In the works: Major social enterprise rating and reporting systems
I recently wrote about two social enterprise conferences in September, a meeting of the Slow Money Alliance in Santa Fe and SoCap09 in San Francisco.
But, it looks like there’s going to be an important announcement at another September pow wow. I’m talking about the Clinton Global Initiative, which is meeting in New York Sept. 23-27, and at which a major effort to devise global rating and reporting systems for social enterprise is likely to be officially unveiled.
My understanding is that the Rockefeller Foundation is going to discuss two projects connected to the Global Impact Investing Network, a recently formed group of such institutions and high-net worth investors as J.P. Morgan and TIAA-CREF interested in increasing the social impact of their investments. One of the projects, the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards, is going to be a reporting standard for social enterprise. Spearheaded by the Acumen Fund, IRIS will be a bit like a FASB for social ventures, with a set of definitions for different terms and a set of reporting standards based on those terms.
Another project, Global Impact Investment Rating System, is the next generation version of the B Lab system, which rates social enterprises according to five categories. GIIRS will be aimed at global private equity and at portfolios, not just individual companies. As B Lab co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert explained it, “If investors are considering, say, 50 funds, they could look to the underlying rating and decide only to look at those with maybe a three-star and above rating.” (B Lab is also separately testing version 2.0 of its original rating system).
Basically, these are complementary initiatives. The rating system would, so to speak, sit on top of the reporting standard. The ultimate goal is to create more useful metrics for analyzing and comparing social ventures and, as a result, to drive more capital to the area.
It’s unclear exactly what is going to be discussed and in how much detail at CGI. But these initiatives are likely to have a major impact–it’s a big deal.
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they will actually be announcing IRIS and GIIRS at Socap along with major institutional funding to follow.
Yes, I need to clarify. Rockefeller is going to discuss GIIN, IRIS and GIIRS at Socap and at CGI, It’s unclear exactly which aspects will be discussed at each meeting.
[...] Anne Field – Not Only for Profit : In the works: Major social enterprise rating and reporting … Coverage of a big initiative being launched at the Clinton Global Initiative by Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Impact Investing Network. (tags: philanthropy) [...]
[...] In the works: Major social enterprise rating and reporting systems – It looks like some big changes to the social capital markets world may be in the works. The first is the “Impact Reporting and Investment Standards” — an initiative toward creating a common language for assessing social and environmental impact. The second is the “Global Impact Investment Rating System”, a B-Lab-like system for rating global private equity and investment portfolios. I could see the latter being a huge success — leading to increased private investment in such funds/portfolios. [...]