What is Impact Funding?
Impact Funding is an application-based grant funding program that enables the CFA Society community to help build greater influence and relevance in local markets. The Board of Governors has approved a USD 1 million budget for FY22 for this purpose. This program replaces the Project Funding grant program previously in place.
Given the wide variety of innovative ideas and initiatives that come from the global CFA Society network, we are introducing criteria and an objective evaluation process to ensure the resources available are directed to the most impactful efforts and where they are most needed.
Impact Funding applications will be reviewed by a panel of CFA Institute staff and Presidents Council Representatives and rated against a rubric that assesses potential strategic impact, specific success measures, demonstrable financial need, and ability for the initiative to be leveraged across the CFA Society community.
How will Impact Funding applications be evaluated?
The key evaluation criteria are as follows:
I. Impact
We aim to focus on impact, a key theme of the Society Operating Model, by consistently and objectively employing a strategic lens to allocation of efforts and resources. We will award Impact Funding to initiatives that support CFA Institute strategic goals to:
- Increase influence across the ecosystem
- Increase the global constituent base of CFA Institute
- Increase the scale and diversity of our product portfolio
We encourage the CFA Society network to consider the level to which they may contribute to building relevance and influence in local markets or across our broader community and how their proposed initiatives align with one or more of the four CFA Institute strategies.
Some examples of the types of initiatives that we will consider for grant funding include:
Shape the Future of the Industry and Profession (Advocacy, Research and Standards)
We are supportive of investing in initiatives that have potential to enhance local/regional capital market development; convene local or regional influencers around key strategic themes (see Appendix); develop or promote relevant research or localize CFA Institute research; and promote adoption of codes and standards.
Build a Diverse Portfolio of Learning Products (Professional Learning Content Creation and Distribution)
These types of initiatives might aim to create content for the CFA Institute Professional Learning Portfolio; localize CFA Institute content and products for local relevance and promotion; drive demand for learning offerings among local constituents and institutions. For new learning offering products that are intended for commercial distribution, societies are asked to reference the “Society Learning Product Innovation Framework” (to be published in October.) Society Relationship Managers can guide this process.
Develop and Grow the CFA Program (Demand Generation, Promotion, Local Support)
Activities related to driving demand for the CFA Program are common across the society network. Priority consideration would be given to innovative initiatives that have demonstrable potential to drive revenue and/or registrations for CFA Institute credentials, produce successful candidate outcomes, and address Charter Pending engagement. Other opportunities may include building ambassador programs and networks within institutions, partnering with prestigious universities, and other specific initiatives that support the CFA Institute B2B strategy.
Develop Exceptional Customer Experiences (Local Support, Promotion)
Improving the customer experience with the CFA Institute and society network supports our ability to collectively grow our constituent base and deliver valuable products and services. Innovative ways of doing so are welcome and encouraged. Some ideas include ways to access relevant market intel, grow membership categories, support community building, improve depth of engagement with institutions, increase engagement with candidates through new membership types, and create new opportunities for members and volunteers to contribute and engage.
II. Financial Need
Wherever possible, societies considering new initiatives should explore the possibility of utilizing in-house resources or exploring external financial support, such as sponsorship or partnerships. Impact Funding should be viewed as a resource to help fill funding gaps not met elsewhere for strategically aligned projects with clear and measurable goals.
Society reserves levels and profitability will be considered in the assessment of applications. While some new initiatives may be non-business as usual and unbudgeted in the society’s current business plan, society boards should consider healthy reserves levels beyond one to two years’ operating expenses as potential sources of funds, in line with non-profit governance best practices in reserves management.
III. Leveragability
The impact of society initiatives can be amplified with scalability and replicability, i.e. the potential for expanded scope, wider penetration, or applicability beyond the local market if successful. Wherever possible, societies should consider enabling other societies to learn and adopt similar initiatives in their markets or regions. Leveragability can also be demonstrated through the long-term impact potential of an initiative if successfully repeated in future years.
We also encourage society collaboration on initiatives which are relevant and impactful to local, regional, or global constituents. Society collaboration on initiatives which support our strategic goals and/or community building are highly encouraged to maximize long-term impact and influence.
Types of initiatives ineligible for Impact Funding
Impact Funding will not be awarded for:
- System or IT investment where CFA Institute has already provided or is building a solution (e.g., event management or email marketing tool)
- Hiring of society human resources (e.g., part-time or full-time employees)
- Business as usual activities (e.g., previously occurring activities that have been funded by the society’s operating budget)
- Procurement of infrastructure (e.g., rental and facilities for staffed office, which should be covered by Operational Funding)
- Speaker fees for one-time special member events that don’t also have longer term impact potential aligned with the strategy or a high degree of scalability and replicability.
Prior grant funding programs have funded local member-focused events or general outreach and brand awareness campaigns. These activities are generally considered core society activities that should be supported by operating budgets. Impact Funding may be considered for these types of activities if they are aligned with one or more of our four strategies, have above average potential for long-term impact, and clear, relevant success measures.
What is the Assessment Rubric?
An objective Assessment Rubric will provide guidance to applicants as well as the Evaluation Panel on how to assess initiatives against key criteria. The Assessment Rubric is meant to be a guide, with the ultimate approval authority delegated to the Evaluation Panel.
Read more
The Evaluation Panel will score each of the criteria on a scale of 0 to 4, with 0 being little or no impact, financial need, or leveragability, and 4 representing an extremely strong application with respect to the relevant criteria. There is no minimum score for awarding of grants; scores will guide relative evaluation of project applications. Applications scoring a weighted average under 2.5 are unlikely to be successful. Scores will be weighted to align with the purpose of Impact Funding:
- 50% Impact & Alignment with CFA Institute Strategies
- 35% Financial Need
- 15% Scalability/Replicability & Collaboration
Please see the detailed Assessment Rubric guidance in the Appendix.
Funding is available on a first-come, first-served basis and will be awarded according to merit until the budget is fully allocated.
How does the application and evaluation process work?
We are introducing a digital application experience via Survey Monkey Apply, which will allow for entry and evaluation of grant funding applications. Applications will require Statements of Impact and Financial Need, a description of potential replicability and scalability, and success metrics. The process of preparing, submitting and evaluating applications is outlined in detail below.
Preparing and Submitting Applications
Societies should review their initiatives and applications with their Society Relationship Manager before submitting applications. If developed by society staff, requests for grant funding should be supported by the relevant society board.
Society Relationship Managers will review applications and provide guidance on where additional information is needed, with specific emphasis on the Statement of Impact, Statement of Need, and Success Measures. They will also provide guidance on the society’s financial need for grant funding through discussion with the society and review of budget and reserves levels against the most recent prepared financial statement submitted to CFA Institute. Feedback will be discussed with or sent to the society on any suggested edits.
Internal Project Partners such as CFA Institute staff members with relevant subject matter expertise in the scope of the application may be invited at the ideation and proposal stages to provide guidance and feedback to the society on the development of the initiative to ensure strategic alignment, and to avoid overlapping work. An Internal Project Partner is not required for all applications.
The Society Relationship Manager will help ensure that an accurate summary of the potential impact is clearly articulated in the application. The Society Relationship Manager is not expected to advocate on behalf of an initiative if the potential impact is not clear. The application should contain all the details needed for the Evaluation Panel to review. The society will then submit a final version for review by the Evaluation Panel into the online application portal.
Evaluation Panels
There will be a tiered approach to application evaluation based on the funding request amount. This will allow smaller requests to be funneled more efficiently through a regional process, while providing greater organizational and leadership visibility to the more significant investments in the society network.
Evaluation Timelines
The Evaluation Panels will meet quarterly, with application deadlines set one month prior to the panel meeting. Funding decisions will be communicated within 2 weeks following the Evaluation Panel meeting. Societies are encouraged to take this timeline into consideration when beginning the review of their ideas and applications with Society Relations.
Approved applications will be subject to year-end reports, collected via Survey Monkey Apply. Year-end reports will be required as part of the following year’s Operational Funding requirements. Societies are eligible for multi-year funding, but will need to repeat the application process in subsequent years.
Share your innovative ideas
We are excited to have the support of the Board of Governors of CFA Institute to invest opportunistically in FY22 innovative society initiatives that deliver impact on our strategic objectives. Like previous grant application programs, we aim to encourage innovation, leverage and grow great ideas, and deliver on the value of the global network by investing in its most exciting opportunities.
As outlined, we are introducing a more objective approach to decision making than prior grant-funding programs for fairness and consistency, and in keeping with our aim to direct resource allocation to the most meaningful efforts and where support is most needed.
The introduction of “financial need” in assessment of initiatives is not new; we have always taken society financials and project budgets into account. The new rubric formalizes those criteria in the decision-making process. We continue to encourage innovation from across the network, whether financial support from CFA Institute is needed or not. There are many ways we can collaborate together to support ideas.
We look forward to your ideas and partnering with you to ensure their success.