Solving tomorrow’s problems today
Every investment has an impact
More than ever, investors seek opportunities that deliver strong financial returns alongside positive social and environmental outcomes. The global impact investing market is expected to triple in size over the decade ahead. But to get there the sector must attract a far greater number of traditional investors with deeper pools of capital, and identify standards for fund managers seeking to attract capital to authentic strategies. To-date such growth has remained elusive.
We founded Impact Evaluation Lab (IEL) on the conviction—shared by our experienced team of leaders from traditional finance, impact fund management, and entrepreneurship—that impact investing can only reach its full potential with greater transparency, accountability, and rigor.
We believe that wider adoption of impact investing has been limited by a lack of credible, capital markets-aligned standards. Too often, strategies are not grounded in the language, norms, and decision-making frameworks of the capital markets. To move from the margins to the mainstream, the impact investing sector must earn the confidence of traditional investors. That means going beyond good intentions – it requires credible, comparable, and financially relevant standards–The kinds of tools institutional allocators expect from any serious investment strategy.
And in an era when sustainable strategies face greater headwinds on a number of fronts, it is even more critical for asset managers with impact strategies to be held accountable to investors.
Impact Assessment & Measurement
Evaluating impact processes is no longer enough.
Financial advisors and allocators need rigorous, reliable ways to assess the quality of impact generated by an investment strategy– and whether that impact is achieved without compromising financial performance.
At IEL we offer a uniquely holistic approach to impact measurement and accountability informed by our backgrounds in finance, impact, and entrepreneurship. Our methodology was designed in collaboration with the impact investing community to enable financial advisors and other allocators to understand more fully the financial and impact dimensions of an investment so they can allocate with greater confidence. Because every investment —whether it aims to generate financial return, social value, or both— should be held to the same level of accountability.
At the Impact Evaluation Lab, we’re helping to usher in the next chapter of intentional capital: one built on authentic strategies, verifiable impact, and measurable progress toward a more sustainable and prosperous future.
Because doing well while doing good shouldn’t be a tradeoff.
It should be the standard.
The Impact Authenticity Score
The Impact Authenticity Score (IAS), is a market-leading methodology designed to assess and verify the authenticity and rigor with which impact investment teams execute their strategies.
It offers a clear, comparable framework to assess how likely a fund is to deliver both meaningful impact and competitive financial returns.
Built with the expectations of institutional investors in mind, the IAS brings rigor, clarity, and accountability to a market long in need of reliable standards.
The IAS helps investors and allocators:
Evaluate authenticity: Assess whether a fund’s stated impact goals are embedded in its strategy—not just in its marketing.
Measure execution rigor: Understand the discipline, processes, and track record an investment team brings to achieving its impact outcomes.
Gauge likelihood of outcomes: Estimate the probability that both financial and non-financial objectives will be met, relative to market benchmarks.
Gain decision-making confidence: Allocate capital with greater trust in a fund’s integrity, strategy, and results.
Compare across funds: Benchmark impact strategies across a growing database of rated funds using a standardized, intuitive framework.
We believe the IAS will become the impact measurement standard the industry has long been waiting for—helping to shift capital toward higher-integrity strategies, deepen trust in the impact investing sector, and accelerate the growth of authentic impact investing.
See our report on the Impact Authenticity Score.
