BlueMark Publishes Research Calling for Market Alignment on the Key Elements of Quality Impact Performance Reporting

"Raising the Bar" report is first in a series aimed at improving the quality and usefulness of impact performance reports produced by impact investors

NEW YORK, April 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BlueMark, a specialist provider of impact verification services for investors and companies, today published a report calling for a stronger approach to impact performance reporting that would make it easier for the market to analyze and compare impact performance. The full report, "Raising the Bar: Aligning on the Key Elements of Impact Performance Reporting," is available at https://bluemarktideline.com/raising-the-bar. 

The research was conducted with the support of grant funding from The Rockefeller Foundation and the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing.

"While impact reporting by private markets impact investors is a common practice, the lack of widely-accepted guidelines for reporting on impact performance has resulted in heterogeneous approaches and a perception by end readers that the reports are incomplete and insufficient to meaningfully interpret impact results," said Christina Leijonhufvud, CEO of BlueMark. "Given the market imperative to improve the quality and usefulness of impact performance reports, we wanted to gain a deeper understanding of best practices in impact reporting and propose pathways to accelerate their adoption."

A two-pronged approach was taken to the research project. First, BlueMark analyzed a sample of 31 recent impact reports by private market general partners (GPs) to identify trends and common practices. Second, BlueMark consulted with 57 diverse industry stakeholders–via both one-on-one interviews and focus groups–to gain insights into the challenges and opportunities related to producing and consuming impact reports.

These research activities surfaced several gaps and challenges that limit the utility of impact performance reports, including: lack of specificity about goals or targets, cherry-picking of data, missing stakeholder perspectives, and emphasis on successes as opposed to risks or underperformance.

However, the research also revealed a high degree of alignment around what constitutes a quality and decision-useful impact performance report. Building on these areas of consensus, BlueMark–in close consultation with industry stakeholders–composed the following proposed "Key Elements" of quality impact performance reports.

Overarching Elements:

• Completeness: A quality impact report provides information about all portfolio holdings and addresses impact performance at the fund and holding level.
• Clarity: A quality impact report presents impact information in a manner that is accessible and that facilitates interpretation, with clear definitions, assumptions and supporting calculations.

Specific Elements:

• Defined objectives and expectations: A quality impact report is explicit about the fund's intent and impact objectives, including clarity on investor contribution and expected results.
• Relevant metrics: A quality impact report includes quantitative metrics that are drawn from industry standards wherever possible and that link to the articulated impact objectives.
• Relative performance results: A quality impact report provides information that allows the reader to effectively interpret and compare measures of progress and performance. 
• Integrated stakeholder perspectives: A quality impact report identifies affected stakeholders and incorporates their experiences and voices. 
• Transparency about risks and lessons learned: A quality impact report is forthcoming about potential impact risks and past lessons learned.

These elements were tested in focus groups of both GPs and LPs, including members of the BlueMark Allocator Working Group, a learning community of some of the leading institutional allocators with a shared commitment to advancing best practices in impact investing.

To help increase adoption of these elements, BlueMark is collaborating with Impact Frontiers, an initiative of the Impact Management Project (IMP), to pilot an approach to verifying impact reports with a select group of firms from the Impact Frontiers community. The verification methodology will build on the research findings in the first "Raising the Bar" report. Key learnings from this pilot will be published in a second report in late 2022.

"The desire to advance beyond impact practice to impact performance is a common refrain among the investors participating in Impact Frontiers cohorts," said Mike McCreless, Executive Director of Impact Frontiers. "The report launched today represents a great step in that direction and we look forward to collaborating with BlueMark and the Impact Frontiers community of investors to continue the momentum." 

BlueMark's current verification services are structured around the two key pillars of accountability for impact: Impact Management Practice (the extent to which an investor or company has the systems, processes, and capabilities to contribute to achieving the intended impact); and Impact Performance (the extent to which an investor or company has achieved the intended impact results). To date, BlueMark has completed over 65 verifications for organizations managing a combined $156+ billion in impact assets.

About BlueMark
BlueMark is a leading provider of impact verification services for investors and companies. Founded in 2020, BlueMark's mission is to "strengthen trust in impact investing." BlueMark's verification methodologies draw on a range of industry standards, frameworks and regulations, including the Impact Management Project (IMP), the Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM), the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), SDG Impact, and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). Learn more about BlueMark and impact verification at www.bluemarktideline.com. 

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SOURCE BlueMark