Social enterprises, ready for your investor’s impact questions

Social enterprises and networks we work with

We met some of them through Impact Hub Amsterdam’s Food Chain Accelerator, Fresh Ventures and Impact Hub Amsterdam’s Regeneration Program.

Part of Impact Hub · Impact Management Platform

What you get

• Investor-ready evidence

  A theory of change and indicators that hold up in impact investor due diligence

• Fits a small team

  A handful of meaningful indicators, using data you largely already collect

• Mission stays central

  Impact indicators next to your financial figures, so mission drift shows up early

• Stronger in tenders and sales

  Substantiated impact claims for social return, tenders and customer questionnaires

• Grows with you

  A framework that works for your first impact report and still holds as you scale

Why we do what we do

Read the film as text

1. We all want to know
2. our place in the world.
3. Thin grey lines join dots into a web.
4. We like to believe that what we do is part of something larger.
5. It is.
6. Together we make our surroundings, our brands, our communities.
7. We shape the work of others, as they shape ours.
8. The web grows dense.
9. We live in one web of cause and consequence.
10. Each path tells a story, part of a larger narrative.
11. A system of meaning.
12. So what is our impact?
13. Whose lives do we touch?
14. What changed? For whom? How much? And what part was ours?
15. Intended or not, for better or worse.
16. Knowing that changes what you do next.
17. A dark line draws a path through the web. Impact management helps you see it, steer it, and use it.
18. A large word: Lead. A purple path runs through the web. Lead with purpose, and fund your mission.
19. A large word: Improve. A green path runs through the web. Learn what doesn’t work and design for better.
20. A large word: Engage. A blue-green path runs through the web. Share your story, and bring others into it.
21. A large word: Account. A blue path runs through the web. State your claim, and prove it.
22. A large word: Discover. A yellow path runs through the web. Find your next impact before it happens.
23. “How do you measure impact?”
24. It sounds hard.
25. It isn’t.
26. It’s not about the how.
27. It’s about
28. Portraits of people fill the screen.
29. A large word: Who.
30. About rights-holders, whose lives are touched.
31. And stakeholders, whose choices shape them.
32. The people stand side by side, at the same height. A wave of colour runs through the web. Every voice, every perspective, equally weighed.
33. The web turns many colours. Pluriform and equivalent.
34. Who determines what.
35. And what determines how.
36. That’s it. No more, no less.
37. We count what can be counted, and listen to the rest.
38. Coloured paths wind across the web. We find the stories that connect the dots, and make sense of the whole.
39. We love our craft:
40. to ask the questions,
41. to measure what matters,
42. and narrate what works.
43. One dark path remains. Let’s reveal your path.
44. The word narrate, with the line: impact in numbers and stories.

What we often hear

• “Our investor sent a list of dozens of impact questions, and I don’t know which indicators they find credible.”

  Build a theory of change and indicator set aligned with IRIS+ and the five dimensions of impact, ready for due diligence

• “Mission and margin, I do both. Measuring impact feels like a cost that brings nothing in.”

  Start from data you already have, so measuring helps you decide what to scale and what to stop

• “Funders, investors, customers and B Corp all ask for different figures. I put them into spreadsheets by hand.”

  One core set of indicators, measured once and translated for each audience

• “We’re growing fast, and I’m afraid commercial pressure will push our mission aside.”

  Anchor mission indicators in your governance and in management and shareholder meetings, so drift is visible before it becomes structural

What you may be wondering

• Isn’t this too much for a team of five?

  No. We start with what you already track, such as your accounts, CRM and customer feedback. A handful of indicators is usually enough to steer by.

• Will an investor understand what we measure?

  We link your indicators to IRIS+ and the five dimensions of impact. That is the language impact investors speak. Since 2018, Jeroen has helped entrepreneurs become investment-ready as resident impact expert at Impact Hub Amsterdam.

• Won’t we end up depending on you?

  Everything we make together is yours and works in your own tools. If you want to learn it yourself, coaching is the next step.

To read

• From crickets to a stadium: seven years with Impact Hub Amsterdam

  Since 2018 Jeroen Wilms of Narrate has been resident impact expert at Impact Hub Amsterdam. He worked there in local and global programmes. Startups, SMEs, corporates and regenerative entrepreneurs came through. What they had in common, and what we learned.

• The system rewards not measuring

  Two organisations apply to the same funder. One measures nothing and tells a good story. The other measures, and sees what falls short. Who gets the money?

• Your funder asks for results. Where do you start?

  Many organisations only start measuring when a funder asks. This is how we approach it: small, and with the people it is about.

• You don’t have to measure everything to start

  Many organisations never start, because measuring looks big and expensive. This is how we start small, with what is already there.

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