Impact Measurement Framework for Impact Investing in Youth Mental Health
SPUR INNOVATION
Location: San Francisco, CA
Duration: 2024-2025
THE CHALLENGE
Hopelab Ventures (HLV), an impact investor accelerating innovation to support equity-centered solutions that improve the mental health and well-being of young people, engaged I2I to co-create an impact measurement framework that would do more than check boxes. They needed a learning roadmap that aligned with their values, told the full story of their portfolio’s impact, and fueled better decision-making for themselves and the broader youth mental health (YMH) ecosystem. But how do you measure impact when you're not just trying to change outcomes, but the very systems that produce them?
OUR APPROACH
We began with a document review and a listening tour, engaging HLV staff, advisors, and partners to understand what/how they were already learning, and where they wanted to grow. From there, we built a flexible MERL framework grounded in four of Hopelab’s organizational values: equity, compassionate optimism, relationship-building, and expansive learning.
The result? A framework that balances the rigor of evidence with the nuance of impact at multiple levels (companies, the portfolio, and ecosystem).
The framework included:
A portfolio Theory of Change that outlines how HLV’s investments and ecosystem-building efforts lead to tangible improvements in youth mental health.
Strategic Learning Questions that help HLV interrogate their assumptions, track portfolio performance, and understand their unique value in the field.
Revised Data Tools, including a more insightful annual impact survey, interview protocols, and a rubric to rate progress from investment proposal to annual reporting.
An Implementation Blueprint with phased activities, a timeline, and a budget to bring the MERL strategy to life without overwhelming the team or companies.
Our team is currently implementing the MERL framework to now measure and communicate impact for Hopelab leadership, YMH companies, and the field.
🚀 Equipped Hopelab Ventures with a values-aligned MERL framework that fuels strategic decision-making and tells a compelling story of impact across companies, the portfolio, and the broader ecosystem
💡 Surfaced actionable insights about what it takes to drive systems change in youth mental health through equity-centered investing
📊 Revamped data collection tools to capture deeper, more meaningful outcomes (beyond outputs) at scale. Outcomes included: access and affordability, equity and cultural competence, upstream prevention and support, chronic mental health and well-being service delivery, and crisis intervention and/or training.
✅ Provided a living blueprint for continuous learning, enabling HLV to communicate its unique value to founders, co-investors, and the broader field