The G8’s Social Impact Investing Task Force has come out with a new report and initiative -- and it’s all about measurement.

The full report can be found here. Also check out http://www.socialimpactinvestment.org.  

After a year of research, the task force has developed five case studies and seven practical guidelines for impact investors.

The seven guidelines are:

Set goals.
Articulate the difference you seek to make.

Make data-driven investment management decisions.
Identify and implement ways to strengthen your investments and operations

Report data.
Share your progress with your key constituents.

Develop framework and select metrics.
Determine the metrics to which you will hold yourself accountable.

Collect and store data.
Collect and store the data you need to determine your progress.

Validate data.
Validate that the data you collected is of sufficient quality.

Analyze data.
Distill insights from the data you collected.

Measurement is important is quantifying impact results. And by the looks of the report, impact investing is measuring up.  

As the task force writes, “impact measurement is central to effective impact investing as it demonstrates investor intent and legitimizes the industry with data on impact produced. Good impact measurement generates intrinsic value for all impact investment stakeholders, yields data to mobilize greater capital toward generating impact, and increases the transparency and accountability for the impact delivered."

As the environment, social issues, and corporate governance initiatives increasingly call for more attention for the investment community, measuring that progress will go a great way toward recruiting more actors into campaigns that can better serve the world.