Advisory Case Studies
Strengthening Impact Management Across Swedfund's Portfolio
Designing and piloting a repeatable Impact Measurement and Management System (IMMS) Technical Assistance offering for Swedfund’s investees
Client
Swedfund
iGravity advisory modules
Design, Manage
Type of project
Design and delivery of a structured IMMS Technical Assistance (TA) offering, developed jointly with Swedfund and evolutiqIA. The offering covers portfolio-level diagnostics, a proprietary maturity assessment tool and investee-level TA delivery.
Sector
Cross-sector investor portfolio, global with a focus on Africa and Asia.
Project description
Since 2022, Swedfund has partnered with two impact advisories, evolutiqIA and iGravity, to design and pilot a Technical Assistance offering for Impact Measurement and Management Systems (IMMS). The aim was a framework grounded in widely adopted IMM best practice that can be tailored to a diverse portfolio of investees, rather than applied as a one-size-fits-all standard. The offering is built around a Define, Measure, Manage, and Report approach to impact, and combines a proprietary maturity assessment tool with a structured four-step TA process at the investee level. The project is ongoing.
Effective impact investing requires a structured approach, not only good intentions. Investors and their investees face ambiguity over what level of IMMS proficiency counts as “compliant” or “best practice”, and must navigate a crowded landscape of standards, frameworks and metric databases, including IRIS+, the SDGs, the Impact Management Platform, GIIN, UNEP FI’s Principles for Responsible Banking, Impact Frontiers and the Operating Principles for Impact Management. Investees in particular struggle to balance international alignment with local applicability.
Together with evolutiqIA and Swedfund, we built:
- A four-part framework spanning investor and investee levels: a systematic Define, Measure, Manage and Report approach to impact (covering elements such as Theory of Change, materiality, KPIs and targets; data collection, quality and analysis; policy, accountability, process and capacity; transparency and verification).
- A proprietary Status Quo, Gap and Action Analysis tool that automatically generates maturity expectations (Level 1 to 3) based on an investee’s type of organisation, impact intentionality and maturity or context, and flags gaps against those expectations.
- A structured four-step TA process at investee level: selection and onboarding; diagnosis through a self-assessment survey against the four IMMS core elements; targeted technical assistance to close identified gaps; and a post-assessment and reporting phase to evaluate progress and the sustainability of improvements.
The model gives investors a repeatable, portfolio-wide way to assess and lift the impact management maturity of their investees, placing impact management alongside financial management and E&S risk management as a standard pillar of value creation plans. Investees receive a clear, tailored roadmap rather than a generic compliance checklist. Investees benefit directly through improved impact measurement and management practices, and their employees, clients, suppliers and surrounding communities benefit indirectly.
What is the Problem?
Effective impact investing requires a structured approach, not only good intentions. Investors and their investees face ambiguity over what level of IMMS proficiency counts as “compliant” or “best practice”, and must navigate a crowded landscape of standards, frameworks and metric databases, including IRIS+, the SDGs, the Impact Management Platform, GIIN, UNEP FI’s Principles for Responsible Banking, Impact Frontiers and the Operating Principles for Impact Management. Investees in particular struggle to balance international alignment with local applicability.
What is the Solution?
Together with evolutiqIA and Swedfund, we built:
- A four-part framework spanning investor and investee levels: a systematic Define, Measure, Manage and Report approach to impact (covering elements such as Theory of Change, materiality, KPIs and targets; data collection, quality and analysis; policy, accountability, process and capacity; transparency and verification).
- A proprietary Status Quo, Gap and Action Analysis tool that automatically generates maturity expectations (Level 1 to 3) based on an investee’s type of organisation, impact intentionality and maturity or context, and flags gaps against those expectations.
- A structured four-step TA process at investee level: selection and onboarding; diagnosis through a self-assessment survey against the four IMMS core elements; targeted technical assistance to close identified gaps; and a post-assessment and reporting phase to evaluate progress and the sustainability of improvements.
The model gives investors a repeatable, portfolio-wide way to assess and lift the impact management maturity of their investees, placing impact management alongside financial management and E&S risk management as a standard pillar of value creation plans. Investees receive a clear, tailored roadmap rather than a generic compliance checklist. Investees benefit directly through improved impact measurement and management practices, and their employees, clients, suppliers and surrounding communities benefit indirectly.
