ABSTRACT
Market-based solutions to address global issues are on the rise. Impact investors seek to achieve social and environmental impact alongside financial returns; hence, they and the initiatives they fund are increasingly concerned with how to focus their contributions effectively to achieve the necessary changes leading to positive impact. They want to know that their investments are creating value and impact at scale. For the past few years, working as developmental evaluators with an impact investment fund and early-stage ventures, we have supported them in this endeavour. Theory of change has played a key role through several iterations to reflect on ongoing developments, bringing together impact, scale, and revenue. As practitioners, we have found that using a theory of change in this context is helpful but requires some important adaptations to provide a useful framework to guide impact management and measurement.
