The Need for Analysts in Social Impact Measurement

Abstract

The authors of this article suggest three features of a common approach to impact measurement: harness operational data, use constructs with bounded flexibility, and develop a cadre of analysts who are skilled at interpreting reports. The analysts are the most crucial of these. Evaluators are well suited to step into these roles, but it will require them to take on new relationships with data and new roles in the field. Perhaps as a result of the importance of the analyst role, new efforts are now being made to better define it and to cultivate the skill set. Today, numerous actors in the financial services world including the Impact Management Project, World Economic Forum, the Global Impact Investing Network, and two of the major global credentialing bodies for financial services providers--the Institute for Chartered Financial Analysts and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analysts Association--are either developing and delivering curricula to train investors in impact investing or exploring the best way to do so. Among the key considerations in these trainings are what a given investment's impact is, and how to relate it to a given investor's priorities. With resources such as these coming online to accelerate education of investors about how to engage for impact, wider recognition of the crucial role that skilled impact analysts play will be key to transcending the Catch-22 of impact metrics that are both relevant and commensurable.