New narratives for impact in finance

By the time someone creates a professional identity as an evaluator, that person is genuinely committed to social betterment, social equity, sustainability and the like. And the natural organizational partners for evaluators seem to be like-minded actors who have positive impact at the core of their work. And evaluators can tell themselves stories about how they are aligned with the forces of good and making a positive dent in the universe.

However, all organizations have impact, whether positive or negative and intended or unintended. The rise of stakeholder capitalism, which translated into The Business Roundtable declaring it has responsibilities to its stakeholders (people and planet) as well as shareholders, brings the nature of impact closer to the center of business actions, decisions and strategies– not to mention brand.

I will share my story about making a leap of faith to working as an evaluator with market-based organizations– those that are governed by the rules of finance and business– rather than the public good. I will draw from my experiences working with community bankers and impact investors (primarily in philanthropy) to illustrate how I needed to create a new narrative about the value-add of evaluators for keeping impact in the center alongside finance.