Impact Frontiers, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, has built 'norms' for investors in private markets, to address the content, structure and format of their impact performance reports.

The guidance has been designed to help fund managers create these reports, which are shared privately with their capital providers under non-disclosure agreements. Over 350 impact fund managers, asset owners and allocators, assurance and verification providers, and civil society organisations fed back into the compilation of the reporting norms.

On 16 May, Impact Frontiers led an in-person event in London to launch the piloting of the impact performance reporting norms. In this interactive session, participants collaborated with other leaders to shape the implementation phase of the reporting norms, to identify barriers to change and brainstorm how to get to the future they envision.

The reporting norms aim to address a systemic challenge wherein impact reports often lean towards being performative rather than strategic, hindering the chance for general and legal partners to develop a robust performance analysis and foster deeper engagement on maximising impact potential.

Participants had the opportunity to join two workshops. The first debated the opportunities and challenges of impact performance, while the second focused on crafting an action plan

Some of the challenges the group identified on how impact is disclosed were:

• Cost: who will bear the financial burden and provide the resources for enhanced disclosure?
• Standardisation and the importance of disclosing negative/unattended and positive impacts. The utility of current impact reports, often perceived as tick-box exercises rather than influential factors in decision-making processes.
• Difficulty comparing with other reports. The flexibility and standardisation of the norms were seen as positive aspects of the discussions.

Participants emphasised the need for impact to be recognised as a systemic risk. As for opportunities, the groups pointed out the norms can assist in crafting reports, which in turn help in decision-making and standardising reports, supporting managers in streamlining operations and resources, avoiding disparate demands.

The second workshop discussed strategies to tackle these challenges and capitalise on opportunities. Here are some of the action points asset owners raised:

• Cost assessment and identification: clarify the necessary resources, funding mechanisms, assessment methodologies and ownership responsibilities throughout the process.
• Definition of the utility of reports for all stakeholders: determine how the collected data will be utilised and prioritise impact objectives.
• Lead by example: implement internally the standards expected from third-party providers and conduct thorough internal due diligence.