Impact Services - b-inspired

About

b-inspired is a neighbourhood-based charity operating in the underpriviledged area of Braunstone in Leicester, England. The area faces issues such as: social isolation, health and fitness issues, addictions, low revenues and high unemployment rate, low educational attainment, lack of aspirations, low confidence and self-esteem.

b-inspired aims to be the Community Anchor and champion for Braunstone, able to support their neighbourhood and its citizens to reach full potential by harnessing its strengths and responding to its needs.

Some projects aim at tackling social isolation among elderly people.

Challenges

To support its community, b-inspired delivers projects as diverse as sport-relative projects, support to older people, coaching for young people that have been unemployed for 12 months or more, a foodbank, gardening activities, a local magazine, a carnaval, etc.

Such as many charities in the UK, b-inspired faces the challenge of having to report for each project to a different commissioner, each one having specific reporting requirements. For some projects, b-inspired staff spend a lot of time collecting data for reporting purposes, but did not have a framework allowing them to learn from this data internally, and to use it to inform decision-making. Moreover, b-inspired's management had difficulties communicating on their impact at an organisational level.

Our work

Supporting b-inspired in their journey from impact measurement to impact management

In 2017, Investing for Good had already worked with b-inspired at a strategic level, by organising an Theory of Change workshop.

In the context of the Impact Management Programme, funded by the Access Foundation and Power to Change, Investing for Good had the opportunity to continue this work in 2018/19, and to see how to translate the new Theory of Change into proper data collection and analysis.

We supported b-inspired in the following:

• Defining medium term and long term outcomes at organisational level, and at project level;
• Identifying the conditions for success for each programme (short term outcomes) ;
• Designing a framework to track individual progress and measure results against each outcome. This includes defining the indicators, the assessment method, the data collection processes and the questionnaires ;
• Training the team in impact management and ensuring they feel comfortable with the new data collection tools ;
• Support b-inspired in the transition towards an impact management software, ensuring the compatibility of the tool with the new platform;
• Facilitate the adoption of the framework by the staff through trainings;
• Give recommendations on data analysis and reporting, including dashboards and reports design

b-inspired's feedback:

IFG totally shepherded our organisation through the challenging journey of creating a Theory of Change, translating that into a robust framework and tools, to make impact measurement and management a reality for us…we never ceased to be impressed with their insight and knowledge – not to mention their tenacity to get the project completed.

Impact Services - Community Led Initiative

About

Community Led Initiative is a charity operating in Manchester and Bedford in England, aiming to help people who want to make changes to feel part of a community and achieve their potential. Through peer-to-peer mentoring and group activities, they remove barriers to community inclusion for people who are socially excluded, facing complex issues such as drug/alcohol misuse, homelessness, offending, mental ill health.

Challenges

CLI staff have strong connexions with their beneficiaries, they know the progress that is being made at individual level, but were not equiped with sufficient data to consistenly learn from it and communicate on it at a project level. They already captured impact data, comparing before/after, using tools such as the Outcome Stars. However, the management was not fully satisfied by these tools, as they felt it was difficult to draw conclusions, and to link them to CLI's organisational objectives.

Our work

Developing a bespoke impact management framework to be used consistently by all project managers

This project was delivered in 2018/2019 in the context of the Impact Management Programme, funded by the Access Foundation and Power to Change, aiming at building the capacity of charities and social enterprises to manage their impact.

Investing for Good started with an in-depth analysis of two key projects, that offer peer-to-peer mentoring to: 1. ex-offenders (Manchester), 2. people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction issues (Bedford). We listened to project managers about their activities, expected impact, challenges, existing data collection practices. To better grasp CLI's impact, we organised 4 Focus Group discussions with mentees and mentors.

This initial work allowed us to support CLI in the following:

• Formalising the impact strategy: defining CLI's vision, mission and outcomes (long term and end of programme outcomes)
• Identifying the conditions for success for each programme (short term outcomes);
• Create a beskope measurement framework, using Outcome scales to track progress towards the outcomes, as well as a questionnaire to measure long term impact when people have left the programme;
• Redefine data collection processes;
• Support CLI with the migration to a new data system, ensuring the compatibility of the tool with the new platform;
• Facilitate the adoption of the framework by the staff through trainings;
• Give recommendations on data analysis and reporting, including dashboards and reports design.

CLI's feedback

"It is clear to see how you have pulled all of the work together into a final result which we all feel is really bespoke to CLI, and will effectively allow us to manage and report on our impact. Thank you for doing such a brilliant job with this and for your patience in supporting us to understand the foundations of our impact journey. You have equipped us to be more confident as we move forward and begin to communicate our impact to our stakeholders."

Impact Services - MIND

About

The Mind is a charity and a network of around 130 local Minds in England and Wales. Investing for Good has been working with Middlesbrough and Stockton Mind (MSM), which relies on over 100 paid staff members and 100 volunteers to support over 6000 people each year improving their mental health and wellbeing.

Challenges

Middlesbrough and Stockton Mind delivers an impressive variety of projects to support the community, such as Ageing Better (for people 50+ feeling lonely), Peer support training (with people using their own experiences of mental health problems to help others), Open Minds therapies, Active Minds (that help people with mental health difficulties recover through sport), etc.

Such as many charities in the UK, MSM faces the challenge of having to report for each project to a different commissioner, each one having specific reporting requirements. MSM staff spend a lot of time collecting data for reporting purposes, but did not have a framework allowing them to learn from this data internally, and to take the right decisions. Moreover, MSM's management had difficulties communicating on their impact at an organisational level, due to a lack of relevant and consistent data across projects.

MSM's CEO and management have been very proactive in recent years in constantly trying to improve their impact measurement practices. MSM already had developed a Theory of Change and use a case management software, but MSM welcomed external support and expertise to reach best pratice in impact management.

Our work

Supporting MSM in their journey from impact measurement to impact management

This project was delivered in 2018 in the context of the Impact Management Programme, funded by the Access Foundation and Power to Change, aiming at building the capacity of charities and social enterprises to manage their impact.

Given the diversity of projects and data collection practices, we started from the analysis of 4 projects, in order to design a framework that could work both at project-level and at organisational-level. We listened to project managers about their activities, expected impact, challenges, existing data collection practices. To better grasp The Mind's impact, we organised Focus Group discussions with beneficiaries from the 4 projects.

This work allowed us to support MSM in the following:

• Formalising the impact strategy at a project level, by defining the outcomes (What changes do you want to make? When people leave the programme, where would you like them to be? What about 6 months after people have left the programme?);

• Identifying the conditions for success for each programme ;

• Analysing the way the programme has been designed and give recommendations to ensure that impact is sustained on the long term ;

• Designing a framework to measure progress towards each outcome, including defining the indicators, the assessment method, the data collection processes and the questionnaires ;

• Training the team in impact management and ensuring they feel comfortable with the new data collection tools ;

• Giving recommendations on how to move towards a digital data collection and analysis.

Although MSM is part of a nation-wide framework, local Minds have autonomy on the way they measure and report on their impact. The Research Team at national Mind is now working on developing some tools that would help local Minds in this process. Investing for Good has shared insights with national Mind, and we hope that this work will help other local Minds!

Impact services - Impak Finance

About

Impak Finance aims “to support the growth of an economy that has a positive social impact”. To do so, Impak Finance’s team is developing an innovative service which allow individuals, enterprises and investors to create positive social impact by choosing to spend, invest and shop in an ecosystem of carefully selected organisations chosen for the positive impact they generate. Impak Finance is a Canadian organisation, with high potential of growth globally.

A "bitcoin for the impact sector"?

The Impak coin supports the initiative as it has been designed to avoid volatility and enhance loyalty by rewarding collaboration and spending in the Impak ecosystem. It is the first cryptocurrency entirely dedicated to responsible consumption.

Our work

We have been involved in:

• the definition of Impak Finance’s impact strategy
• the design of criteria and processes to select organisations that will be part of the Impak ecosystem

The great challenge was to manage to create a selection process which simplifies to the maximum the impact concepts and assessment questions so that a wider audience can get involve with the initiative, while keeping an academically satisfying methodology. Both Impak Finance and us felt fortunate that our work coincided with the launch of the Impact Management Project, which had the same purpose of finding a consensus on how to speak about impact, measure and manage it, in the simplest way. We have used the findings of the project to structure our thinking. Impact assessment is never a straightforward journey and the idea is to learn from the growth of the ecosystem and to adapt the selection process.

Impact Investing - The Creative Land Trust

About

The Creative Land Trust was established in 2018 as an independent entity to attract public, philanthropic and social investment funds to enable the purchase of property (buildings and land) to provide affordable workspace in perpetuity across London. Its mission is to support the creative ecology in London by creating a network of sustainable, permanent spaces, which will remain affordable for artists and creative producers in perpetuity.

Challenge

The Creative Land Trust has been designed in direct response to a crisis in artist workspace. Is it a scaled intervention that seeks to change the fundamentals around affordable workspace provision by drawing on the diverse strengths of a public private partnership, both in the design and funding of the Trust.

The availability of affordable creative workspace is declining in London, with an expected loss of 30% of artists͛ workspace (approximately 3,300 studios) in just a five-year period to 2019 – due to rapid development and increase in property values. The resulting threat to London's cultural ecology is significant. Artists and creative practitioners are exposed to rising prices both in housing and workspace.

Credit: Philipp Ebeling

Impact Reports - Thera

About

Thera is a charitable group of companies which support people with a learning disability with a diverse range of needs in the UK.

Challenges

Impact reports are often required by social investors and external stakeholders, but charities can face challenges such as:

• Communicating on their impact at an organisational level, when the level and quality of data available varies a lot across projects;

• Selecting quality impact data

• Convincing investors of the strengths of their model, and the reliability of the data presented

• Making sure that they have a right proportion of quantitative and qualitative data, case studies, pictures, etc.

• Presenting a nicely designed report.

Getting the support of an external organisation, with expertise in impact measurement and social investment, can be very helpful in this process.

Our work

For the second consecutive year, Investing for Good has produced Thera’s social impact report in 2018.

In addition to supporting Thera in the definition of the reports’ structure, content and design, Investing for Good analysed Thera’s data and gave a “Social Impact and Financial Confidence score”. Our scoring system is based on the Good Analyst methodology, that has undergone many years of application and refinement and assesses the quality of the impact and financial proposition.

These Social Impact Reports are publicly available and many are required by social investors.

Read report 2016-2017

Report 2017-2018 available soon

Impact services - Impact Ventures UK

About

Impact Ventures UK (IVUK) is a social investment fund focused on supporting social enterprises working with disadvantaged communities in the UK. IVUK’s methodology to assess potential investment opportunities has been evolving since the creation of the fund in 2012.

Investors invest into companies and organisations with the intention to generate measurable social impact alongside a financial return, need to pay attention to both financial and social outcomes; and the investor’s ability to make rational and well-informed decisions rests upon their knowledge across these two fronts.

Challenges

As IVUK grew, it developed procedures and analytical tools to assess both the financial and impact qualities of investment opportunities. As the processes to capture the impact side are generally less established than the financial ones, IVUK decided to review its own impact assessment methodology through an Impact Audit.

Our work

In the spring of 2017, Investing for Good performed an impact audit, based on our proprietary methodology, to establish how well IVUK was performing against best practice, and to provide concrete recommendations of how to improve their processes to grow their impact.

Based on our Good Investor guidelines and following established auditing principles, Investing for Good :

• Studied the fund’s internal investment processes (based on The Good Investor investment steps), rating them against best practice and set criteria

• Verified the application of those processes in practice, focusing on an internal review of documents and staff interviews, as well as a validation of these with a sample of existing investees.

• Provided concrete recommendations on how to improve IVUK’s investment process

Results

Snapshot of some of The Good Investor stages of impact investment against which we audit and rate social investment organisations.

After a detailed review, we produced a comprehensive report, outlining areas that IVUK excelled at and identifying areas for improvements. Through our concrete and practical recommendations, IVUK now has a clear set of actions and a plan to further improve its impact investment process, as well as guidelines on how to better support investees measure their own impact. These will enable the IVUK team to have more rigorous tools and guidelines to evaluate impact when making investments and to better measure the impact of its investment in the long-run, helping them become best-in-class in the sector.

Impact Investing - Thera

Thera, a charity that supports adults with a learning disability at home and in the community, approached Investing for Good with ambitious plans to raise impact investment capital. Thera was looking to fund new projects that will reach a greater number of individuals with a learning disability and transform their lives. Investing for Good provided a range of professional support around strategy, business planning and the financial model, advice on content to be included in an information memorandum and terms that it had tested with its investors before arranging a social bond.

In 2015 Thera issued a 3 year, £1m bond under a £6m programme, offering a fixed 3.5% return to social investors. The social bond was listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and structured by Investing for Good’s partner Linklaters. Investing for Good distributed the bond to investors including ethical funds, socially motivated individuals, wealth managers and foundations. We write and circulate an annual independent impact report to these groups.

Thera has benefited from the bond finance, supporting 120 additional beneficiaries this year and working in six new local authority areas. Asset manager Cheyne Capital has established an agreement with Thera to purchase up to £15m of property to enhance Thera’s delivery of care; the work conducted on the bond was instrumental in leveraging in this level of additional financial support. Investing for Good also helped Thera to strengthen its impact framework making it straightforward for the charity to keep track of their impact and regularly report it to external stakeholders.

Impact investing - Arts Impact Fund

The Arts Impact Fund was conceived by Investing for Good in conjunction with Arts Council England, the UK Cabinet Office and Ashurst LLP. It is the first unsecured loan fund of its kind in the world that explicitly takes into account not just financial returns but also the artistic and social impact of the organisations it supports.

Arts funders and other stakeholders, including Nesta, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Bank of America Merrill Lynch came together to explore how social investment could be used to bolster sustainability and resilience in an increasingly constrained arts funding environment. Ever greater competition for depleted grant pots has acted as a driver to look at alternative, innovative models for investment in the sector. The opportunity aligned with the desire to prove the concept of uniting (or ‘co-mingling’) public, private and philanthropic capital into a single funding vehicle in order to generate synergies and boost overall impact on a pound-for-pound basis. There was also interest in whether new metrics could be developed to quantify the impacts of art related investments in ways that would attract social investors. 

Over £3 million from the £7 million Arts Impact Fund has been successfully deployed to date, with demand continuing to grow. So far nearly 100 cultural organisations have expressed interest in receiving support from the fund. Investing for Good is actively looking to replicate the model and its templatable legal documentation in other sectors. 

Impact Investing - Foundations

We are working very closely with the foundation market, having been commissioned to write a report to record attitudes towards social investment, its relationship with grantmaking and best practice to improve social investment activity. 

We are working on a long-term mandate with a UK foundation managed by a leading trust company, Saffery Champness Registered Fiduciaries, to provide whole of market advice and embed our Good Investor social investment screening tools to maximise the foundation’s impact . At the outset we established an investment policy statement to define impact asset allocation strategy. We are now identifying and due diligencing suitable social investment opportunities through our market research, taking consideration of asset allocation needs, return requirements, risk appetite, liquidity and security of capital. We also offer ongoing monitoring and reporting tools for the aggregate portfolio. 

We have undertaken similar investment advisory consulting mandates for wealth managers. run seminars for advisers and made available our market intelligence.

Impact investing - International Planned Parenthood Federation

IPPF is a global NGO providing reproductive health and family planning services in over 180 countries. The organisation sought to leverage the experience of Investing for Good to evaluate the potential for a social enterprise acceleration programme fund that aims to support its member countries to initiate or grow income-generating activities. As well as creating transformational change, IPPF seeks to reduce reliance on donor models and diversify its funding sources. There is great potential in taking advantage of the significant growth potential offered by social enterprise and harnessing business strategies to support the delivery of the NGO’s overarching social mission.

Investing for Good analysed the different needs and level of support required of its member countries. We also examined the design of an investment readiness tool and put forward initial eligibility criteria for an investment fund, making recommendations for its future implementation through a commingled structure. Through this innovation, IPPF will grow social enterprises whose revenues can be used to support service delivery and adapt to increasing needs to secure health services for millions around the world.

Big Society Capital Outcomes Matrix

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Investing for Good led the development of the Big Society Capital Outcomes Matrix  to help develop consistent and coherent approaches among social investors.  Working with the group of foundations and intermediaries convened by Big Society Capital, including Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Big Issue Invest, NESTA, Bridges Ventures, Social Investment Business, Deutsche Bank, Triodos Bank, and CAF Venturesome, we developed best practice guidelines and a practical investor toolkit, including a high-level taxonomy of impact analysis across the social investment marketplace.  

It was critical that we reflected the experiences of social purpose organisations, as well as our peers, in order to create a tool that had broad application and captured a comprehensive set of outcomes and measures. The result is more common ground regarding social impact assessment in the social sector.

Impact Services - International Work

Investing for Good has a growing international presence, having taking on a number of advisory mandates across Africa and Asia. These have provided Investing for Good with the opportunity to apply a number of innovative concepts and structures developed in the UK social investment market in a new context. They also offer a much needed source of funds for high social or environmental overseas impact projects and the opportunity for investors to align themselves to a range of geographic project themes.

Highlights include:

• Advising an impact-focused business accelerator Growth Mosaic in Ghana, under a British Council-led programme, on potential structures for an investment vehicle to fund local social enterprises by providing seed capital and business acceleration services
• Co-developing with a dedicated finance provider impact-screened trade finance notes focused on the provision of short term financing to SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Producing an impact framework and monitoring plan in connection with an initial equity funding round for an innovative, India based, affordable accommodation provider 
• Supporting a leading NGO in Kenya to identify suitable investment models and assessment framework on investment readiness, assessing the differing capital requirement needs of social enterprise clients, engaging with investors and running repayable finance workshops.

Impact Services - Social Investment Business

Social Investment Business (SIB) Group, one of the largest social investors in the UK, turned to Investing for Good to embed social impact into its investment process and to undertake an annual impact audit of the organisation’s existing funds, benchmarked against industry best practice. Investing for Good also provided SIB with a range of support and services for its investees and key stakeholders. We gave training sessions to SIB investment team managers and delivered a set of support materials for SIB investees, including videos, guidelines and case studies, to help them evidence their social impact.

Subsequently SIB commissioned us to conduct an impact study and test a list of outcomes and related metrics on past investments. The aim was to create a baseline under a new process to capture impact data more efficiently. An internal impact working group compiled key metric areas for testing on ten investees. Investing for Good was appointed to analyse and complete the list of indicators as well as to field-test these assessments and put forward steps to undertake for the implementation of a more unified impact approach. We ensured our recommendations were clear, concise and straightforward to implement.

Impact Services - Blue Sky Development

Blue Sky Development

Blue Sky Development is a social enterprise that aims to break the cycle of re-offending and challenge perceptions about ex-offenders. Diverse funder and commissioner requirements have shaped Blue Sky’s impact measurement approach, making it project oriented and in need of greater consistency for evidencing its overall social impact.  In addition, while a number of outputs and ‘hard’ outcomes were already being captured, Blue Sky needed to bolster its approach to capturing ‘soft’ outcomes, which are more subjective and relate to ex-offenders’ skills, personal situations and emotional states.

Investing for Good supported Blue Sky in the definition of its Theory of Change during a workshop with members of management and staff. We then carried out focus groups and interviews with beneficiaries to define outcomes based on their own experience. From there we established a list of indicators and related tools to capture the essential outcomes that evidence change in ex-offenders’ lives. The approach was then integrated in a bespoke data collection tool, gathering performance, outputs and outcomes tracking as well as visualisation of progress of outcomes indicators for each beneficiary. Blue Sky now has a thorough approach to impact and a dedicated tracking tool, which allows the organisation to capture, store, analyse and extract precise information for performance management or communication to internal or external stakeholders.

Impact Services - Centrica Ignite

In 2013, Centrica launched an initiative, the Big Energy Idea, to support energy entrepreneurs that have a social impact on local communities – the UK’s first impact investment fund with a focus on energy. We helped Centrica’s ‘profit with purpose’ subsidiary Ignite to develop an effective screening tool for the fund’s impact due diligence process, advising the organisation on how to incorporate impact into decision making processes as well as training investees on the concept of impact measurement.

With a pragmatic and robust set of tools, Ignite is now able to evaluate the fund’s capital deployment to generate blended and sustainable returns, as well as to effectively communicate the social impact of the fund to the investment committee and other internal stakeholders. Centrica’s model was highly innovative and it was critical that we design the appropriate tools that had the rigour and objectivity to capture all aspects of the impact of the fund.

Impact services - Bristol & Bath Regional Capital

Bristol & Bath Regional Capital (BBRC) is a public benefit investment company working with local people, companies and institutions in the West of England to catalyse regional change and provide innovative finance solutions. BBRC is owned and supported by prominent names including Bristol City Council, the University of Bristol and The Society of Merchant Venturers.

BBRC saw multiple benefits in joining IFG as a Partner. The organisation gained access to a dedicated impact methodology and acquired the regulatory license required to advise investors and arrange investment deals. Through partnership, IFG and BBRC could moreover share valuable networks and grow the market.

The organisation’s first deal was a particularly innovative social bond for a local social enterprise that wanted to grow its social inclusion programmes and was able to demonstrate a sustainable revenue stream. It was the first to incorporate Social Investment Tax Relief and for this BBRC won the Social Investment Deal of the Year Award at the UK Social Enterprise Awards. The Mayor of Bristol has also announced a strategic partnership between BBRC and the City Office.