What is the Investor Alignment Tool?
This tool provides a structured set of questions and criteria to evaluate whether a prospective investor is genuinely aligned with your organisation's mission, values, and operating model.
It covers key dimensions of alignment including impact philosophy, financial return expectations, governance preferences, involvement style, and long-term relationship expectations. By working through the tool before and during early conversations, you can identify potential areas of tension early, and make a more informed decision about whether to proceed.
Values & impact philosophy
Assess whether the investor's definition of impact genuinely matches yours, including how impact is measured and what trade-offs they're willing to make.
Financial expectations
Understand their return expectations, investment horizon, and tolerance for concessional returns, critical for avoiding misalignment later in the deal.
Governance & involvement
Clarify how much influence the investor expects over strategy and decision-making, and whether that fits your leadership model.
Why is this important?
In impact investing, finding an investor who shares your social mission can be just as important as securing capital. Misalignment discovered late can be costly, in time, money, and mission integrity.
Social enterprises face a unique challenge: they must satisfy both financial and impact objectives, which means investor fit goes beyond just the cheque. An investor who deprioritises impact outcomes, pushes for premature scale, or seeks board control inconsistent with your governance model can create serious tension, even if their financial terms look attractive on paper.
Using this tool early in the process helps you enter conversations with clarity, ask the right questions confidently, and avoid spending months in due diligence with an investor who was never the right fit.
What to look for beyond the capital
Investors provide value beyond money
Investors can contribute insights on product development, marketing strategy, introductions to suppliers and partners, and operational expertise. When evaluating potential investors, assess not only how much they'll invest, but the relevance of the strategic value they bring.
Find a lead investor
A lead investor will typically conduct in-depth due diligence and negotiate key terms. Where the lead investor has a strong reputation, this can generate confidence among other investors and help bring in additional investment, reducing the time and effort required to close.
Download the tool
The Investor Alignment Tool is available to download below. The file will be updated as the toolkit evolves.
Excel spreadsheet · Downloads immediately