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IMPACT FOR DECISION-MAKING: AN ONLINE CURRICULUM ON IMPACT-FINANCIAL INTEGRATION

A guide through the concepts, processes, and tools investors need to optimize portfolios for integrated impact and financial goals

impact frontiers online learning
In partnership with Impact Capital Managers, with the support of the Tipping Point Fund

This curriculum provides a flexible, self-paced introduction to the essential impact management concepts, tools, and practices in impact-financial integration. This resource is relevant for anyone interested in exploring frontier practices in impact management, including investment practitioners, entrepreneurs, students, and policymakers.

The guidance offered here builds and expands on the foundation laid by the first Impact Frontiers cohort in 2018 – 2020, described in Impact-Financial Integration: A Handbook for Investors. It synthesizes the insights and learnings that emerged from Impact Frontiers’ work with a cohort of private markets investors affiliated with Impact Capital Managers, and more broadly with more than fifty investors across six cohorts in 2021 – 2022. 

The curriculum assumes minimal prior experience with impact management, though it is recommended that users review the Five Dimensions of Impact framework in advance.

"Learning advanced concepts in impact management just got easier. Do you want to go deeper in optimizing both impact and financial return? Impact for Decision-Making, the new online curriculum from Impact Frontiers and Impact Capital Managers, is a wonderful video series for those who have completed our Impact Measurement and Management for SDGs course on Coursera to deepen their practices around impact and financial integration."
Cathy ClarkFaculty Director, Centre for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business
"This is an invaluable resource for an increasingly wide range of investors who want to manage the relationship between impact and financial return in their portfolio."
Clara Barby CBESenior Partner, Just Climate, and former CEO, Impact Management Project
"This new curriculum continues to push the envelope of impact management by expanding our horizons. It’s well worth any investor’s time to complete the curriculum."
Adam BendellCEO, Tonic
"When it comes to explaining, refining, and applying the concepts of impact measurement and management, there are no better resources available to the sector than those created by Impact Frontiers and its partners."
Tom AdamsCo-founder, 60 Decibels
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Work through the curriculum sequentially, or jump to a particular topic:
Introduction to Impact for Decision-Making
Impact at the Portfolio & Investment Levels
Building an Expected Impact Rating
Impact-Financial Integration
01
Impact for Decision-Making
This sequence provides an overview of the curriculum and introduces the core concepts of impact-financial integration.
Module 1:

Course Overview & Goals

  • The three peaks of impact management
  • Five steps toward impact-financial integration
  • Course overview
  • Impact management self-diagnostic
Module 2:

Introduction to Impact Ratings

  • Impact ratings as an impact management tool
  • Two approaches: High / Medium / Low impact ratings vs. quantitative non-monetary impact ratings
  • Case study: Frontiers Fund
  • Worksheet: Create a High / Medium / Low impact rating
Module 3:

The Efficient Impact Frontier

  • Introduction to the efficient impact frontier
02
Impact at the Portfolio & Investment Levels
This sequence explores how to integrate impact alongside financial risk and return throughout your process, from portfolio-level goal-setting to investment-level decision-making.
Module 4:

Impact at the Portfolio Level

  • Articulating portfolio level goals in terms of the What, Who, and Contribution dimensions of impact
  • Integrated portfolio dashboards
  • Integrated portfolio performance targets
Module 5:

Impact at the Investment Level

  • Integrated pipeline screens
  • Impact ratings, integrated scatterplot analysis, and investment approval
  • Adjusting investment processes based on integrated analysis of portfolio performance
  • Case study: Frontiers Fund
03
Building an Impact Rating
This sequence provides a detailed, step-by-step process for building an impact rating using the 5 Dimensions of Impact framework from the Impact Management Project.
Module 6:

What

  • Sequence overview and introduction to impact rating template
  • Scoring criteria: What dimension
  • Key concepts: impacts, outcomes, and outputs
Module 7:

How Much

  • Scoring criteria: How Much dimension
  • Key concepts: Scale vs. depth vs. duration
Module 8:

Who

  • Scoring criteria: Who dimension
  • Key concept: Thresholds
Module 9:

Enterprise Contribution

  • Scoring criteria: Enterprise Contribution
  • Key concepts: Counterfactuals, spectrum of evidence, scenario analysis
Module 10:

Impact Risk

  • Scoring criteria: Impact Risk
  • Key concepts: 9 types of impact risk, likelihood vs. consequences of impact risk
Module 11:

Investor Contribution

  • Scoring criteria: Investor Contribution
  • Key concepts: Investor contribution strategies, investor-level scenario analysis
Module 12:

Impact Ratings Math

  • Weights
  • Aggregation formulas
  • Accounting for multiple outcomes, multiple stakeholders
04
Impact-Financial Integration
This sequence discusses how to construct, analyze, and synthesize decision-making rules from integrated scatterplots.
Module 13:

Integrated Scatterplots: Construction & Analysis

  • Risk-adjusted financial return metrics
  • Analyzing integrated scatterplots to identify decision-relevant insights
  • Examples of integrated scatterplot analysis from past Impact Frontiers cohort members
Module 14:

Conclusion

  • Reflections and key takeaways
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Made possible with the support of the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing

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