Does your company’s impact (or outcomes) align with the company’s business objectives and internal policies?
Ensure that you are ‘walking the talk,’ i.e., your internal processes should mirror the importance you place on sustainability. This may include external statements, communication with customers, supply chain, and business partners.
Use the GIIN’s simple Theory of Change (TOC) checklist here. This will help clarify your impact priorities, define your strategic objectives and the path to reach them.
It is highly recommended that you apply the Theory of Change exercise when thinking about the impact of your product. This methodology will help you identify your stakeholders, their pain points related to your product and the best way to address them using your solution.
For early stage companies, this exercise will help you create a better Product-Market-Fit and for growth companies you can use this tool to create new business offerings and customers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJDN0cpxJv4
How might an investor assess the impact of your company and its activities?
Investors are still grappling with a consistent framework to assess impact across the VC industry. A few have developed their own (see tools and references for more information).
The most common approach we are seeing is the use of the Impact Management Norms. Their guide looks at the extent of a company’s impact and classifies accordingly, using the 5 dimensions shown below:
How can I best demonstrate the impact the company has?
- Decide which of the UN SDGs the company most strongly aligns to (look through the underlying targets of these goals)
- Select a maximum of 2-3 SDGs that you can meaningfully contribute to (and demonstrate business outcomes that address these
- Decide which metrics and KPIs make sense for your company .You can also use the IRIS+ metrics taxonomy (filter by SDG or impact category) here.
- Agree as a company on the method to collect these metrics, how often you intend to report on them, and set progress goals (short, medium, and long term)
- You can test these in the early stages to assess how challenging data collection is or how quickly you are likely to reach your KPI goals
- Decide how you intend to report on the impact
- Detail the data methodology
- Decide who the data should go to
How can I best articulate the impact my company has?
- Clearly define the social or environmental challenge your company is addressing
- Ensure the company values and mission statement includes how you intend to address the SDGs (if applicable)
- Tie your existing or expected product outcomes with specific SDG indicators
- Ensure the website reflects your impact intention and explain how you will communicate progress in the future
Pitango’s approach to Impact Migration
At Pitango we work closely with our companies to craft and execute an “impact migration” process, aiming to identify the relevant company stakeholders, build a clear Theory of Change, choose a relevant SDG indicator and drive product outcomes to serve the chosen indicator. There is no “one size fit all” approach as companies differ between stages, domains and priorities, but there are some similarities to the process. See below for a schematic process design.
Turning Impact Migrants into Impact Natives:
