Impact Frontiers

Impact Frontiers will work with prominent experts in racial, gender, and data equity to develop social equity best practices for impact management professionals and to explore new impact management strategies for investors with specific social equity objectives.

Rights CoLab

Rights CoLab will conduct research to identify financially material metrics on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics and develop a prototype human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) international standard that can be used to engage with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to ensure the ISSB’s human capital / human rights standards will build on existing DEI and human rights best practices for companies and investors. This work also builds on Rights CoLab’s deep expertise on DEI metrics and HREDD best practices.

Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

The GIIN will work to integrate the Operating Principles for Impact Management (or Impact Principles) into the GIIN’s operations following a transfer of the initiative from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in November 2022. This represents the first step in laying the groundwork for the cohesion and interoperability of the Impact Principles with the GIIN’s portfolio of activities that aim to drive impact performance by providing investors with resources to manage, measure, compare, and analyze their impacts.

ESG Initiative at Wharton

The ESG Initiative at the Wharton school will lead a convening of business school leaders who seek system-level change by harnessing the power of business research and education to address urgent sustainability challenges. Among other goals, the effort will seek to change current business-school research and pedagogy to embrace a broader understanding of a more sustainable long-term multi-stakeholder capitalism. The convening will seek to develop a working agenda of collaboration among the schools that would engage asset owners, philanthropists and corporate foundations.

60 Decibels

60 Decibels will build on its MFI (microfinance institution) Index to expand participation in the index; reach a critical mass of participation in select geographies to improve comparability; and to integrate client feedback, surfaced from the index, into existing MFI industry standards.

Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)

ANDE will develop training, educational materials, and a global conference aimed at aligning diverse impact investing stakeholders, particularly those working at a grassroots level across the Global South, around high-quality impact measurement best practices and approaches.

As You Sow

As You Sow will expand the reach of its Racial Justice and DEI (RJ/DEI) Scorecard and double the number of mutual funds and ETFs ranked by its Invest Your Values tool.

Capitals Coalition

Capitals Coalition will further develop its Value Commission, an independent working group working to establish global standards for the creation and usage of “value factors”—the conversions used to understand how a company’s or investment’s outputs impact people and planet.

CDP

CDP will ensure the development of its corporate disclosure questionnaire embodies best practice disclosure principles and recognizes the data requirements of emerging disclosure regimes from the SEC, EFRAG, and ISSB, thereby making ESG data reporting more efficient and streamlined for companies, investors, and other stakeholders globally.

Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University

CASE will partner with BlueMark, an impact verification specialist, to develop a guide for asset owners and asset allocators on how to better assess and manage impact-oriented asset managers.

Icebreaker One

Icebreaker One will develop and improve the data infrastructure and practices for sharing impact investment data. This will build the foundations for robust and measurable ESG data sharing for disclosure globally.

Oxfam America

Oxfam America’s Private Sector department will launch a framework to measure and assess public companies’ contributions to inequality and work with market actors to file shareholder resolutions based on the results.

Social Performance Task Force (SPTF)

SPTF will work with its sister organization, Cerise, to develop an enhanced user experience in social audit on the "SPI online" platform, an integrated suite of assessment tools and resources based on the Universal Standards for Social and Environmental Performance Management, for financial service providers in the Global South and emerging markets.

The Investment Integration Project (TIIP)

TIIP will develop and promote a standardized framework for investors for measuring their impacts and influence on systemic risks, specifically income inequality and racial injustice.

World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA)

WBA will engage in a series of coalition-building activities related to its open-source Financial Systems Benchmark (FSB), which it launched in November 2022, to measure financial institutions’ performance against the SDGs.

XBRL International

XBRL International will explore the feasibility and potential benefits of establishing a global report registry mechanism that would make companies’ sustainability and financial reports more accessible to regulators, investors, and other stakeholders.

Value Reporting Foundation (VRF)

The Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) was awarded a grant to support the organization’s research on standards for human capital management (HCM). HCM encompasses a broad range of corporate practices related to the management of employees including hiring and retention, employee engagement, training, compensation, fair labor practices, health and safety, responsible contracting, ethics, desired company culture, and diversity.

Notable outputs: In progress

60 Decibels

60 Decibels is a social enterprise helping clients around the world measure and understand their impact. With funding from the TPF, 60 Decibels will develop a public index of customer-level impact data for up to 100 financial inclusion companies globally.

Notable outputs:

• The 60 Decibels Microfinance Index

Adasina Social Capital

Adasina is an investment and financial activism firm that serves as a critical bridge between financial markets and social justice movements. With funding from the TPF, Adasina will write a case study on its approach to working with social justice movements to develop community-sourced impact metrics and also build a Social Justice Impact Database, a new platform to consolidate existing social justice data sets and impact metrics.

Notable outputs: In progress

Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)

ANDE is a global network of nearly 300 collaborative members that propel entrepreneurship in developing economies. With funding from the TPF, ANDE will bring together different stakeholders around peer exchange, capacity building, and the development of tools and research with the goal of increasing alignment among entrepreneur-support organizations on high-quality measurement systems and approaches.

Notable outputs:

• Adapting Impact Measurement and Management to the New Normal: Spotlight on Sub-Saharan Africa

• Measuring Decent Work in the Small and Growing Business Sector

• Measuring the Impact of Climate Small and Growing Businesses

B Lab

B Lab is a nonprofit organization and membership network transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. With funding from the TPF, B Lab will develop a new set of performance requirements that companies must meet to achieve B Corporation certification.

Notable outputs: In progress

BlueMark

BlueMark provides impact performance and impact management practice verification services for investors and companies. With funding from the TPF, BlueMark will research and develop a report for the field laying out best practices in impact performance assurance and identifying opportunities for third-party assurance services.

Notable outputs:

• Part 1 — Raising the Bar: Aligning on the Key Elements of Impact Performance Reporting

• Part 2 — Raising the Bar 2.0: BlueMark’s Framework for Evaluating Impact Reporting

CDP

CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) is an environmental nonprofit organization that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. With funding from the TPF, CDP will map existing and emerging sustainability taxonomies of economic activities within its disclosure approach, therefore laying the foundation to better integrate these frameworks into CDP’s existing platform and to enable efficient disclosure of all ESG impact data on its platform.

Notable outputs: In progress

AssuranceMark and Ceres

Ceres is a nonprofit organization which advocates for stronger sustainability practices in the private sector. With funding from the TPF, Ceres will partner with Samantha Ross, founder of AssuranceMark and a leading expert on impact assurance, to develop a protocol for high-quality, third-party impact assurance.

Notable outputs: In progress

Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB)

CDSB is an international consortium of business and environmental NGOs (currently housed within CDP) with a mission to advance and align global mainstream corporate reporting models to improve environmental and social impacts with financial capital. With funding from the TPF, CDSB will work with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation’s Technical Readiness Working Group (TRWG) to support the soon-to-be-launched International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

Notable outputs: In progress

Center for Innovation (C4i) at the University of California Hastings Law

C4i is a think tank with a mission to promote data-driven law making and empower policymakers and regulators to make informed, evidence-based decisions. With funding from the TPF, C4i will conduct research, engage stakeholders, and develop recommendations for strengthening assurance of ESG data in corporate reporting.

Notable outputs: In progress

Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

The GIIN is dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing around the world. It builds critical infrastructure and supports activities, education, and research that help accelerate the development of a coherent impact investing industry. With funding from the TPF, the GIIN will launch the IRIS+ List, the most comprehensive source of information from leading investors allocating capital towards impact, and develop a database to capture, store, and analyze impact practice and performance data sourced from the IRIS+ List. Powered by IRIS+ metrics that are used by thousands of asset managers and institutional investors around the world, the TPF-supported project will advance transparency and impact data availability in the market to enable the development of analytic tools, which will offer investors the impact intelligence they seek to make more informed and efficient decisions.

Notable outputs: In progress

Impact Capital Managers (ICM)

ICM is a nonprofit organization and membership association seeking to grow the private capital impact investing marketplace with integrity and authenticity. With funding from the TPF, ICM will publish a roadmap and resource guide on impact measurement and management for private fund managers and develop an online, public curriculum to help investors understand and implement existing sustainability standards.

Notable outputs: In progress

Impact Management Project

The IMP is a forum for building global consensus on how to measure, assess, and report impacts on people and the natural environment. In 2020, the IMP established the Non-Financial Digitisation Working Group (NDWG) to assess what is required to develop and maintain digitized sustainability information. Digitization is a core component of business reporting that can enable the sharing of higher quality, more timely sustainability information between preparers and users, and ultimately reduce the cumbersome and costly barriers to inputting and accessing data. With funding from the TPF, the IMP will continue to work with different partners under the NDWG, to help facilitate a coordinated strategy for digitization.

Notable outputs: In progress

PolicyLink

PolicyLink is a nonprofit organization working to advance racial equity standards and metrics in capital markets. With funding from the TPF, PolicyLink will develop and publish an “Investor Blueprint for Racial Equity” as part of its “Achieving Racial Equity Through Corporate Actions Initiative” launched in 2020 in partnership with FSG and JUST Capital. The guide will help investors and asset managers assess the intended and unintended impacts of current investment practices and policies on people of color and low-income communities; how to effectively deploy capital to advance racial equity; and how to evaluate investments for just and equitable outcomes.

Notable outputs:

• Investor Blueprint for Racial and Economic Equity (in partnership with CapEQ and FSG)

Predistribution Initiative (PDI) & Rights CoLab

PDI and Rights CoLab are two nonprofit organizations working to mobilize investor action to address pressing societal issues, including inequality and human rights. With funding from the TPF, PDI and Rights CoLab, along with the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS, based in South Africa) and the Argentine Network for International Cooperation (RACI, based in Argentina), will unite diverse stakeholders in incubating a Task Force on Inequality-related Financial Disclosures (TIFD). Inspired by the widespread uptake of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), TIFD is envisioned as a systemic risk management framework, complete with targets, metrics and thresholds, to reduce inequality created by the private sector.

Notable outputs: In progress

The Shareholder Commons (TSC)

The Shareholder Commons is a nonprofit organization working to create a business environment that prioritizes environmental and societal benefits over individual company profits. With funding from the TPF, TSC will develop and act on several industry and issue-specific case studies on tangible improvements in corporate behavior and value creation that an expanded view of materiality can achieve.

Notable outputs:

• Closing the Engagement Gap: Climate Change and Microbial Resistance (case studies)

• 2023 Proxy Reporting Guide

Toniic Institute

Toniic is a nonprofit organization which developed Toniic Tracer, an impact investing portfolio management platform, to collect data for its T100 research project studying impact investing deployment by private investors. With funding from the TPF, Toniic will build an interface for sharing data among impact management platforms like Tracer, advancing interoperability and building towards harmonized impact reporting.

Notable outputs: In progress

International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC)

The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) was awarded a grant in March 2021 for a series of publications from the IIRC to provide guidance to companies and investors on enterprise value reporting, including case studies for companies in specific sectors.

Notable outputs: In progress

IIRC & Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) was awarded a grant in March 2021 for a strategic plan to support the merger of the IIRC and SASB into the Value Reporting Foundation, which will accelerate progress toward a global comprehensive corporate reporting system that delivers enterprise value reporting for companies, asset managers and investors.

Notable outputs: In progress

Impact Management Project (IMP)

The Impact Management Project (IMP) was awarded a grant to facilitate a convening on behalf of the IFRS Foundation to respond to its consultation on the potential creation of a sustainability standards board (SSB) and to fulfil key requirements for the launch of an SSB at COP-26.

Notable outputs: In progress

PolicyLink

PolicyLink was awarded a grant, in partnership with FSG and JUST Capital, for their ongoing work around the Achieving Racial Equity through Corporate Actions Initiative, an effort to work towards the evolution of antiracist, equitable corporations. TPF funding for this initiative specifically helped support the development of racial equity metrics to hold companies and investors accountable and to enable greater accountability, and comparability, across companies and funds.

Notable outputs:

• A CEO Blueprint for Racial Equity

• Ongoing work to develop racial equity metrics (for both companies and investors) in collaboration with key partners, including the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Outputs expected late 2021.