Explore SPTF's Guidance Notes, provide brief, practical guidance on a specific tool or resource that can help you improve Social Performance Management (SPM) practices.

2022 Guidance Notes

Building resilience in inclusive finance organizations, June 2022
This document presents a guide for building resilience in inclusive finance organizations based on the experience of twelve (12) organizations from six (6) Latin American countries. It also considers the conceptual framework from three important sources, which are listed in the References section.

2016 Guidance Notes

Low Growth: SPM Solutions, Issue 10, December 2016
Low growth can constrain your social goal of financial inclusion and may harm your financial bottom line. This guidance note will help you use the Universal Standards to tackle the challenge of low growth.

Client Delinquency and Default: SPM Solutions Issue 9, November 2016
Client delinquency and default erodes your institutional sustainability, and is a serious warning sign about client vulnerability. This guidance note will help you use the Universal Standards to tackle this problem.

Low Productivity: SPM Solutions Issue 8, October 2016
This Guidance Note discusses ideas and resources for tackling the issue of low productivity using an SPM perspective. It is part of the Guidance Note series SPM Solutions to Operational Challenges.

SPM Solutions to Operational Challenges Issue 7, September 2016
A new Guidance Note series will guide Financial Service Provider (FSP) leaders on tackling key strategic and operational challenges from an SPM perspective.

Learning from Exit Clients Issue 6, February 2016
This Guidance Note discusses why you should collect client exit data, how to do it, and what to do with the data once you have it.

2015 Guidance Notes

Guiding Your Board to Manage Social Performance Issue 5, October 2015
This is a short guide for FSP managers on how to work with their boards to manage the FSP’s social performance. It will also be useful for others who work with provider boards, such as technical assistance providers, board chairs, funders, and others who want to understand the board’s role in SPM.

Convincing the Skeptic Issue 4, September 2015
For FSPs of every shape and size, SPM implementation means change. Changes to policies, changes to procedures, changes to organizational strategy. A smooth change management process means having everyone on board: from your investors to your front-line staff – and even sometimes your national regulator. Where you meet resistance to your SPM work, it’s useful to have a plan to convince your skeptics of the value of SPM. Where you meet resistance to your SPM work, it’s useful to have a plan to convince your skeptics of the value of SPM. For more on the financial benefits and trade-offs of SPM, read the MIX publication Where Good Intentions Meet Good Business Practice.

Mentor Guide Issue 3, July 2015
This note focuses on when and how FSPs can engage a mentor to help them improve SPM practices. The note also highlights the Mentorship Guide, a companion resource to the Universal Standards Implementation Guide.

Implementation Guide Issue 2, May 2015
This note focuses on how to use the Universal Standards Implementation Guide, which provides a “one-stop-shop” resource for implementing the Universal Standards. We hope you find this note helpful as you work to improve social performance management practices.

SPI4 Issue 1, April 2015
For our first note, we are featuring the SPI4, the universal assessment tool that integrates industry standards for social performance. The note details recent updates to the SPI4, how you can use the tool to assess practices and how it is compatible with other industry resources.

The 15 member ALINUS working group (ALigning INvestors due diligence with the Universal Standards) have agreed on a common sub-set of 80 SPI4 indicators to align their social data collection in due diligence. The ALINUS reporting option can be selected on the SPI4 welcome page. For further details (including investors using the tool and examples of SPI4 reports) please click here.

See CERISE February 2016 News for an update on the SPI4 -- Peer benchmarking now available - CERISE can now compare individual results to peer groups (regional, legal status, age, etc.).