IRIS Framework Overview

In early 2009, Acumen Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation and B Lab, in conjunction with PwC and Deloitte, began working with a small group of stakeholders in the social and environmental impact investment space. These stakeholders comprised a diverse group of organizations representing leading microfinance institutions, small and growing businesses (SGBs), community development finance institutions (CDFIs) and private equity groups that maintain a social or environmental focus to their portfolios.

This group has started drafting a framework for measuring social and environmental performance based on a set of common indicators and definitions.  The intent is for this framework to be applicable across sectors, and success requires the participation and adoption from a broad set of stakeholders representing the various facets of the social and environmental impact space.

Currently, the IRIS framework consists of six parts:

1. The social performance standards framework and description
2. Descriptor Indicators that focus on the organization’s mission, products and services and the target markets that the organization intends to affect
3. Financial Indicators that are expected to be commonly reported on for all organizations regardless of size or operational mode
4. Operations Indicators which are applied to organizations depending on their operational type and value-chain function
5. Sector-Specific Indicators:
• Agriculture and Artisanal Indicators
• Energy, Environment and Water Indicators
• Education Indicators
• Community Development Financial Indicators
• Healthcare Indicators
• Microfinance Indicators
  
6. Glossary and definitions of common terms and indicators

The framework will evolve, grow and improve over time.  The initial version of the framework, developed in March of 2009, identifies the high level metrics and indicators common to many organizations.  Subsequent versions will expand to include a more comprehensive set of indicators and metrics.

The framework is meant to capture the “common” indicators but there are areas where additional granularity, such as “skill level” of jobs and demographic details like “gender” may be useful.  Not all organizations collect this data, but those that do should report it here and those that do not may consider collecting and reporting that data in the future.

This common language is a critical component of the enabling infrastructure needed to scale up the impact investing industry.  A common set of standards to define, measure and report social and environmental impact will provide transparency and credibility needed for investors and can enable improved performance for investees through increased investment capital and the ability to benchmark performance against peer organizations.

IRIS Project Overview

Unreasonable Insight Project Team

Unreasonable Insight Team은 전통적인 자유 시장 경제적 합리성을 바탕으로는 쉽게 이해할 수 없는 독특한 시도들, 현상들, 사례들을 모아 전지구적인 지속가능한 발전을 고민하는 프로젝트 그룹입니다.

개인의 이기적 동기에 기반을 둔 경쟁의 원리, 투입의 효율과 결과의 효과성을 중요시 하는 시장적 합리성, 통일성 있는 조화를 강조하는 조직 운영의 관습, 수익을 추구하고 위험을 회피하는 자본의 습성이 강력하게 작동하는 현재의 시장에서는 너무나 비합리적(Unreasonable)인 사례들이 우리 프로젝트의 1차적인 대상입니다.

하지만 이러한 비합리적 사례들은 전통적 합리성이 파괴해온 지구를 되살리고 지속가능한 발전을 도모하는 데에 없어서는 안 될 소중한 자원들입니다. 또한 이러한 작은 사례들이 모여서 구축하는 다음 지구의 사회, 경제 생태계는 이들 사례의 초창기적 시도와 가치들이 널리 받아들여지는 새로운 합리성을 구축하리라 기대합니다.

저희 팀의 능력이 허락한다면, 자본시장, 산업계, 에너지, IT, 학계 등 우리 주변의 전영역에 걸쳐 Unreasonable 사례들을 모으고 공유하며, 이들의 생태계 밑그림을 그리는 것이 저희의 궁극적인 목표입니다.


Who we are?
Unreasonable Insight Project Team은 대학시절 서울대학교에서 지속가능경영(Sustainable Management), 기업의 사회적 책임(CSR), 사회책임투자(SRI)를 함께 공부했던 친구들의 모임입니다. 어떤 학위도 전문성도 없지만 지속가능성에 대한 고민과 의지만큼은 대단한 순수 자발적 모임이니 귀엽게 봐주시면 좋겠습니다.

• 동쪽하늘 (luveastsky@gmail.com / Follow me on Twitter)
• 인투더와일드 (helin1207@gmail.com / Follow me on me2Day)
• 코코나물이 (euniceseong@gmail.com / Follow me on )
• 라비린토스 (labyrinthoflife@gmail.com / Follow me on me2Day)
  
• 제트맨 (zattman@gmail.com / Follow me on Twitter)
• 문아트 (moonyea.park@gmail.com / Follow me on )
  

Nextbillion

Nextbillion

SocialVibe

SocialVibe

Social edge

Social edge

Social Edge is a program of the Skoll Foundation that was inspired by Jeff Skoll's commitment to connecting people with shared passions.

Social Edge is the global online community where social entrepreneurs and other practitioners of the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources.


Relationship with the Skoll Foundation

While Social Edge is sponsored by the Skoll Foundation, Social Edge has no connection to its grantmaking programs. Participation in Social Edge is not a factor in the Foundation's grant application and recommendation process. Also, opinions expressed in Social Edge may not reflect the Skoll Foundation's opinions. And conversely.


A Little History

Social Edge launched in June 2003 with the mission to:

• Connect social entrepreneurs, their partners and allies to discuss cutting-edge issues shaping the field
• Foster frank dialogue, mutual respect and a sense of community among all in the sector
• Promote learning from the best, promising and disastrous practices

Social Edge has become a site where social entrepreneurs, philanthropists and other practitioners of the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources. The site strikes a balance between the visionary and the practical, with its spirited discussions and online workshops and features.

Social Edge has an audience of tens of thousands of social entrepreneurs around the world; it is particularly targeted at social entrepreneurs with limited access to other local resources and practitioners due to the nature of their work (e.g., international development) or their location (e.g., developing countries or in rural areas).


What's on the menu

Every week, we host two online discussions moderated by experts in the field. This week’s events are highlighted on the homepage. If you want to see previous discussions, they are grouped by category in the discussions section. You can also click on the tab located at the top of every page (between "Blogs" and "Resources"), or you may want to check our Top Discussions (the most popular) in the right column of every page.

We also keep blogs, ranging from the inspirational to the practical. We even have podcasts if you want to listen to fellow social entrepreneurs from your computer (by clicking on the media player) or take Social Edge with you on the road (by downloading the audio file to your iPod).

You may want to check our resources, especially Expert Advice, where you can ask experts and fellow entrepreneurs the burning question you have about your own social benefit venture (you need to be a registered member to ask a question, though).


Looking for something edgy?

We have tried to make it as easy as possible to find the piece of information that may help you become an even better social entrepreneur.

First, you should check our list of Top Keywords in the right column of every page on Social Edge, including this one. Yes, it's the list of words right there. Click on the one most relevant to what you are looking for.

You may also want to use our search engine. Enter a keyword in the search box located on the top right of every page on Social Edge, and you will quickly get a list of relevant data. You may notice little logos to the left of each entry, showing where they are located -in a blog, in a recent discussion, in the resources wiki...

Another cool option: our Resources Wiki. Social Edge offers the only encyclopedia about social entrepreneurship on the Internet, available in a wiki format. Use it, like you would use any encyclopedia: read and learn! But there is an added benefit: if you are a registered member, you can actually edit it, for example by adding an entry if you think it deserves our community’s attention. Isn’t that edgy?


Should you register?

You should. It's easy, and it takes only fifteen seconds.

If you register, you will be able to post comments, ask questions, edit the resources wiki encyclopedia, post your own job listings and offers... You will be able to interact with our community of social entrepreneurs and experts. You will be able to ask them questions about your work and they will get back to you online. Isn’t it what the Internet is for?

We made the registration process very simple. All you have to do is enter a password, a login name and your e-mail address. Voilà! You can always come back later to add your picture if you want to be profiled on our home page. Or to add more information about your work so that fellow social entrepreneurs can reach out to you if they need your expertise.

Extra bonus: if you register, you will receive our newsletter every Tuesday. It’s brief, to the point and highlights what’s important in social entrepreneurship and what's new on Social Edge. It’s free. Do not worry: we do not spam, we do not rent our list of subscribers. We just send you a short newsletter every Tuesday at 22:00 GMT.

If you don’t register, you will still be able to access as read-only most of the site (well, with the exception of our members database and a few private areas). That’s nice, and you should at least bookmark Social Edge into your browser’s favorites and come back often to read about the latest in social entrepreneurship.

If you don't have time to register now, you can simply subscribe to our weekly newsletter. It’s brief, to the point and highlights what’s important in social entrepreneurship and what's new on Social Edge.

선의를 위한 Flickr

선의를 위한 Flickr

Tweetsgiving

Tweetsgiving

Social Actions

Social Actions

Socialbrite

Socialbrite

N-TEN (Nonprofit Technology Network)

N-TEN

Think Social

Think Social

ThinkSocial is a new non-profit initiative dedicated to advancing the use of social media in the public interest. The project is supported by The Paley Center for Media and is initially funded by the Surdna Foundation.     

Our mission is to connect people and ideas to advance the use of social media to address society’s most pressing challenges. 

We believe in the power of sharing and example. We want the early innovators and practitioners of social media to share their initiatives, ideas and inspiration with a wider community of people and institutions seeking to create change. Therefore, our strategy is to create initiatives that address the current problems by:     

• Empowering people to share their stories and ideas so that others may benefit from collective activism    
• Recognizing and highlight the most important and innovative uses of social media in the public interest
• Facilitating interactions between technology, business and public leaders to deepen knowledge and to inspire the creation of new platforms and applications 

회의 하면서

 

How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/

Blended Value Investing - Capital Opportunities for Social and Environmental Impact

Blended Value Investing - Capital Opportunities for Social a.pdf

• Title: Blended Value Investing - Capital Opportunities for Social and Environmental Impact
• Author: World Economic Forum
• URL: http://www.blendedvalue.org/media/pdf-blendedvalue.pdf
  

Virtual Social Capital Market Map

Collective Intelligence

Who we are
Collective Intelligence is a global group of entrepreneurs dedicated to improving the efficiency of social ecosystems and accelerating the flow of capital to good.

What we do:
We do this through three areas of focus:

1. We develop “collective maps,” graphical depictions of the often-complex web of organizations, issues and gaps associated with key social initiatives.
2. We help to link together networks of resources, binding together groups of purpose to aid in more efficient resource-sharing, capital formation and fund-raising.
3. We tell stories about the problems we see, and about the individuals and organizations working to remedy them, using email groups, blogs, wikis, and other collaborative technologies.

Community Investing Center

Community Investing Center

The Community Investing Center is a project of the Community Investing Program of the Social Investment Forum Foundation and Green America. The Center’s mission is to provide financial professionals with information and resources to help them channel more money into community investing. This includes “how-to” guidance for investors and the most comprehensive database of Community Investment Institutions (CIIs).

Social Investment Forum (US)

Social Investment Forum

The Social Investment Forum is the U.S. national nonprofit membership association for professionals, firms and organizations dedicated to advancing the practice and growth of socially responsible investing (SRI).  Critical to responsible investment practice is the consideration of environmental, social and corporate governance criteria in addition to standard financial analysis.  Forum members support SRI through portfolio selection analysis, shareholder advocacy and community investing.

The 400 members of the Social Investment Forum include investment management and advisory firms, mutual fund companies, research firms, financial planners and advisors, broker-dealers, banks, credit unions, community development organizations, non-profit associations, and pension funds, foundations, Native American tribes and other asset owners.

Charity SRI

Charity SRI by EIRIS

Charitysri.org was developed by the EIRIS/UKSIF Charity Project, a joint initiative between the EIRIS Foundation and UKSIF.

The EIRIS Foundation is now responsible for the maintenance and update of the site. The EIRIS Foundation continues to deliver the Charity Project, which encourages and assists charities and their trustees in the development of an ethical and socially responsible approach to their investments through education, research and the provision of resources.

Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

The GIIN supports collaboration, develops industry infrastructure, and undertakes research and advocacy to foster a coherent impact investing industry. The GIIN's programmatic agenda is rooted in the challenges investors face. It serves as a forum for identifying and addressing the systemic barriers that hinder the impact investing industry's efficiency and effectiveness.

The GIIN works to increase dramatically the level and effectiveness of capital that is supporting market-based solutions to social and environmental problems. Our goal is to help foster a coherent impact investing industry that channels investment capital efficiently to accelerate the development of solutions to pressing social and environmental problems. Impact investing can be a powerful complement to philanthropy and government efforts to address many issues, including relief for suffering communities, eradication of disease, stabilization of climate change, provision of basic social services such as housing and sanitation, and development of a green revolution in Africa.

The GIIN is operating under the fiscal sponsorship of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), which provides it with its 501(c)3 charitable status under US law.

Acumend Fund

Acumend Fund

Using Patient Capital to Build Transformative Businesses
Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches.

The Challenge
Tremendous wealth is being created in the world today thanks to globalization and the power of technology and markets. Yet there is a growing gap between rich and poor. Something must be done to extend the benefits of the global economy to the majority of the world’s population that lives on less than four dollars a day.

Why Charity Alone isn’t the Answer
Poor people seek dignity, not dependence. Traditional charity often meets immediate needs but too often fails to enable people to solve their own problems over the long term. Market-based approaches have the potential to grow when charitable dollars run out, and they must be a part of the solution to the big problem of poverty.

Why the Marketplace Alone isn’t the Answer
Very low-income people are too often invisible to businesses and society. Businesses see no significant market opportunity and governments view low-income areas as having insufficient tax revenues to pay for basic services like clean water, healthcare, housing and energy. Building new models that provide these critical services at affordable price – in the face of high costs, poor distribution systems, dispersed customers, limited financing options and, at times, corruption – requires imaginative business solutions and partnerships supported by investors willing to take on a risk/return profile that is unacceptable to traditional financiers.

Changing the Development Paradigm
We believe that pioneering entrepreneurs will ultimately find the solutions to poverty. The entrepreneurs Acumen Fund supports are focused on offering critical services – water, health, housing, and energy – at affordable prices to people earning less than four dollars a day.

The key is patient capital. We use philanthropic capital to make disciplined investments – loans or equity, not grants – that yield both financial and social returns. Any financial returns we receive are recycled into new investments. Over time, we have refined the Acumen Fund investment model, built a world-class global team with offices in four countries, and learned what does and does not work in growing businesses that serve low-income people.

History
Acumen Fund was incorporated on April 1, 2001, with seed capital from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three individual philanthropists. Since then our network of investors and advisors has grown to include a wide range of individuals and organizations who share our belief in using entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.

Social Funds

SocialFunds.com

SocialFunds.com features over 10,000 pages of information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news.

Good Capital

Calvert Giving Fund

Blending Financial and Social Returns

For over 10 years, Calvert Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, has been working to make community investment a safe and logical option for all investors seeking to make a positive social impact. We focus on using investment capital, rather than conventional philanthropy, to create a sustainable, scalable model that enables nonprofit organizations and social enterprises to address critical social problems.

Social Capital Markets (SoCap)

SoCap

The convener of SOCAP09, Kevin Jones creates information businesses inside emerging markets. He believes that markets emerge in conversation, as people try to explain and understand value. But this market is not like others he's been in, and that's what makes it more interesting and more important. The social capital market adds the dimension of impact, what your money actually does in the world before it comes back to you as a gain or loss, to the traditional risk and reward investment equation. Looking at impact is what has enabled SOCAP to be at the vital intersection of money and meaning, Kevin said.

Besides SOCAP, Kevin is founder of Good Capital (goodcap.net), a venture capital firm that invests in social enterprises. He is also part of the team launching the first U.S. node of the Hub (hubsf.net), a network of more than a dozen work spaces for social entrepreneurs in cities across the world from Cairo to London.

His previous six businesses all achieved market dominance before he left or sold them. As a journalist, he has been a columnist for Forbes and Business 2.0 magazines. Early in his career as a journalist his reporting sent a sheriff to prison on 53 counts of fraud. He has been on the boards of Social Enterprise Alliance, the association of non profit social enterprises, and Social Venture Partners International, a network of engaged philanthropy circles. Kevin also led a malaria project in Zwaziland and Mozambique, working with Jeff Sachs of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. Finally, during his 20 year business career in Mississippi he was heavily involved in public school advocacy.

by co-founder, Kevin Jones

Kiva

Kiva

We Let You Loan to Low Income Entrepreneurs

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on Kiva, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else.

Kiva partners with existing microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to entrepreneurs from communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Kiva creates an interpersonal connection at low costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery.

Mircroplace

Microplace

Who are we?

MicroPlace is a social business owned by eBay. We want to alleviate global poverty by offering investments that enable loans to hardworking poor people. What's a social business? It's a financially sustainable company that has a social mission.

How does it work?

A loan of a $20 can allow a poor woman to start a business and work her way out of poverty. In many countries, organizations that function like banks make loans to the poor. These organizations need funds to lend to the poor. Your investment helps fund these organizations. And, they are willing to pay you a return for the funds you invest. You can fight poverty and get your money back with interest!

Why it works?

Microfinance is one of the most effective poverty alleviation tools around because:

• Microfinance is a hand- up not a hand out. Empowering people to help themselves is an effective way to fight poverty.
• When you give to charity you give your money away. When you invest your money, it compounds while it is invested and is available to reinvest at maturity. You will always have money to help a poor person start a business

UI의 웹 공간 로고

IRIS (Impact Reporting and Investment Standards)

IRIS (Impact Reporting and Investment Standards)

Creating a Common Language for Social and Environmental Impact

In the last few years, a proliferation of investment dollars has been allocated to funds and enterprises seeking to generate social and/or environmental impact as well as a financial return.  The sector has grown to over $50B in total assets and the pace of new investment grew by an average of over 35% over the past 5 years until the middle of 2008i. In addition, close to 150 organizations are providing approximately $4B in capital and services to small and growing businesses in developing countriesii.  And areas like Clean Tech and Socially Responsible Investing have seen double-digit growth year-over year, despite challenging economic conditions.  Within the next 10 years, Impact Investing has the potential to grow to about 1% of total managed assetsiii, which would result in about $500B of capital channeled toward social and environmental impact.

Taken together, these statistics suggest that there will be continued growth in this relatively new capital market.  The progress of this growth may be limited, however, by a lack of transparency and credibility in how funds define, track, and report on the social and environmental performance of their capital. Transparency, credibility and enabling infrastructure are required for participants to more fully capture the value of the marketplace.

Evolution of Social and Environmental Impact Investing

Adapted from Investing for Social and Environmental Impact – The Monitor Institute, 2008

To address these challenges, The Rockefeller Foundation, Acumen Fund and B Lab initiated the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) effort to create a common framework for defining, tracking and reporting the performance of impact capital. Significant progress has already been made in sectors like Microfinance measures, data aggregation and rating tools have been developed. The IRIS initiative will build on these sector-specific efforts to create a common language that will allow comparison and communication across the breadth of organizations that have social or environmental impact as a primary driver. IRIS is an essential element in the evolution and maturity of the social and environmental impact investing market. A common language for measuring and reporting performance forms a basis for enabling infrastructure and leads to transparency and credibility.

The ultimate success of the initiative will require collaboration and cooperation from a great number of organizations. The challenges of this effort cannot be underestimated; neither can the potential benefits resulting from the more robust and efficient flow of capital with a social and environmental benefit.

Blended Value

Blended Value

Value is what gets created when investors invest and organizations act to pursue their mission. Traditionally, we have thought of value as being either economic (and created by for-profit companies) or social (and created by nonprofit or non-governmental organizations). What the Blended Value Proposition states is that all organizations, whether for-profit or not, create value that consists of economic, social and environmental value components—and that investors (whether market-rate, charitable or some mix of the two) simultaneously generate all three forms of value through providing capital to organizations.

The outcome of all this activity is value creation and that value is itself non-divisible and, therefore, a blend of these three elements.

While all value naturally consists of a blend, certain investors and organizations are intentionally attempting to create and maximize the impact of this value. The key areas in which both investors and organizations are working to maximize this blended value are:

    * Corporate Social Responsibility
    * Social Enterprise
    * Social Investing
    * Strategic/Effective Philanthropy, and
    * Sustainable Development.

The Blended Value Map presents an overview of each of these "silos" of activity and within each area outlines key

• Actors,
• Web Resources,
• Books, Articles and Papers

The Map also presents a discussion of what key challenges and issues people within each silo are working to address.

In addition, the Map also presents a number of cross-cutting issues that actors in each silo are working with in common.

These issues include:

• Capital Questions
• Performance Metrics
• Leadership and Organizational Development
• Public Policy, Tax and Regulatory Questions

The Map also presents ideas about how we could work to organize an international effort to better connect the efforts of those in each of the silos in order to make sure that insights developed in one silo have the best opportunity to influence and inform the work taking place in another silo.

Impact Alliance

Impact Alliance

The Impact Alliance is a global action and learning network committed to strengthening the capacity of individuals and organizations to generate deep impact within the communities they serve.  We do this through assisting our members to improve the quality, scale and social impact of their services and programs.

Our mission is to inspire, inform, and improve practice and performance within organizations leading to the reduction of poverty and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods.
 
The Impact Alliance provides space for partners and members to share, learn and collaborate to define and develop  standards of excellence that improve their performance. It brings together a diverse yet complementary group of organizations and individuals who seek to leverage their respective strengths and pool resources to attain goals they could not achieve alone. We facilitate access to local and international providers of innovative capacity building programs and services.
 
The ultimate goal of our actions is a stronger global civil society composed of effective and sustainable organizations that demonstrate leadership, vision, organizational and technical skills to better respond to the increasingly complex needs of their communities.