Impact Shares YWCA Women’s Empowerment ETF Celebrates Three-Year Anniversary

Impact Shares, the first non-profit ETF sponsor in the U.S., celebrates the three-year anniversary of the Impact Shares YWCA Women’s Empowerment ETF.
Backed by the YWCA, WOMN allows investors to deploy capital to companies with strong policies and practices in support of women’s empowerment and gender equality. Since its inception on August 24, 2018, WOMN has generated a 25.08% annualized total return, placing it within the top percentile of the 1,256 funds in Morningstar’s U.S. Fund Large Blend Category (as of 8/25/21).

“WOMN’s track record for the past three years speaks for itself, clearly illustrating that investors don’t need to sacrifice performance in order to invest in line with their values,” says Ethan Powell, CEO of Impact Shares. “We’re grateful for the ongoing support from our partners at the YWCA and Morningstar Indexes. We look forward to continuing our mission to harness the power of capital to drive social change.”

WOMN tracks the Morningstar Women’s Empowerment Index, using Equileap data to include companies that align with the YWCA’s vision of how corporations can advance women’s empowerment and gender equality. Founded in 1858 as a voice for women’s issues, YWCA USA represents more than 200 YWCA associations in 46 states and the District of Columbia. YWCAs across the United States serve over two million women and families each year in over 1,200 communities.

“The WOMN ETF puts the ability to empower women in everyone’s hands. It allows us to leverage the capital markets to further an essential part of our mission – to empower women,” said Elisha Rhodes, Interim CEO and COO, YWCA USA. “It is my hope, and that of almost 200 local associations, that female and male investors alike seize an opportunity like this one to encourage companies to work more proactively to address the issues impacting women today and advance gender equality.”

“Applying an ESG lens to all levels of portfolio management and asset allocation has been a rapidly growing focus for investors. This is particularly true in the area of gender diversity, where history has shown that forward-thinking social policies often go hand-in-hand with competitive performance,” said Amelia Furr, Head of Sales for Morningstar Indexes. “We are proud to provide the index that has helped power WOMN to success in its first three years.”

Impact Shares, itself a 501(c)3 nonprofit ETF issuer, donates the net advisory proceeds it receives from each ETF it sponsors back to the collaborating nonprofit partner1. In addition to WOMN, the firm has three other ETFs currently on the market: the Impact Shares NAACP Minority Empowerment ETF, the Impact Shares Sustainable Development Goals Global Equity ETF and the Impact Shares Affordable Housing MBS ETF.

About Impact Shares
Impact Shares is an ETF issuer and investment manager that is creating a new and innovative platform for clients seeking maximum social impact with market returns.