NEWS
Introducing The Good Investor
Good Investor is our proven and robust methodology for social invesment.
The Good Investor is a best practice guide that provides social investors with a standard framework to support rational and effective decision-making throughout the investment process.
It also lays out the essential terms and concepts in use across the sector and a comprehensive map as to how these fit into impact investment management. It was developed in consultation with the UK's leading social investors and experts, having been commissioned by Big Society Capital.
A blueprint for Investments into companies, organisations and funds that generate measurable social and environmental impact
The Good Investor offers a practical blueprint to investors looking to enter the social impact investment market, making it easier to successfully back organisations delivering positive social impact. This guide is structured around incorporating impact assessment into the various stages of the investment process, progressing from the investors' initial exposure to investment opportunities, through the screening and analysis, and onto making investment decisions, monitoring and evaluating, and reporting on the impact achieved.
“The publication of The Good Investor adds to our understanding of best practice and is an immensely useful guide for any organisation seeking to implement effective decision making when making impact investments.”
The Good Investor is part of a collaborative initiative on a social impact framework that builds common ground in the social investment sector on impact strategies, reporting and monitoring. The partnership includes SROI Network, NPC and Deutsche Bank.
Research for The Good Investor included direct consultation with key UK social investors including Big Issue Invest, Big Society Capital, Bridges Ventures, CAF Venturesome, Deutsche Bank, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Nesta, Social Investment Business Group, Triodos Bank as well as discussions with nef, SIAA, and the UK Cabinet Office.
The Good Investor offers investors three key advantages; better impact investment and fund management, better relationships with social purpose organisations working on the front line, and better communication with commissioners and business partners.
Introducing The Good Analyst
Good Analyst is a methodology for impact analysis and a set of guidelines for measuring and reporting on impact
A methodology for impact analysis and a set of guidelines for measuring and reporting on impact
The Good Analyst methodology draws on a decade of our impact research to provide an end-to-end set of social impact practices for use by:
- Social-purpose organisations, including charities and social enterprises and NGOs
- Providers of capital to the social sector, such as grantfunders, commissioners of social services, and foundations
- Experts engaged with the sector, including policy makers and advisers, regulators, consultants to charities and donors, and academics and impact researchers
Practical guidelines for capturing your impact
“We’re excited to be drawing on the methodology of The Good Analyst which can be used across our portfolio, from the very large investments to the very small”
A guide to The Good Analyst methodology (previously known as MIAA) was published in book form as The Good Analyst in 2012, which incorporates the Investing for Good Guidelines for How to Measure and Report Social Impact and is accompanied by the Dictionary of Indicators. The Good Analyst argues that a different approach is needed to effect a more sustainable relationship between money, impact and society.
More about Good Analyst
Investing for Good spent over five years researching and developing a proprietary impact analysis and assessment tool. Our resulting Good Analyst methodology underwent three years of refinement and application and has been used to analyse over 100 impact investments of various sizes, representing over $1bn of socially-motivated capital.
It is used as an impact due diligence and analysis tool for our own Social Bond Programme, providing investors with annual impact reports on each issuer. We are also in the process of develop clear relationships between impact analysis and the pricing of social investments.
A consistent, systematic set of processes
The Good Analyst is not a formula, but an analytical framework that is designed to ensure assessments are arrived at through a consistent, systematic procedure. It is structured around three key perspectives: (1) the social-purpose organisation generating the impact; (2) the beneficiary receiving the impact; and (3) the world beyond the organisation and its direct beneficiaries into which the impact is ultimately absorbed. The assessment is divided into three sections based on these perspectives:
Mission Fulfilment
With respect to the organisation’s own mission, to what extent is that mission being effectively fulfilled by the organisation’s activities and operations?Beneficiary perspective
To what extent are beneficiaries experiencing positive change in their lives as a result of the organisation’s activities?Wider impact
How is the change playing out in wider contexts and environments, and what are the implications for local and societal benefits?
Analysis of these three perspectives takes place according to a weighted scoring system of over 100 individual considerations. The final output is akin to an impact rating, which allows placement of organisations and their impact across a single plane to compare their impact performance. Further, the Good Analyst is designed for repeat use such that the impact of an organisation can be tracked over time. This allows investors to use The Good Analyst as a tool alongside The Good Investor in order to integrate impact into their investment decision-making process and thereby lays the foundation for coupling the use of capital to positive social change.