Manage Fund Impact Metrics : iPAR Knowledge Base

In this article, you will learn how to manage fund Metrics and Metric Data for both new and existing funds.

Private until Published: any and all new fund information is initially Private, meaning viewable/accessible only to those who can log in to your Fund Manager account. Once you complete the fund setup and iPAR administrators verify the fund, then your fund is "Published" and visible on the platform.

In addition to the Heat Map and Geography, Metrics are a key component of the iPAR framework, allowing you to identify specific, quantifiable measurements that can demonstrate the tangible impact your investment strategy creates. In this way, metrics are critical for reporting impact performance.

Each Metric is associated with a particular Building Block and Theme and uses a particular unit of account. The entire set of Metrics is maintained in a central repository by iPAR. To learn more about the iPAR Metrics library and methodology, please see this article.

Requesting New Metrics: iPAR takes a pragmatic approach to building its repository -- as needed by Fund Managers, and given an administrative standardization process, metrics are created and added to the existing library. So, if you do not see a particular Metric required for a fund, please contact our customer support to initiate a New Metric request.

Initial Setup: the Metrics Page

To begin Metrics setup for your fund, navigate to "Metrics" in the left-hand "Fund Information" menu. If you haven not added any Metrics to your fund yet, you will see empty blue box. Click "Add Metrics" to select Metrics for your fund:

You will be taken to the Metric Search List page (image below), where you can select one or more Metrics to associate with your fund. The default view shows all available Metrics, but you can also filter results by Theme or specific Building Block, or search by Metric name.

Primary Metrics (more general and high-level) are signified by a theme-colored circle to the left of the Metric name
non-primary Metrics (more specific and represent sub-categories within higher-level Primary Metrics) do not have a theme-colored circle next to their name

access Metric Selection/De-Selection page from "Edit Metrics"

Select (and Save) a Metric Set

To select a Metric, click on the checkbox in the right-hand column. Select a Metric and then change filters to continue your search -- previously selected Metrics will remain selected until you click Save or Cancel, and you can always see the total count of Metrics you have selected at the top of the page. It is worth taking time to explore and see what existing Metrics are a good match for your strategy and your Building Blocks, and you can always reach out to iPAR if you need to add a new Metric.

Note that throughout all iPAR Metrics, there are only three "unit types": Number, Dollar Amount, and Percentage. You can identify which "unit type" is assigned to a Metric by the symbol shown in parentheses to the right of the Metric name: (#), ($), (%).

Best Practices -- Aligning Metrics with a Heat Map: Do note it is best practice to select Metrics that fall within the Themes and Building Blocks you selected during the Heat Map setup. One-to-one overlap is not enforced or required, but since the purpose of the Heat Map is to communicate strategic impact intent, it is consistent to report correlating metric performance outputs.

Once you have selected a group of Metrics that compliments your investment strategy, click "Save" and you will be taken back to the Metrics screen. From here you will immediately see a list of the selected Metrics.

Complete Set Up for Each Metric

You have associated a list of Metrics with your fund, but you will also need to set up each Metric individually before you can complete the fund verification process and, if applicable, add and report data. To set up a Metric, click the Metric name or the "Register" button.

Let's go through the process, using "Energy Generated" as an example. There are two steps, the first of which is Setup.

setup tab for a specific Metric

On the Setup page, you will see all of the definition details associated with the Metric (and configured by iPAR administrators):

full definition
primary/non-primary designation
associated Theme and Building Block
unit type
the specific unit measure
and any external metric IDs (such as IRIS).

Provide Metric Contextualization

Metrics and measurements are difficult to understand without context. To help Managers provide context as to how and why a given metric is important and related to fund strategy, we require simple contextualization.

To complete Setup for each Metric, you need to provide answers to the following questions:

"Why does this [Metric] matter?", e.g. an explanation as to why and how the metric relates to fund strategy
"What is expected?", e.g. when might measurements be reported, challenges regarding gathering data, targets or benchmarks for performance over time, etc.

Once you have entered descriptions for both of these items, you have two options regarding next steps:

Option 1: Skip Data Registration

You can choose not to register data for any or all Metrics (by unchecking the "Register Data" checkbox), in which case the Metric will still be associated with your fund, but you will not be able to include data charts for the Metric in your iPAR reports. For most early funds, this is the most common choice.

Option 2: Register Data

You can choose to register data for this particular Metric (more on this below), which will allow you to enter numerical data over time and display charts in iPAR reports and elsewhere in the iPAR platform.

Please note that even if you choose not to register data for a particular Metric, you still need to fill out the "Why does this matter?" and "What is expected?" sections before you can request iPAR Verification for your fund.

iPAR Verification Does Not Require Data Registration: requesting, and receiving, iPAR Verification does not require registering data for any fund Metrics. Data can always be registered at a later time or backfilled if needed. However, you will not be able to begin the verification process until you complete Setup for each Metric by answering the two questions above.

Quickly Navigate Metrics

You can use the Metric name drop-down menu to easily switch between your Metrics, making it easy to manage your set of Metrics. When you're on the Setup screen, you can switch between all of your associated Metrics using the dropdown menu. (Note: when you are on the Data Updates screen, you will only be able to switch between the Metrics that you have registered for data updates.)

When you are done, you can go back to the main Metrics screen by clicking the X in the upper-right corner or clicking the Back button at the bottom of the page.

Register and Manage Metric Data

For example, we will register "Energy Generated" Metric data (refer to image above for the following):

leave the "Register Data" checkbox checked
select a display method ("Recurring" for discrete individual data points over time, "Cumulative" for a running total over time)
optionally enter a target value (which will display as a horizontal line on the chart, providing a visual cue for this Metric's target value)
then click "Save."

By keeping "Register Data" checked, we will now be taken to the Data Updates tab, where we can enter data for this Metric.

Above is the data entry screen for a particular Metric. Once you have entered two or more data points, you will be able to see a chart that shows your Data Updates over time (see image below as an example). You can enter new data using the "Add Data Update" section by selecting a date for the data update, entering a value, and clicking "Save." Once you have entered a few data points, you will see a chart on the right and a vertical list of data points on the left. You can hover over a particular data point to see options to edit or delete that entry.

Starting with Only One Data Update is Fine: although we recommend beginning with at least two data updates, this is not a requirement, and it is fine to add one only. However, the chart will not display until two updates are entered.

Edit/Delete Data Updates

You can easily edit the value of a given date by clicking the pencil icon, entering the new value, and clicking
"Save."

How to fix incorrect Dates?

You are not able to edit the date of an existing data point, but you can easily delete the existing data point and re-enter it with the correct date. To prevent accidental deletions, deletion is a two-step confirmation process:

Quickly Navigate Metrics (Again)

You can use the Metric name drop-down menu to easily switch between your Metrics, making it easy to keep your Metrics data up to date over time. When you are on the Data Updates screen, you will only be able to switch between the Metrics that you've registered for data updates.