Impact Dispatch - May 2026

Measuring and managing impact is, by definition, foundational to impact investing, and also a topic of ongoing debate. IMM is an evergreen topic at all of the GIIN’s events, and it’s one that we returned to repeatedly throughout this year’s Investors’ Council Annual Meeting (ICAM). Held in Toronto, the event gathered leading impact investors with diverse interests across sectors and geographies to discuss, debate and deliberate on the issues shaping the industry today. From plenaries to side conversations, three tensions kept surfacing when discussing IMM:

Do we need to focus less on impact measurement and more on impact management?

We heard questions like: Do we put too much emphasis on measurement when management is what makes the business case for LPs and GPs? Can we successfully manage impact if we don’t have a unified consensus on what we’re measuring? While opinions may vary, what I’d like to propose is that we hold both, and. Measurement without management produces unused data, while management without measurement provides conviction without information or feedback loops. As the adage goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. The industry doesn't need to choose a side; it needs to build the muscle for both.

Do we need to embrace convergence in this space?

We’ve heard a lot about the need for convergence across the industry as it relates to organizations, platforms and events, but it’s true too for IMM. This isn’t a new conversation – it dates back to the founding of the GIIN and was part of the motivation for creating IRIS+. However, in light of the current market environment, there is renewed interest in reducing fragmentation and enhancing interoperability. Convergence enables alignment, which helps to streamline IMM practices and build shared infrastructure for the field to grow. The GIIN's recent article, “From Fragmentation to Insight: Why Data Convergence Matters for Scaling Impact” shares that despite 15 years of progress in standardizing impact data, fragmentation across investment portfolios continues to limit decision-making and reduce capital's impact potential. The solution isn't collecting more data but better organizing what already exists.

What does scaling with integrity actually look like in practice?

As we frequently, and more urgently, talk about the need to scale impact, IMM is central to scaling with rigor, intentionality and integrity. Increasing regulatory pressures and constrained budgets means that investors are being held to a higher standard when it comes to demonstrating returns, both financial and outcome related. Diligent IMM practices solve this. It provides both the route (through management) and the checkpoints (through measurement) to successfully navigate an increasingly complex and challenging environment for impact investors.

So as we look ahead to future-proofing IMM, moving from fragmentation to shared practice will be the key to ensuring integrity and accountability are core to the infrastructure with which we scale our impact. Converging around shared practice will also bring with it clarity, especially for new entrants to the field, which is important for expanding the impact market with integrity and confidence.

• Calvert Impact is prioritizing the ownership economy by investing in strategies that transition business and real estate control to workers and local residents to build long-term community wealth, including through a $50 million debt facility for employee-led buyouts with Apis & Heritage.

• With oil prices reaching a four-year high because of the war in Iran, clean energy ETFs are drawing their biggest monthly inflow since 2021, via the FT.

• Farmers in the US are facing rising fuel and fertilizer costs, as Axios reports the war in Iran is threatening to “push more family farms out of business, drive up food prices and further strain rural economies already battered by trade disruptions, inflation and extreme weather.”

• One of the largest U.S. pension funds, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, is threatening to divest from TotalEnergies after the oil companies' decision to exit offshore wind power in the U.S., per the FT.

• Co-founder of Impact Finance Belgium warns that Europe's impact investing sector must consolidate its fragmented landscape and adopt a more inclusive narrative to prevent its voice from being marginalized by traditional financial interests in European Union policymaking.

• From the Stanford Social Innovation Review, impact strategies must address the barrier of systemic illiquidity and consider developing secondary markets and innovative structures that allow for capital recycling and more flexible exit strategies, to scale impact investing.

• The European Commission has proposed exempting asset managers from reporting ESG data on client-owned investments as part of a broader effort to simplify regulations and boost competitiveness.

 

• The GIIN co-hosted an event for Zurich Climate Week, alongside Zurich Insurance, anchored on the topic of how achieving climate goals depends on scaling proven, commercially viable solutions and the enabling infrastructure systems.

• The GIIN published a case study on Nest and Schroders Capital applying its Climate Solutions Investing Framework to direct capital to high-impact climate opportunities.

• Amit Bouri, Christian Rosenholm and Maud Savary-Mornet attended Ecosperity, where the GIIN hosted a networking event at Schneider Electric and a Roundtable on the Future of Impact Investment with Mirova.

• The GIIN’s Chief Network Officer, Sean Gilbert, spoke at the Impact Investor Global Summit about the state of impact, including how more institutional investors are investing close to home.

• The GIIN recently launched an Institutional Asset Owners (IAO) Advisory Group, that will support IAOs in moving from fragmented impact efforts to a systematic, strategic and portfolio-wide approach.

• On June 17, Amit Bouri will speak on a panel at the FT Climate and Impact Summit about bridging the divide to invest for inclusive and sustainable growth.

• The GIIN is hosting a Climate Solutions Investing Roundtable in Tokyo on June 5, in partnership with Nissay Asset Management. The roundtable will introduce the GIIN’s Climate Solutions Investing Framework and explore its relevant within the Japanese investment landscape.

• As part of London Climate Action Week 2026, the GIIN, in collaboration with Nuveen, is convening a curated group of asset owners, managers and climate finance leaders for an interactive roundtable on climate solutions investing, with contributions from the Rocky Mountain Institute, its global climate tech accelerator, Third Derivative, and The Nature Conservancy.

• Operating Principles for Impact Management is also hosting its Impact Principles 7th annual Meeting and Reception, in London on June 25 during London Climate Action Week.

• Registration is open for the GIIN Impact Forum in Amsterdam –– secure early bird pricing until September 11.