A group of public and private organizations – including Deloitte, Prudential Financial, the Rockefeller Foundation and USAID – will donate $6.5 million to expand the Global Impact Investment Rating System (GIIRS) so that it evaluates the social impact of investments, the Financial Times reports.

The tool will widen its geographical reach and establish a new “fund rating system on top of its extant company ratings,” the newspaper writes. “The concept of GIIRS goes beyond the idea of sustainable investment to ask whether investee companies are having a positive environmental and social impact.” Social impact investment currently totals about $50 billion in assets, “but proponents are optimistic the development of formal ratings will help it grow rapidly,” the Financial Times reports. “The new funding will support 12 private equity and venture capital funds investing in the developing world in encouraging their investee companies to apply for the ratings. A further 12 funds in developed markets are expected to join them” (Grene, 5/2).