - including some of the most prominent names in investing.

On announcement day, the team carefully executed a 16-point comms plan as the starting point. From there the global team, spanning eight time zones, aligned to dispatch communications to all relevant stakeholders and  publicly announced the merger in a leading investment publication.

Catch also led the rebrand process for the GenderSmart and 2X Collaborative merger, working alongside brand and design consultancy, Studio Chong. 

“As a team that’s passionate about driving positive change and greater impact, Catch is a values-aligned PR agency for us. We’ve loved working with them on GenderSmart and appreciated the diligence, creativity and attention to detail they brought to every aspect of their work. We’re excited to continue this journey with them as 2X Global and can't wait to see what we'll achieve together this year.” — Sana Kapadia, Director of Strategy at 2X Global