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A guide for more impact conscious investments

FRAMEWORK FOR IMPACT INVESTING. SRI, ESG, SDG… We will open a few key definitions related to impact investing to help you get started.

LEARN TO NAVIGATE IN THE IMPACT INVESTING LANDSCAPE. There are various ways to define, specify and evaluate impact investing. We have collected meaningful open source impact measurement and management tools, worksheets, reports and studies, and other impact investing material from relevant organizations for you.

MAPPING THE ROLE OF PRIVATE FINANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Investing in agile impact startups is an efficient way to have an influence on how the future looks like. Get to know to the big picture.

DEVELOP THE TOOLBOX WITH US. FiBAN’s toolbox will serve business angels with different needs. This is our first version and as the impact understanding evolves, so will the toolbox. If you are passionate about the topic and have ideas for collaboration or developing the toolbox, reach out to us.

ANGEL PERSPECTIVE. Besides saving the planet impact investing is also good business. How? Get some advice and tips from angel investors and other impact investing experts.

Framework for Impact Investing

How to define impact investing?

Impact investments strive for generating positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Positive outcomes are of the utmost importance, and impact investments are made with the intention of accomplishing specific goals that are beneficial for the sustainable development of the world.

World’s to-do list: Sustainable Development Goals

Impact investing is often connected to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 17 SDG’s and 169 targets are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for a better and more sustainable future for all.

SDG-Tracker.org presents data across all available indicators from the Our World in Data database and tracks global progress towards the SDGs. It measures the progress of each goal based on 232 unique Indicators of the SDG targets, and tracks global progress to 2030.

More about the SDG’s

Mapping the role of Private Finance for Sustainable Development

Investing in agile impact startups is an efficient way to have an influence on what the future will look like. Today’s small startup company can make a big impact tomorrow.

The OECD has formed a set of effective approaches and tools to leverage Private Finance for Sustainable Development (PF4SD). They describe the set in three categories: social impact investing that links investments to measurable investments, blended finance that mobilizes additional commercial finance, and green investment that transforms investments to align with green pathways. All three financing approaches can help address the financing gap for the SDGs, and redirect private finance for Sustainable Development (Figure 1.1).

Investments can no longer be valued only in financial returns and we are moving towards greater impact. We are moving towards greater impact, states OECD’s report: a growing number of private sector actors are focusing on investing for specific social, environmental or economic outcomes, including those outlined in the SDG’s. It’s estimated that USD 22.89 trillion of assets were under sustainable investment strategies in 2016.

OECD’s figure of the the spectrum of capital shows the balance between the target of social impact and financial return (Figure 1.3).

Angel Perspective

Impact investing is close to many FiBAN members’ hearts. We have picked you some of FiBAN’s news articles and interviews related to impact investing. Take a closer look at the tips and advice from impact investing experts.

FIBAN INTEGRATES THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS INTO THE STARTUP DEAL FLOW PROCESS

Learn to navigate in the Impact Investing landscape

There are various ways to define, specify and evaluate impact investing. However, there is neither one comprehensive way of measuring the impact of an investment nor a policy for reporting impact. Here we have collected some good practices, tools, and worksheets used in the industry that we see helpful in the process of evaluating, measuring, and managing impact.

**A Guide to Classifying the Impact of an Investment** by Impact Management Project provides asset owners and managers with high-level step-by-step guidance to classify the impact of individual investment products. After familiarizing yourself with the guide, **IMP’s tool for Classifying the Impact of an investment** helps you to simplify the process of classifying the impact.

Impact Management Project’s materials on **How investors manage impact** describe widely investors’ versatile intentions and constraints of setting impact goals and managing performance.
**Impact data categories template** helps measure impact in practice. IMP has broken the five impact dimensions down into 15 categories of data that investors can collect into a pragmatic Excel sheet.

Download Excel template: Download

**IRIS+ Impact toolkit** by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) helps impact investors to measure, manage and optimise their impact. Utilising IRIS+, investors can identify evidence-based metrics that will be most relevant to their strategies and desired goals. IRIS+ enables clear and comparable data, and takes the guesswork out of impact management.

Impact Garden is a knowledge and resource sharing platform, providing a wide collection of topics such as impact investing, sustainability, social innovation and social entrepreneurship, responsible business, and more.

Widen your knowledge and take a deep dive into the impact investing scene. Here are some publicly available reports and studies, and other open-source material from relevant organizations.

The State of Nordic Impact Start-ups 2020. Author: Danske Bank, 2020.

Develop the Toolbox with us

We want to collect concrete tools to help business angels in making impact conscious decisions and to have follow-up reporting tools to keep good impact work going. Therefore, we are constantly gathering more experiences about impact investing from angel investors’ perspectives.

If you are passionate about the topic, please share us your ideas and best practices so that we can spread the word to the angel community. After all, we all have the common mission of making the world a better place.

Impact Investing toolbox for business angels