IRIS+ is the generally accepted system for measuring, managing, and optimizing impact.

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IRIS+ makes it easier for investors to translate their impact intentions into impact results.

All investors and companies create positive and negative effects on society and the environment. Impact investors seek to maximize the positive and minimize the negative by using the IRIS+ system to integrate social and environmental factors into investment decisions alongside risk and return.

Credible, comparable impact data are needed to inform impact investment decisions and drive greater impact results. IRIS+ solves for this by increasing data clarity and comparability, and it provides streamlined, practical, how-to guidance that impact investors need, all in one easy-to-navigate system. It is a free, publicly available resource that is managed by the Global Impact Investing Network – the global champion of impact investing.

Learn more about IRIS+

The challenges the world is facing are too urgent for impact capital to underperform.

It’s unacceptable for investors to make financial decisions based on gut feelings or best guesses, why should it be any different in the impact investing world?

Take the guesswork out of impact measurement & management

use IRIS+ to underpin your framework

  • DESCRIBE

    goals, strategies, & expectations using a common language

  • LEARN

    from evidence research, cases, guidance, and best practices

  • COMPARE

    using core metrics & standard data categories

  • ACT

    on impact data from core metrics to drive better results

  • COMMUNICATE

    performance with stakeholders using standard data & templates

Create an IRIS+ account to start to manage your impact

  • 19,785

    Subscribers

  • 8,615

    Users

  • 5,990

    Organizations

  • IRIS+ is tailored to your unique profile & priorities

  • You select the impact themes and/or SDGs and Strategic Goals that best match your approach and IRIS+ organizes them into different profiles

    Impact Themes

    The IRIS+ system uses impact themes to classify the types of strategic objectives or approaches investors or enterprises employ to achieve the primary social and/or environmental effect they intend to deliver.

    SDGs

    The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the Unites Nations blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

  • Each IRIS+ profile gets you started with mapping your effects to 5 dimensions of impact according to your preferences; assigning core metric sets to your priorities and goals; and offering a curated set of resources including implementation guidance and evidence.

  • Integrate the core metrics sets into your investment management processes, methods, and frameworks to pave the way for performance comparisons.

For over a decade, thousands of stakeholders – including investors, small and large companies, analytics providers, evaluators, researchers, academics, and field-building organizations – have tested, provided feedback, and become part of the growing impact investing community who require comparable and credible impact data to manage performance. The GIIN has taken these expert perspectives into account to develop the world’s most comprehensive system for impact measurement and management, IRIS+.

Find out what IRIS+-based impact measurement & management means for various stakeholders

  • What is impact?
  • What is impact measurement & management?
  • How are investors using IRIS+ to measure & manage impact?
  • How are companies using IRIS+ to measure & manage impact?

The Latest

May 3, 2019

Investing for Social Impact Is Complicated. Here Are 4 Ways to Simplify It.

New York Times

The new version, IRIS+, is meant to translate impact investing goals like gender equity, climate change and affordable housing into results, said Amit Bouri, the chief executive of GIIN. He said the new system would help investors know exactly which metrics to track if they hoped, for example, to bring clean energy to rural areas.

Link to Original Article
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When you use IRIS+, you are using metrics and guidance that produces data aligned with these organizations

An Impact Measurement & Management System by the GIIN