Our vision on impact management – A holistic approach to navigating the impact of our funding
At Rabo Foundation, we have been financing organizations striving for impact for over 50 years. Our goal is to make these organizations stronger and improve the resilience of people in a vulnerable position. Although making an impact is in our DNA, it is important to measure and manage this. We constantly strive to go beyond gut feelings and ground our approach in data. Impact management is woven into everything we do.
Impact management at the very core of how we operate
Impact management is the process of translating strategic objectives into practical actions. By collecting and analyzing relevant impact data, we facilitate continuous learning and informed decision-making. Ultimately, our aim is to maximise positive outcomes for our beneficiaries. For example, to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, we support them in becoming more climate resilient. Given the changing climate affecting their yields, as Rabo Foundation we provide funding for relevant interventions such as transitioning to agroforestry or providing training. Through data analysis, we learn more about the effectiveness of these interventions. This allows us to scale successful interventions or customize our approach. Managing impact is not always easy. That’s why we have designed our own impact management cycle, which guides all projects that we finance.
Not only monitoring impact post-funding, but also assessing it beforehand
Before we commit our resources, such as loans or technical assistance, we assess impact potential using an internally developed tool. This assessment occurs alongside our credit and customer due diligence. The tool helps us understand whether the project aligns with our strategic objectives. We consider who benefits and assess the importance and likelihood of intended outcomes. This is done both for the organizations we finance as well as the people they reach. We also consider our additionality - whether we really have a different offer than comparable lenders. We believe this to be one of the key aspects of our approach and an area where we can make a difference, since we often are the first and sometimes sole lender.
Our journey doesn’t end with financing; rather, this is just the beginning of a long-term relationship with the organization. We assess achieved impact through regular surveys that we share with the organizations. These are based on an impact pathway approach, to select relevant indicators for each project, as well as industry standards, such as IRIS+. The data we collect help us to track progress, identify improvement areas, and understand our role as financier.
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Measuring what Matters: Real Outcomes for Beneficiaries
We measure what truly matters. While quantitative data provides insights, qualitative indicators add colour and context. Together, they paint a richer picture of impact. Often, there’s too much emphasis on output indicators, such as counting people reached or jobs created. But to create positive outcomes, we need to push ourselves beyond mere output indicators. For instance, counting millions of lives touched does not reveal anything about the experiences of those people.
To deepen and better understand our impact on beneficiaries - such as smallholder farmers or people with the distance to the labour market - we need to listen to their voices. At Rabo Foundation, we partner with research organizations such as 60 Decibels and Sambodhi. These organizations are able to directly talk with our beneficiaries through interviews and summarize insights in impact studies. These studies go deeper and reveal the lived experiences of our beneficiaries. For instance, we learn how their quality of life has changed as a result of the services they receive through the organizations that we support. We find that this approach does not only lead to less biased insights, but is also scalable. Oftentimes, the learnings extend beyond the study and can be applied to other organizations.
Our goal is transformational change, not just incremental progress. For smallholder farmers, one of our key target groups, it’s not merely about earning a fair income. It’s about building resilience and ensuring this will be sustained even when our support ends. This essence – and the challenge it presents – is at the heart of our work.
Learning and Adapting: Making impact everyone’s responsibility
We believe that continuous monitoring, through our own surveys or those of our partners, helps to strengthen our approach. Open conversations, curiosity, and a hunger for improvement drive us in this. For example, to better understand what the findings from an impact study mean, we discuss them with the organization to ensure our services fit their needs. In addition, we engage in internal discussions to learn and adapt.
Truth is that, without this, we cannot offer the best support to organizations nor can we truly make a difference in the lives of our beneficiaries. It is also essential to foster this mindset inside our own organization, too.
What lies ahead
Impact isn’t a one-time event. As we keep on learning and adapting, there are still several areas we’d like to develop. Our roadmap includes: