The industry’s first impact performance benchmark is a new, first-of-its-kind tool that enables investors to analyze the impact performance of investments within a sector, and to compare their own impact results relative to their peers and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While it is common practice for investors to measure the financial returns on their investments and to compare those results to peer groups, there has not been a standardized way of comparing impact results—until now. This is a groundbreaking step for the impact investing industry as it opens the door for transparency on impact performance and lays the foundation for investment decision-making on the basis of impact. This will help investors to understand the impact of their investments over time and areas of underperformance and outperformance relative to their peers and to the change needed to achieve SDG targets. Ultimately, this benchmark has the powerful potential to drive investment decision-making and enable investors to achieve greater, more effective impact results.
Building on the GIIN’s COMPASS Methodology, the IRIS+ financial inclusion impact performance benchmark assesses investors’ data across key performance indicators focused on financial inclusion. The GIIN will continue to build impact performance benchmarks, expanding to additional sectors on a rolling basis. In the meantime, all financial inclusion investors making direct investments are encouraged to claim an IRIS+ profile and submit their data to be represented in the financial inclusion impact performance benchmark. Reach out to thelist@thegiin.org to participate. The beta version of the financial inclusion impact performance benchmark is available to a limited group of investors and can be found via IRIS+ here >
A short, static overview of the financial inclusion impact performance benchmark is available below: