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Big Issue Invest and GO Lab launch first report on data transparency in the social outcomes sector

Posted 21 Jan 2021, 4:58 p.m.

On Thursday 21 January, GO Lab and Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue, were proud to release the Exploring Social Investment – An Indigo Technical & Learning Report detailing their collaboration towards data sharing in the social outcomes contract sector. 

The report showcases how GO Lab and Big Issue Invest (BII) worked together to publish the contract, finance and impact data for the investments made within Big Issue Invests’ Outcomes Investment Fund (OIF). The report launch coincided with GO Lab’s launch of the International Network for Data on Impact and Government Outcomes (INDIGO), GO Lab's emerging data collaborative which aims to foster better data for better social outcomes by supporting social investors like BII to share data on the outcomes contracts they work with. 

As a result of this work, BII has announced that all of their investments made within the Outcomes Investment Fund will be shared on the INDIGO platform. This highlights BII’s commitment to transparency as a social investor with the ultimate aim of contributing to solutions to dismantle poverty. 

It is hugely exciting that Big Issue Invest is sharing details about their investments and technical assistance on social outcome projects. We are learning together how best to describe the contribution of social investors and this report is a great start. To grow learning and understanding across the community, we encourage more social investors and fund managers to share details publicly and send us data or publish data themselves online in a structured format. At the GO Lab we are available to help define and bring together data as members of the INDIGO community.
Eleanor Carter, Research Director at GO Lab
Initiatives like INDIGO offer an opportunity for actors to share learning with one another and promote collaboration and transparency in the sector. This enables us to develop best practice in approaches such as outcomes contracts and social impact bonds to support social enterprises to tackle the UK’s most complex social challenges.
Mark Lovell, Big Issue Invest
Download the full report here