"Dismantling and shifting power structures is key for achieving meaningful social impact. For far too long, funders have had significant control over social impact organizations: what they focus on, how they allocate resources, and how they measure their own success. This control contributes to ongoing inequity and impedes progress. This report seeks to contribute to those solutions by beginning to address two essential questions: Who has power to define success?, and, Who should have power to define success? Guided by this frame of reference, we conducted a review of existing literature, a series of 22 interviews, and a survey of 409 nonprofit leaders, social innovators, and philanthropic funders to understand how philanthropy and social innovators measure success. We focused on the challenges faced specifically by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) leaders. Across these three methods, we sought to understand four key questions: 1. Who has power to define vision, mission, and metrics? 2. What metrics are collected and how are they used? 3. What effect do metrics have on BIPOC leaders? 4. How can we create more equitable funding streams?"

"The report highlights the struggle of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in measuring and communicating their contributions to climate adaptation and resilience, owing to complexity, cost, and the inadequacy of existing metrics. This leads to a gap in understanding the impact of their efforts. The study aims to identify solutions and principles to better measure climate resilience and adaptation in MSMEs, guided by the Climate Capital Network's Metrics and Measurement Working Group. It aims to identify the challenges faced by MSMEs in measuring climate adaptation and resilience, assessing the relevance of metrics for investors, and outlining comprehensive principles to gauge these aspects effectively. It stresses the complexity and multifaceted nature of climate resilience and adaptation. They highlight the discrepancy and complexity among existing indicator frameworks, hindering their usability and comparability. MSMEs face hurdles in accessing and utilizing these metrics due to cost, complexity, and limited visibility compared to larger enterprises. The study identifies ten patterns crucial for measuring climate resilience and adaptation, emphasizing social impact, environmental conditions, financial considerations, risk management, and governance mechanisms. Finally, it emphasizes the need for flexible, comprehensive, and accessible metrics to facilitate investor understanding and encourage private sector investment in climate adaptation and resilience solutions. There's a call for clearer, standardized, and practical metrics supported by case studies to guide MSMEs in demonstrating their impact effectively to potential investors. This comprehensive approach aims to bridge the gap between the desire for climate resilience investments and the challenge of measuring their impact."

"Blended finance solutions offer the potential to combine development capital with a variety of financial instruments such as impact bonds, concessional capital, and risk mitigation structures. We consistently see that deployment of these instruments is limited because of the inherent complexity and cost. But more so, due to a lack of awareness and standardization among capital providers. Without addressing these core issues, enterprises are deemed too risky, and the potential for social and financial returns may not be realized. Through this report, we aim to raise awareness about the importance of enabling funding for social enterprises – understanding their unique characteristics and challenges in capital raising – and articulate the key issues involved in applying blended finance to SMEs. We hope to simplify current bespoke solutions to build replicable and scalable financing solutions. We propose solutions that include building capacity of enterprises, embedding sustainability into the design of instruments, simplifying impact management, and creating open databases on blended finance transactions."

"The report delves into the effectiveness and impact of various business support initiatives, employing rigorous research methodologies such as randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The key topics covered include the effectiveness of accelerator programs, talent acquisition for SMEs, recordkeeping and data collection, impact measurement and management (IMM) frameworks, and support for women-led businesses. It also offers valuable insights for policymakers, investors, and entrepreneurs to make informed decisions, fostering sustainable growth and success within the business ecosystem. Recommendations underscore the importance of evidence-backed practices for talent acquisition, recordkeeping, and gender-sensitive approaches to support women entrepreneurs."