Impact integrity, or preserving the intended impact from being diluted by different interests in the environment, is a key aspect in the operations of Corporate Social Investors (CSIs).
CSIs experience distinctive challenges to their impact integrity, due to their unique position as a non-profit entity intrinsically linked to a for-profit entity, and due to the increasing blurring of the lines between corporate purpose and social impact. These challenges have two sources: on one side the related company, due to its commercial agenda, on the other side the key stakeholder environment, due to its suspicion towards the CSI’s impact integrity. CSIs should consider two aspects to ensure impact integrity and get the full benefits of the relationship with the related company. The first is preventing their social mission credibility from being undermined by the connection with the related company – managing corporate influence. The second is signaling legitimacy towards key stakeholders in their environment and demonstrating they are making progress against their stated societal mission – managing the perception that the social sector, regulators and other actors have of the CSI and its impact integrity. Managing the impact integrity risk and applying adequate mitigation actions requires an awareness and an objective assessment of the risk factors.