A conversation with Joy Anderson, Executive Director of Criterion Institute and Helia Collaborative’s Medina Haeri and Katharina Samara-Wickrama. Together, they explore the parallels between funding social movements and financing market formation companies. Drawing on their decades of experience supporting feminist movement building, Medina and Katharina emphasise the key strategies for sustaining and strengthening social movements: patient, long-term investments; flexible core support rather than short-term project funding; a commitment to relationship-building & collective strategies; and centring the wisdom and lived experiences of frontline activists and leaders. The conversation highlights the importance of laying the groundwork so that movements are ready to act when the moment for change emerges. They also discuss the pitfalls of siloed thinking and why it’s essential to build intersectional strategies.

Joy then connects these insights to the logic of market formation where organisations build demand for something that doesn’t yet exist. This requires long time horizons, experimentation, narrative shaping and capital that tolerates uncertainty.  The episode frames this moment as a turning point, with feminist movements beginning to engage more intentionally with innovative finance. Through the Helia Collaborative-Criterion Institute partnership, activists and finance practitioners are learning to speak each other’s language and co-create more resilient, systems-level approaches to financing long-term change.