Measurement & Tools
Measurement
Measuring social and financial results remains a challenge for the fields of impact investing and philanthropy. With mission-driven investments, we are conducting a learning experiment to test whether and how strategically selected financial portfolio investments across various asset classes can generate both a market-rate of financial return and social change consistent with the foundation’s mission.
To do so, we track a wide range of information for each investment:
Financial
- Asset class (cash, fixed income, private equity and real estate)
- Due Date (maturity or term)
- Ownership stake (percentage of venture held by the Kellogg Foundation)
- Financial return (contractual or targeted range)
Social
Products and services (# or $)
- Jobs created (#)
- Capital flow to low- and moderate-income communities ($)
- Housing units (#)
- Small/family businesses served (#)
- Consumer loans (# and $)
Beneficiaries (#)
- Children served, e.g. number of healthy school lunches served (#)
- Families reached, e.g., number of jobs created by a CDFI loan (#)
Program Alignment (Educated Kids, Healthy Kids and Secure Families)
Geography
- Addressing needs in the foundation’s four priority places (Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans)
Other
- Philanthropic giving for vulnerable children and families leveraged (# and $)
- Philanthropic giving influenced to benefit vulnerable children (# and $)
Tools
Sharing best practices and finding areas of improvement are central to the foundation generally, and a key part of our MDI program. The document links below contain practical ideas, questions to ask and general practice suggestions (particularly for foundations) about launching and managing a mission-driven investing effort:
- Developing the Ideas (Action Blueprint)
- Designing the Strategy (Action Blueprint)
- Establishing the Process (Action Blueprint)
- Executing the Strategy (Action Blueprint)
- Bank Deposit Strategy