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Measuring Impact with WISE

To measure the impact of your support on women’s lives, WE launched WISE: Women’s Impact, Sustainability & Empowerment Project.

The WISE project is our data-driven assessment – led by our skilled volunteers in collaboration with our grant partners – to evaluate how our funding of micro-loans, financial training, and other social supports lead to sustained improvements in the women’s lives. WISE gives us the data that tells the concrete story of positive change.

Below is our 2025 impact based on WISE metrics from our core four areas to measure women’s progress across WE-funded projects: Financial Literacy, Change in Provider Role, Change in Decision Making, and Business Sustainability.

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Financial Literacy

WE aims to provide grants for programs that increase women’s confidence in managing their finances.

The WISE indicator of financial literacy serves as a measure of the efficacy of this component within a program’s educational agenda, and also a measure of the degree to which women are empowered to manage aspects of personal financial responsibilities that emerge from participation in WE programs.

IRC San Diego
91% (71 of 78 women) reported being confident in their ability to manage their own money.

OEF of El Salvador
99% (81 of 82 women) reported being confident in their ability to make their own financial decisions.

Multicolores
Each of the four embroidery artists who participated in two consecutive skills workshops demonstrated increased confidence in performance in each of three financial tasks.

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Change in Provider Role

WE provides grants to programs that equip women with the confidence, tools, and opportunities to improve their economic well-being and transform their lives.

This metric measures changes in the degree to which participation in WE programs enables women to earn funds that they can then contribute to household finances, thus fostering a degree of resilience and self-reliance.

Nyaka
62% of 120 Grandmothers who sustained participation in microloan activity over a three-year period identified themselves as the main household provider.

OEF
69 women (84%) reported an improvement in their contribution to household income, either as heads of household or through increased monthly contributions to the household budget.

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Change in Decision Making

WE funds programs that strengthen women’s economic agency as a pathway to greater independence and influence in their lives and communities.

This metric seeks to evaluate whether access and control of economic resources further support women’s autonomy in the household decision-making role.

OEF de El Salvador
Each of 15 women who had taken three or more loans reported the highest levels of participation in household decision-making.

IRC
84% (69 of 82) of women reported higher levels of household decision-making over the time of their participation in program activities.

Adelante
47% of women who received a loan reported participating in household decision-making always/all of the time (1,161 of 2,474 women).

Nyaka
Over a three-year period, the percentage of grandmothers who felt confident speaking up all or most of the time increased from 62.8% to 88.8%.

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Business Sustainability

WE provides grants to programs that offer women the training and support needed to manage their funds wisely, and grow their businesses.

This metric seeks to determine the longer-term value of WE’s investment in various program activities, such as start-up funding, educational interventions (trainings), and micro-loans.

Los Nińos B.C.
All 13 women in the long-established ESTIMA microloan groups remained active in their businesses.

IRC San Diego
100% of 78 women who started their business over one year ago were still active in that business.

Adelante
Among a sample of 10 loan participants in each of 6 regions, 87% remained in business after one year.

Nyaka
A minimum of 73% of 280 businesses remained active over a three-year period of time.