The Portfolio Company Data Collection Playbook: 7 Strategies to Reduce Friction and Increase Response Rates

If you've ever found yourself sending yet another reminder email to portfolio companies about overdue impact data, you're not alone. Data collection from portfolio companies is consistently the number one operational pain point for impact investors, and recent research reveals just how widespread this challenge has become.

According to Impact Capital Managers' 2025 research on portfolio company perspectives, nearly 50% of portfolio companies cite data fragmentation as their top challenge. Meanwhile, impact fund managers report spending countless hours chasing incomplete submissions and manually aggregating inconsistent data across investments. One fund manager described the reality bluntly: "Collecting impact data from 37 active portfolio companies is a tall order."

The good news? This doesn't have to be your reality. By implementing strategic approaches to data collection, you can dramatically reduce friction, improve response rates, and transform impact reporting from a burden into a value-add practice for both your team and your portfolio companies.

Why Portfolio Company Data Collection Breaks Down

Before diving into solutions, it's important to understand why data collection becomes so challenging. The ICM research identified three core issues:

1. LP Reporting Pressure Creates Cascading Complexity

As limited partners increasingly demand sophisticated impact reporting aligned with standards like the Impact Performance Reporting Norms, fund managers face pressure to collect more detailed data from portfolio companies. This pressure cascades down to companies that may already be struggling with basic data infrastructure.

2. Portfolio Companies Face Real Resource Constraints

The median portfolio company spends 20 hours annually on additional investor-requested impact data collection. For companies with multiple impact investors requesting different datasets, this burden multiplies quickly. As one company noted: "Streamline investor reporting so that no investors ask for custom skews of data on a regular basis."

3. Disconnected Systems Create Version Control Nightmares

With impact data living in Excel spreadsheets, financial data in portfolio management systems, and survey responses scattered across email threads, creating a coherent picture becomes nearly impossible. As fund managers developed proprietary metric sets after GIIRS retired in 2019, many chose Excel as a "temporary" solution that has become permanent, with growing portfolios making these systems "inefficient" and precipitating searches for integrated technology.

Seven Data Collection Strategies That Actually Work

1. Align on Metrics Before You Invest

The best time to set expectations about impact data is during due diligence, not after the check clears. Share your impact thesis, explain how you'll use their data, and collaboratively identify metrics that align with both your reporting needs and their business operations.

According to the ICM research, only 40% of companies experience collaborative metric selection processes with investors. Companies that do report higher satisfaction with their IMM processes overall. As one company CEO explained: "It is critical to align not only on the measures themselves, but also on the realistic expectations and timelines for change."

2. Standardize Your Requests Across Co-Investors

When portfolio companies have multiple impact investors, each requesting slightly different data in different formats, reporting becomes exponentially more burdensome. The research found that 56% of companies face requests for impact data they wouldn't otherwise track, and many receive these requests from multiple investors in non-standardized formats.

Consider coordinating with co-investors on shared metrics and reporting templates. OpenClassrooms, a France-based education company, benefits from exactly this approach: their investors aligned around a standardized database created under the auspices of France Invest, allowing companies to report once and share access with multiple investors.

3. Design Reusable Question Sets

Rather than creating bespoke surveys for each reporting period, invest time upfront in designing question sets that can be deployed consistently across your portfolio. This allows companies to build muscle memory around your requests and enables you to track longitudinal trends more effectively.

The key is specificity: be explicit about what data you need, how you need it formatted (frameworks, units, standards), and why it matters for investment decisions.

4. Provide a Two-Sided Reporting Platform That Creates Value

Companies are far more likely to submit complete, high-quality data when they see direct value from the process. Consider implementing systems where portfolio companies get their own dashboard to track progress, benchmark against peers, and reuse data for their own purposes.

According to the research, 76% of companies that collect impact data find it valuable, with 42% calling it "very valuable." However, 46% report they would like to use their data for purposes beyond investor reporting but lack the time. By providing infrastructure that makes their data actionable for their own business decisions, you transform reporting from extraction to exchange.

To learn more about UpMetrics' two-sided reporting features, schedule a demo with our team. 

5. Automate Reminders and Submission Tracking

Manual follow-up emails are time-consuming for your team and easily overlooked by busy company founders. Automated reminder systems with clear submission deadlines and progress tracking reduce the administrative burden on both sides.

The research shows that companies reporting quarterly or monthly are more likely to rate the staff time spent as significant compared to those reporting annually. Well-designed automation can help manage this increased frequency without proportionally increasing the burden.

6. Offer Flexibility Where It Matters

While standardization is important, rigidity can backfire. When companies cannot collect specific metrics or align perfectly to frameworks, work with them to find meaningful alternatives rather than forcing square pegs into round holes.

Only 35% of companies report that investors have been flexible with reporting requirements, despite this being the most commonly received form of support. Companies receiving any form of investor support report higher satisfaction with their IMM processes overall, suggesting that flexibility drives engagement.

7. Close the Feedback Loop

Perhaps the most underutilized strategy is simply showing companies how you use their data. Share your impact reports, provide benchmarking where appropriate, and have conversations about what the data reveals about their business and impact performance.

The research found that while 81% of companies use impact data for external reporting, many don't understand how their data creates value up the investment chain. One company emphasized: "In order to get a useful data set that really propels the industry forward, we actually need to be having some of the deeper conversations about why this matters to the investor and where does the portfolio company fit in?"

Making the Shift from Compliance to Collaboration

Improving portfolio company data collection isn't just about implementing new tools or templates - it's about fundamentally rethinking the relationship between investors and companies around impact data.

TemperPack, a sustainable packaging company highlighted in the ICM Research Report, illustrates this evolution. After struggling with varying reporting cadences, different tools, and inconsistent definitions from multiple investors, they invested in their own data tracking system to regain ownership of their data. This shift enabled more collaborative dialogues with investors, with the sustainability team becoming comfortable pushing back when requests seemed irrelevant and asking for feedback and benchmarking. As their Sustainability Manager explained: "Each questionnaire came in a different format, and once the data went to the investor we couldn't easily go back and look at it. It didn't feel like our data."

The most successful impact investors recognize that their portfolio companies aren't data factories - they're partners in creating both financial returns and positive impact. By implementing these seven strategies, you can transform impact data collection from your biggest operational headache into a genuine source of insight and value for everyone involved.

After all, when portfolio companies report higher satisfaction with their impact measurement processes, they're more likely to provide higher-quality data, more consistently. That's a virtuous cycle worth investing in.