Written in collaboration with Mouvement Impact France, the movement for socially and environmentally impactful businesses.
What is at stake?
Impact represents the positive or negative results attributable to an organization's activities, in social or environmental terms.
According to Mouvement Impact France's definition, impact is characterized by 3 main pillars:
- Limitation of negative impacts,
- Power and value sharing,
- Positive impact strategy.
Why is it important?
There is a lot of talk about impact-driven organizations whose ecosystem is growing in France (Source).
While not all startups define themselves as "impact-driven" because impact is not integrated into their core activities (meaning they do not have an impact strategy), it is still their responsibility to consider the impact of their activities and choose methods to "do good" (thus reducing their negative externalities). This logic is reflected in ESG criteria.
To understand the impact of their startup and potentially improve it, measuring the impact is the first step.
➡️ Measuring impact helps to prove that the startup fulfills its mission, that it is consistent with the values it promotes, and with its purpose.
➡️ Measuring impact is thus a strategic management tool that allows understanding what works or not, adjusting the startup's objectives and activities, and building its legitimacy.
3 actions to implement right now
1️⃣ Define the impact to measure and the tools to do so
- Understand which stakeholders are affected by the startup's mission and activities.
- Choose the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure.
- Draw inspiration from B Impact Assessment by B Corp to identify impact areas.
Our products are designed to tackle overdrafts and provide personalized budget management support. We provide impact indicators to our users, such as the amount of bank fees avoided through Spayr or the number of situations we have detected before over-indebtedness occurs.
Louis Ajacques, Co-founder of Spayr
2️⃣ Choose the appropriate tools to measure impact and collect data
- Collect data using internal tools like Airtable, Notion.
- Choose dedicated external tools like l’Impact Score, Zei, Sami, Goodsteps, etc.
- Seek support from professionals (e.g., Vendredi).
3️⃣ Communicate impact through annual reports shared with stakeholders
📚 For further reading
🛠️ Impact Score (Mouvement Impact France)
📝 B Impact Assessment
📖 Society As A Strategic Stakeholder Is The New Corporate Social Responsibility
✍️ Contributors to this document
Mouvement Impact France is a movement of committed leaders dedicated to growing and developing the impact economy.
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