The Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN) has launched a beta version of an ‘Impact Performance Benchmark’, allowing investors to analyse and compare their impact performance against peers and the global goals. 

The first sector to be covered as part of the IRIS+ metric system is ‘financial inclusion’, with other areas on the way. 

Financial performance benchmarks are widespread, and they’re relied upon by both managers and investors alike. GIIN’s offering hopes to apply the same methodology to impact, offering investors deeper insights into their own performance, while also offering a set of key performance indicators. 

“The beta launch of the GIIN’s IRIS+ impact performance benchmark marks a big milestone, not just for the GIIN, but for the entire impact investing market and the financial market more broadly,” says Amit Bouri, CEO of the GIIN. 

“Our goal is for impact performance benchmarks to play the same role that financial benchmarks play in investing, which is to create a mechanism by which investors can push themselves to achieve superior performance. We want every investor waking up every day thinking about how they can deliver more impact, whether that is in their local communities or around the world.”

This first iteration involved GIIN working with a group of 13 investors who have a specific focus on financial inclusion. The beta groups included Leapfrog Investments, Triodos Investment Managers and Elevar Equity. They offered core data to the program, but also thought-leadership into how the prototype should be developed. 

A select group of investment managers can access the full data system through the IRIS+ system. And there is a static version on the GIIN website that offers a deeper dive into the metrics, methodologies and potential of the system. 

While financial inclusion was the first cab off the rank, work is already being done on the next sectors, which are agriculture and then clean energy. 

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