Existing impact measurement framework: The Impact Management Project

Innovative business models are created and investors are realising that the impacts of their activities, on stakeholders, and on society, the environment and the economy, in general, are critical. This has captured the attention of leaders in all sectors seeking innovative ways to help solve some of society’s most pressing issues through impact investment.

Impact measurement is central to the practice of impact investing and vital to the growth of the impact investing market. Effective impact measurement generates value for all impact investment stakeholders, mobilizes greater capital, and increases the transparency and accountability for the impact delivered.
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Since 2016, The Impact Management Project ( IMP) has convened a community of practitioners comprised of more than 2,000 companies and investors to create a global consensus on how to talk about, measure and manage our ESG risks and positive impacts.

Thus the IMP defines impact as a change in an outcome caused by an organisation. In order to understand and measure any impact, the Project introduces the five dimensions of performance.

​5 dimensions of performance:

• What tells us what outcome the enterprise is contributing to, and how important the outcome is to stakeholders.
• Who tells us which stakeholders are experiencing the outcome and how underserved they are concerning the outcome.
• How Much tells us how many stakeholders experienced the outcome, what degree of change they experienced, and how long they experienced the outcome.
• Contribution tells us whether an enterprise’s and/or investor’s efforts resulted in outcomes that were likely better than what would have occurred otherwise.
• Risk tells us the likelihood that impact will be different from what is expected.

In our Output1, Impact Measurement Guidelines [IMGuide]​, we propose a series of different frameworks to measure impact, if you want more information do not hesitate to visit it. 

​Author
Partners @i2 SustainIT

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