International Women’s Day 2026: Women Funding Women Launches the Be Bold Challenge to Turn The Wealth Transfer into Economic Power
On International Women’s Day 2026, under the global theme Give to Gain, Women Funding Women Inc. (WFW) is pleased to announce the launch of the Be Bold Challenge, anchored by a strategic framework known as the Three Cs, designed to move Canadian women from wealth ownership to economic power.
Over the next decade, women in Canada will control close to $4 trillion in financial assets, nearly half the nation’s wealth. This is part of an estimated $124 trillion global wealth transfer underway. This historic shift presents a rare opportunity to reshape who builds, leads, and scales Canada’s innovation economy.
Yet a stark contradiction remains.
Despite women founding roughly one in five new businesses, women-led ventures continue to receive less than 4%, and often closer to 2%, of venture capital funding.
“Give to Gain captures the urgency of this moment,” said Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, CEO & co-founder of Women Funding Women. “When women invest capital, and expertise, and back women-led businesses, they shift economic power. The Three Cs are how we mobilize that shift.”
“When women invest capital, and expertise, and back women-led businesses, they shift economic power. The Three Cs are how we mobilize that shift.”
The Be Bold Challenge: Introducing the Three Cs
As part of International Women’s Day 2026, WFW is formally introducing the Three Cs as the strategic foundation of the Be Bold Challenge:
1. Changing the Paradigm
When women back women, we don’t just close the funding gap, we redefine who gets to build, lead, and scale the next generation of companies. This is a call for women to step forward as capital decision-makers and lead boldly at a moment when leadership matters.
2. Creation of Wealth
Women must move away from fear of risk and toward calculated risk-taking. Women may take more time to make investment decisions, but once committed, they are persistent and thoughtful, qualities that are financial strengths. Venture investing is a legitimate path to prosperity, and women must fully participate in the wealth creation men have benefited from for generations.
3. Collective Collaboration
Systemic change does not occur in isolation, it is built through deliberate, collective action. When we widen our networks, normalize women as both founders and funders, and create trusted spaces where women can pitch, invest, mentor, and champion one another, collaboration moves from conversation to capital deployment. In that environment, collective collaboration becomes not just supportive - but catalytic - driving change in the economy.
At the same time, durable transformation requires inclusive partnership. Engaging male allies and champions strengthens the ecosystem, expands access to capital and influence, and reinforces that closing the funding gap is not a women’s issue, it is an economic imperative.
“The wealth transfer is inevitable. The power transfer is within our grasp. The Three Cs are our blueprint for ensuring women are not just holders of wealth, but architects of the future economy.”
Founder Capital in Action
In keeping with the principles of the Three Cs, the three co-founders of WFW and their Advisory Council are publicly disclosing a selection of women-led Canadian ventures in which they are personally invested, demonstrating leadership by example and reinforcing that angel investing is a disciplined asset class, not a symbolic gesture.
“Disclosing where we invest is about credibility and accountability. WFW co-founders and our Advisory Council members are leading by example and challenging women across Canada to be visible capital allocators and help shape the innovation economy in Canada.”
Join our mailing list
Our monthly newsletter features events, programming, and resources from our ecosystem. Discover new collaboration and investment opportunities, gain industry insights and reports, and participate in networking and educational events.