Target Stakeholder Demographic (PD5752)

This metric is intended to capture the basic demographic groups of target stakeholders of an organization's products, services, and operations. A target stakeholder can be a client, employee, or anyone the organization is aiming to positively impact. Some organizations call a target stakeholder a ‘beneficiary.’

Target stakeholders—whether clients, employees, or others—should self-report their own demographic data to ensure accuracy, particularly for race and gender. Organizations should not assume gender for an individual and should protect vulnerable individuals in the LGBTQIA+ spectrum by reporting these data anonymously and in aggregate. Given that transwomen are women and transmen are men, this metric does not create separate segmentations for those groups. However, organizations are encouraged to create additional groupings using the write-in option as needed to capture those lived experiences that are helpful in understanding equity in outcomes.

The categorization of historically marginalized groups varies with location and context. With no internationally agreed-upon definition as to which groups constitute historically marginalized, if well-established local policies exist (as in South Africa, with the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment [BBBEE] definition, or in India, based on backward caste), organizations should refer to these local guidelines to identify groups historically marginalized on the basis of race and/or ethnicity. Otherwise, and wherever appropriate, organizations should provide additional detail regarding their tailored methodology for defining these groups.

This metric may help describe the WHO dimension of impact, which details which stakeholders the investment or enterprise aims to reach with the outcome. This metric may also help clarify how underserved they were prior to the investment. For more on the alignment of IRIS metrics to the five dimensions of impact, see IRIS+ and the Five Dimensions of Impact (https://iris.thegiin.org/document/iris-and-the-five-dimensions/). No single metric is sufficient to understand an impact; rather, metrics are selected as a set across all dimensions of impact. When possible, the selection of metrics to measure and describe the five dimensions should be based on best practice and evidence.