Impact resourcing

As with any organisational initiative, success is determined by who is accountable for it and the financial and non-financial resources they are given to execute. A senior member of the firm, ideally a partner with a vote on an IC, is well placed to hold accountability for impact.

Where possible, this individual should have expertise, experience and/or training in impact. This applies both to the relevant impact-related areas for the fund (eg healthcare) but also to impact management processes (eg impact measurement).

Impact execution may or may not be led by the same individual, depending on fund size, maturity, etc. Regardless, those responsible for execution should also have expertise, experience and/or training in impact.

Mathew Joseph at Kinnevik has written a detailed post on building a sustainability function at an investor, which has many applicable learnings for any impact function.