Behind the Numbers: Our Approach to Developing Impact Reports

Earlier this year, we released three of our annual flagship publications: the Investment Solutions 2024 Financial and Impact Report, Balim Investments 2024 Impact Report and the Refugee Investment Facility 2024 Impact Report. Each one packed with numbers, insights, and stories of impact. But have you ever wondered what it actually takes to bring these reports to life?  

Behind every chart, metric, and story is a structured process that blends data discipline with storytelling, and precision with creativity. 

So, how does it all come together in practice? Let’s look at the Investment Solutions 2024 Financial and Impact Report and the steps our Impact team took to bring it to life. 

Step 1: Setting the course 

The process began back in December with a roadmap. Building on our experience from past years, the team laid out a six-month plan broken into clear workstreams, data collection, analysis, narrative, design, assurance, and launch. Each stream with a dedicated owner, specific milestones, and clear criteria for completion.  Once the initial plan was in place, the next step was to engage both internal and external collaborators to fully define the structure. Perspectives from the impact, investment, monitoring, and communications teams, together with contributions from external partners, ensured that the process was comprehensive from the outset. And it was only through this collaboration that the combined inputs shaped the report into its final form. 

That six-month plan quickly became the North Star of the process; a reference point the team would return to during regular check-ins to track milestones, identify bottlenecks early, and keep everything on course. 

Step 2: Turning data into insights 

Turning data into insights is always the most detailed and time-intensive step of this process, for this and all our other annual reports. Every financial and impact KPI linked to our flagship strategies had to be consolidated, checked, and contextualized. Behind the scenes, this meant reviewing trends, engaging with managers, debating what each shift meant, and reconciling every figure with the central reporting sheet. 

Each data point went through a careful process of: 

• Collection and aggregation – pulling the latest KPIs into one central reporting hub. 

• Interpretation and analysis – linking rises and falls to the strategies and investments made during the year and assessing performance from both impact and financial perspectives. 

• Verification – cross-checking every figure for consistency across time. 

This specific report ultimately captured the performance and impact of our two main investment strategies under Investment Solutions; the Emerging Impact Debt Strategy, which channels private debt into emerging markets, and the Impact Yield Strategy, which offers diversified exposure with steady returns and measurable outcomes. 

This discipline ensured that what appeared on the page wasn’t just informative but reliable, accurately reflecting the reality of the investments.  

Step 3: Bringing in the human side 

While quantitative results capture scale, they don’t fully capture depth. To bring that dimension forward, the team conducted a qualitative analysis of the portfolios highlighting the outcomes behind the metrics, from jobs created and financial inclusion for underserved communities, to resilient livelihoods and climate-positive outcomes across emerging markets.  

This meant selecting stories that illustrated the impact of the Emerging Impact Debt Strategy and Impact Yield Strategy, while also ensuring a balance across sectors and geographies. Collaboration with partners on the ground was key to capturing authentic voices and perspectives, which made the report more than a collection of charts; it became a reflection of real-world change. 

Step 4: From words to design 

With both quantitative insights and qualitative findings in place, the next challenge was to weave them into a single, coherent narrative. Working closely with the creative team, we focused on translating the content into a clear and visually engaging report. 

Through several iterations, the Investment Solutions 2024 Financial and Impact Report took its final shape, clear, professional, and designed to engage a diverse audience of investors, partners, and impact practitioners. 

Once finalized, the report was published and distributed through iGravity’s communications team, marking the culmination of a process that combined precision, collaboration, and creativity. 

Lessons for 2026 

Reflecting on this process, three key lessons will continue to guide how we approach future reports: 

• Open communication across teams and stakeholders is essential. 

• A single, reliable source of data keeps everyone aligned. 

• Following the roadmap helps maintain structure and momentum. 

Ultimately, the biggest takeaway was that impact reporting was as much about collaboration as it was about data collection and reporting. It was this collective effort that transformed scattered inputs into a coherent report, one that reflected not just numbers, but the measurable impact of our investment strategies, lessons learnt and the resilience they helped build across communities and portfolios. 

Explore the full reports 

Read the Investment Solutions 2024 Financial and Impact Report, along with the Balim Investments 2024 Impact Report and Refugee Investment Facility 2024 Impact Report, to explore our latest insights and results. 

Discover more about iGravity’s investment and advisory work here.