Optimizing The US Impact Investing Activities of Impact America

Impact America Fund is a fund that invests in businesses that positively impact underserved communities in the US. The client posed to the team the following question: How can Impact America Fund improve its mission management by maximizing the impact of its portfolio companies?

The Capstone team focused on Schoolzilla, an EdTech company that needed assistance in measuring and scaling its impact among different school stakeholders. Schoolzilla is a software company that integrates and visualizes data so that school stakeholders can make better decisions that lead to better student learning outcomes. 

The team’s methodology began with external research on impact investing and developments in the EdTech landscape. The team then focused on Schoolzilla by analyzing its theory of change, product, competitive advantage, customer interactions, and impact assessment approach. After this analysis, the team concluded that it was a challenge for Schoolzilla to convincingly claim the student impact specified in its rubric.

In order to provide recommendations on a revised rubric, the team then analyzed how better data truly leads to student achievement. The outcome of this analysis was a two-­part impact web that demonstrated the role that Schoolzilla can play in the education impact landscape. The web also showed Schoolzilla’s need to better engage all stakeholders and acknowledge individual context.  

From this impact web, a revised rubric was created that allows Schoolzilla to grade itself on the direct impact that it can truly claim. This impact is Schoolzilla’s ability to enable stakeholders to make better decisions, which the team concluded could be well supported by data obtained from school systems. The new rubric provides a way for assessing the completeness, accuracy, availability, timeliness, and adoption of Schoolzilla’s data, with the assumption that these metrics are crucial to better decision-­making.