BlueMark Practice Leaderboard

Introducing BlueMark’s Practice Leaderboard

Collaboration and continuous learning are core tenets of the impact investing industry. In that spirit, BlueMark is committed to spotlighting industry leaders to make it easier for market actors to assess top performers and identify areas for improvement.

The “Practice Leaderboard” was first introduced by BlueMark in early 2022 as a way to highlight impact investors with best-in-class impact management practices. To earn a spot on the Leaderboard, verified investors must receive top quartile ratings across all the Impact Principles—an established framework for best practices in impact management—in the benchmark for that year. Learn more about the Practice Benchmark and our methodology for the Leaderboard below.

Methodology

To earn a place on the 2023 edition of the Practice Leaderboard, verified investors must have received an Advanced score on Principles 1, 4, and 5, and a score of High or above on Principles 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8. This reflects the top quartile scores in the 2023 version of the Practice Benchmark.

The Leaderboard will be updated annually, meaning that BlueMark will refresh the list of “Practice Leaders” based on those impact investors that meet the criteria against the updated Benchmark each year.

Only impact investors that have been verified within the previous two years will be eligible for each year’s Leaderboard to ensure that Leaders are continuously reassessed against the current state of the market amid evolving peer practices.

Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions about the Practice Leaderboard or our methodology.

BlueMark Practice Benchmark

The Practice Benchmark, which categorizes practice trends by quartile, is designed as a tool for investors who want to compare themselves to their peers and to learn from others in the market. The quartiles include:

LEADING PRACTICE represents the top quartile of our sample (75th percentile and above). Leading practice incorporates all of the core elements of impact management, as well as several leading-edge practices that may go above and beyond the requirements of the Impact Principles.
MEDIAN PRACTICE reflects the impact management practices of the median impact investor in our sample (50th percentile). The Practice Median represents the current standard and incorporates many of the core elements of impact management.
LEARNING PRACTICE represents the bottom quartile of our sample (25th percentile and below). These investors may have good intentions, but lack many core practices necessary to effectively manage positive impact. Many are early in their impact investing journeys, while others have yet to embed impact considerations at key stages of the investment process.