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hello I'm Cheryl Coleman managing
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director of the wharton social impact
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initiative and we're here today to talk
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about gender lens investing with ruth
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shaver who is the president and founder
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of the Tara Health Foundation Ruth thank
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you for joining us thank you for having
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me so tell us a little bit about the
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Tara Health Foundation and your
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background my pleasure
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so I'm a physician I'm an ob/gyn
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physician and I spent my career working
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for Kaiser Permanente in California and
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in in addition to being a provider of
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general ob/gyn care I also have the
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opportunity to have many different
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administrative roles most significantly
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I had the opportunity to oversee the
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evidence-based medicine program at
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Kaiser Permanente
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can you explain what evidence-based
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medicine is I mean is a tall medicine
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evidence-based we hope so but what that
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means is how does medicine translate the
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research and the basic science and human
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physiology into actual care how do we go
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from understanding how a drug might work
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to how do we actually use it in people
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to have them have better outcomes
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healthier lives and that can be basic
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science it can be a clinical trial and
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it also can be what we call
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implementation research so how do you
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actually create programs that reliably
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deliver some sort of technology to
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people so that they have the benefits of
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that sign and so is basically you're
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developing that implementation aspect is
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very interesting because what you're
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saying is let's have some sort of
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standardization because it's based on
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this kind of evidence rather than each
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of us doing it our own individual ways
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that's exactly right and in fact we talk
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about manufacturing and other types of
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industries in addition to medicine as
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evolving from a craft into a production
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system where you end up getting the
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reliability and quality and
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standardization through the system
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systems engineering and that was what my
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background was at Kaiser Permanente and
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when I started my new career in
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philanthropy I've been very interested
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in bringing all of that I've learned not
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just in the content not just in how do
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we take
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good care of people and women but also
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how do we create more reliable systems
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in this new discipline so then how's the
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tarah health foundation doing that well
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we have a couple different things and
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our overall mission is to improve the
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lives of women and girls and we're doing
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that by demonstrating creative uses of
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philanthropic capital so that means that
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we're looking at our 500 percent of our
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assets from how we make grants how we
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develop the fields how we do direct and
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private investing and also how we use
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the largest part of our endowment in in
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public equities in public investing and
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we want to have a hundred percent
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mission alignment in our specific area
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of social interest which is in
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reproductive health we firmly believe
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that improving a woman's opportunity to
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control the size of her family is going
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to optimize both our economic and social
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aspects of her life
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so by looking at improving access to
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reproductive health care we can do that
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in many different ways we can do that by
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funding grants to improve clinic access
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or we can do that by investing in
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companies that are creating new products
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for contraceptive use or we can think
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about how are we using our public
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investing strategy to also improve the
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lives of women and girls so we're
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looking across all of our assets so give
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you a specific example of an investment
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you made or a grant you've made that
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could help illuminate some of these
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approaches well we believe that not only
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are we do we need to improve access to
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reproductive health technologies but we
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need to improve access to capital for
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those who are providing reproductive
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health so one example of how we're using
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capital in an integrated fashion and
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creatively is in how we've supported an
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organization called whole Women's Health
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whole Women's Health were the plaintiff
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in the recent Supreme Court case that
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was decided last year that was arguing
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against the restrictive laws in the
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state of Texas whole Women's Health has
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been a vibrant entrepreneurially led
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organization and
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thriving in its provision of women's
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health services and reproductive health
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and abortion care in particular but
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because of all of the burden of the
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ledges of the litigation they needed to
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open and close their clinics multiple
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times as a result they had a large
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amount of debt and the only place that
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they were able to get capital from were
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high interest credit card debt so when
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we got involved in supporting them we
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had the opportunity to refinance their
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debt with a very low interest rate very
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favorable terms for them and yet it
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still was providing an investment for
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Tara Health Foundation as opposed to
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giving them a grant we were able to to
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do this in private debt it's giving us a
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three percent return over five years and
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it saves your grant money for another
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educator in it and it's not a program
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related investment it's actually coming
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out of our endowment also with whole
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women's health they also have a
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non-profit arm and once the Supreme
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Court case was settled last year they
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had the opportunity to reopen their
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flagship clinic in Austin and that we
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were able to finance through a grant so
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in addition to the debt through as a
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private investment we also were able to
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provide grant money through to different
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parts of our portfolio and that's one of
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the things we're seeing a lot when we're
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talking about impact investing in the
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work we're doing at this social impact
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initiative is that people are seeing a
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range of capital tools that they can use
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to drive towards a particular end and so
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this is a kind of interesting approach
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or and and becoming one they were seeing
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more frequently because people are sort
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of saying grants aren't enough there are
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other things I can do with my capital
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let's just figure out those different
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opportunities and I know you're looking
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at that very close yes I believe that
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the traditional model for how social
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change is funded from philanthropy
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should be turned upside down if you talk
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to most traditional large foundations
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they'll say that the intimate drive
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social change is their grant making and
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they rely on a market-based favorable
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return from their investments through
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their endowments to create the income
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and wool will fuel their grant-making
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I believe that we have an opportunity to
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think about this differently is instead
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we think about our endowments and our
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investment strategy as the primary
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engine of social change and the 95
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percent of the capital that sits in that
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space and instead start using our
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grant-making as opportunities to do
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their research to better understand what
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are the best investing strategies for
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that social change that it's going to
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unleash a huge amount of capital and
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really drive change in a way that we
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could never have dreamed and I like that
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you brought in the research angle as
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well it's clear you've got that
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evidence-based approach eating a lot of
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the work that you're working on at this
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stage absolutely and just like in
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medicine the only way that we're really
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going to understand the best use of
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capital is by investing in research and
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we can't just rely on good intentions
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and intuition but there is a lot to
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learn when I talk about this in medicine
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I'll say well for there was probably 500
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or 600 years where we really thought
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that bleeding people yeah was going to
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cure all of their diseases because it
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worked in some cases or anyone oh there
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was in any action but they say they
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don't it you had it
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they had a technology that were leeches
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and they were looking for our disease to
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apply to and they just said well we'll
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just you know try it on everybody and it
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was only through a little bit of science
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and rigor that they realized what you
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know what people are actually dying from
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this I think that if we can change our
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thinking a little bit and apply some
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discipline some standardization just
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like in medicine just like in many
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fields that have benefited from science
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that we're going to have a lot more
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opportunity for the social change we all
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crave and I think that part of what the
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research angle is great but also this
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how do we share the information how do
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we build the data around this there's so
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many angles to take and kind of building
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that evidence base around that it's
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something that we're really passionate
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about it this social initiative as well
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you talk about how important knowledge
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sharing is and dissemination in medicine
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there was a fascinating study that came
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out in the Journal of the American
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Medical Association
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several about 20 years ago that showed
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that the the average time between when a
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piece of evidence was established and
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how long it took for it actually to
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trickle down into everyday practice was
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17 years and that's just unacceptable
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and now that we understand the
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importance of science and the importance
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of sharing what we learn I really do
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think that there are opportunities for
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us to be much more proactive and I think
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that what you're doing at Wharton is
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really a great example of how we can get
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information out into the public space
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and to the into the hands of the people
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are actually doing the work and creating
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the change that we want well this is a
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really a thought-provoking conversation
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any final thoughts on what you would
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tell for a philanthropist about how they
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can be more intentional and strategic
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about their work so what I would tell my
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peers and others who are interested in
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in the power of philanthropy is to
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create the networks
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start talking to people don't just stay
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in your silo they we have so much to
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learn from one another and to bring your
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heart absolutely to what you're doing
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and to follow your heart in the social
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change that you want to see but don't be
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scared to bring in some science and some
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rigor into making sure that it's not
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just your intuition that you're using
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that you really can learn from the many
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people who have gone before you and yeah
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I think this goes to the willingness to
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sort of acknowledge when something isn't
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working
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absolutely and we talked a lot about
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failing and failing often but we have to
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be willing to learn from our failures -
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we've been talking with dr. Ruth shaver
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president and founder of the Tara Health
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Foundation on evidence-based
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philanthropy and gender lens investing
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thank you thank you for more insight
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from knowledge award please visit
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knowledge Wharton
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turn you
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