Changing Systems Together: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach

Systems are made up of people who, through their interactions and relationships with other people, engage in behaviours and practices that shape patterns, norms and, ultimately, culture. These elements create the systemic conditions for some to thrive and prosper, while others are held down by barriers, oppression and injustice. At Rally Assets, we are a team of ambitious professionals from diverse backgrounds who are dissatisfied with the current systems that privilege few and oppress many.

As a team, we are working in relationship with a diversity of stakeholders to shift capital systems to deliver sustainability, equity and justice for all. We work to change systems to deliver better outcomes and more impact. Operationalizing this means taking on big, bold, exciting and disruptive initiatives like our work under Realize Capital Partners as a wholesaler of the Social Finance Fund (SFF).

At its core, the SFF is an audacious idea with systems change in mind: A stronger social finance market delivering more capital to impact to support equity-deserving communities in Canada, from coast to coast to coast.

In recognition that more than financial capital is required to for systemic impact, we are working on a series of market-building activities like our impact measurement and management (IMM) program to strengthen the capacity of stakeholders across the capital and impact chain to measure and manage their impact.

At the centre of our IMM programming is our belief that changing the system requires seeing the system as a whole and working in relationship with stakeholders who make up that system. In relationship with these diverse stakeholders, we are identifying shared goals and changing behaviours to realize those goals.

IMM in the SFF: Putting Relationships and Community at the Centre

Our IMM programming centres around organizations that are working to make social and environmental impacts directly with community, where the impact is happening. Our partner LIFT Impact Partners is preparing to launch a capacity-building cohort program this spring for social purpose organizations (SPOs) who have received investment through the SFF as a cornerstone of our systems-change strategy. Thanks to LIFT’s proven IMM approach and expertise, SPOs will gain clearer insights into their performance, better enabling them to make evidence-based decisions that drive improvement and positive impact. By strengthening IMM practices, SPOs will be better equipped to measure their tangible outcomes, fostering their long-term success and advancing their impact overall.

At the investor level, product issuers, or ‘social finance intermediaries’ (SFIs), face challenges measuring impact because they are typically steps removed from the social and environmental changes happening as a result of their investment. Investors must also account for complex considerations like investor contribution, impact risk, impact ratings for decision making, and aggregating outcomes at a portfolio level to understand the impact of their funds. To support SFIs in the SFF to meet these challenges, we have partnered with Impact Frontiers, a global leader in IMM for impact investing, to offer SFI programming. IMM Fundamentals is a self-directed resource for SFIs who have not yet received investment from a wholesaler in the SFF. Open to SFIs across Canada, this resource responds to a current gap in the market to support SFIs to understand the basics of IMM for social finance and to prepare for impact due diligence with impact investors like the three SFF wholesalers. Impact Frontiers also leads IMM for the SFF, a cohort program with peer-to-peer learning and one-on-one coaching for SFIs who have received investment through the SFF from a wholesaler, and a series of advanced topic workshops. These offerings provide SFIs with hands-on contextual support to implement IMM standards, practices, and tools to measure the impact of their portfolio of investments and to make decisions informed by impact.

Underpinning all of this programming is the work and philosophy of our partner Common Approach to Impact Measurement, the Data Lead in the SFF. Common Approach articulates that IMM serves the system best when the needs of community are considered first and foremost, and that SPOs should measure what matters most to them, in the way that makes the most sense to community. We couldn’t agree more. This is the core value that lives behind the Common Impact Data Standard, a flexible and common way of reporting on outcomes that is required of all SFF participants. The Data Standard is integrated throughout our IMM programs, and SPOs and SFIs are supported by Common Approach throughout to implement this standard in the context of their learnings with LIFT and Impact Frontiers.

Key Stakeholders in Our Program

In order for the potential of this exciting opportunity to be realized, everyone reflected in the system ‘map’ must work together towards shared goals and with shared values. Our program is built on opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, relationship-building between participants and across stakeholder groups; and we are taking an iterative approach to program design, listening and learning from participants in each stage of the program.

These actions drive us towards our ultimate, audacious goal to drive more capital to impact realized through the practice of effectively measuring and managing what matters. We look forward to telling you the stories of our success, made possible by our unique and privileged position of being in relationship with key stakeholders throughout the system – like you.