In this article, you will learn how to manage fund Heat Map Information 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.
Before you Begin: Understanding the Heat Map (what it is and is not)
The iPAR Heat Map is a visual tool for communicating how capital deployment is (or will be) aligned with specific impact strategies. The iPAR Heat Map is a visual tool for communicating how capital deployment is (or will be) aligned with specific impact strategies. By using a standardized framework, it becomes possible to aggregate fund-level impact strategy across investor portfolios for planning and evaluation purposes.
Your fund Heat Map should be high-level, focused, and representative of how capital will be deployed to achieve a defined impact strategy.
It is important to know there is no sophisticated computer wizardry generating a fund Heat Map. It is up to Fund Managers to use and manage their Heat Map strategy allocation for ongoing communication.
For more high-level information about the iPAR Heat Map including Theme and Building Block definitions, please see this article, "iPAR Heat Map: Visualizing Impact Strategy."
The Heat Map Fund Information Page
With the iPAR Heat Map, you can succinctly convey your impact strategy in visual form, regardless of whether your fund's approach is broad and multi-faceted or narrow and focused. After entering your Fund Overview information (see this article for details), you can begin Heat Map setup.
The Heat Map consists of four Themes: People, Resources, Climate, and Public. Within each Theme are four Building Blocks (a total of 16).
Weighting your Heat Map -- New/Early funds vs. Deployed: As a rule of practice, if your fund has deployed less than 50% of capital, you should weight the Heat Map according to intended impact strategy. For funds with greater than 50% deployment, the Heat Map should reflect actual capital deployment according to impact strategy.
To begin, click the "Edit" button in the upper right-hand corner:
Setup the Heat Map
You will see a form where you can enter percentages for the specific Building Blocks that represent your impact investment strategy. Choose one or more Building Blocks (maximum of four) that are represent the high-level fund strategy -- enter the percentages (as whole numbers) for each Building Block. For example, if your strategy is best represented as 40% Emissions (within the Climate Theme) and 60% Conservation (within the Resources Theme), you would enter "40" for Emissions and "60" for Conservation.
Heat Map Communication Should be Dynamic: Over time, Fund Managers should update Heat Map weighting to communicate the evolution of fund impact strategy per capital deployment. Editing Building Block weights (see below) is immediately reflected in your Fund Overview. However, each time you publish a report, you record a static snapshot of the Heat Map. By updating and publishing consistently over time, the Heat Map will communicate the fund's impact story.
Save the Impact Strategy Allocations
Once you have selected your Building Blocks and entered your percentages, click "Save." Please note you will see an error message if the numbers you have entered don't add to up 100 or if you have selected more than four Building Blocks. Sans errors, you will see the version of your fund's Heat Map and a checkbox under "Heat Map" in the iPAR Verification Checklist. The Theme totals are calculated automatically from the underlying Building Blocks. If you need to make changes to your Heat Map, just click the "Edit" button, enter your changes, and click "Save."
Next Step: Fund Metrics
To continue to the next step, click here to read the article "Manage Fund Impact Metrics."