Number of unique individuals who were active clients of the organization as of the end of the reporting period.
Organizations should footnote all assumptions used, including source of data. See usage guidance for further information.
NOTE: This metric will be deprecated in a forthcoming update to the IRIS Catalog of Metrics. Users are advised to instead report Client Individuals: Total (PI4060) disaggregated by Active Use (PI7985).
This metric is intended to capture the number of unique clients who were active users of the organization’s services as of the end of the reporting period; this metric is more relevant to organizations providing services than to those providing products. Organizations wishing to report total client transactions should refer to Client Transactions (PI5184) and related submetrics. Organizations wishing to report the number of unique clients during the course of the reporting period can report on Client Individuals: Total (PI4060) and related submetrics.
For financial institutions (including microfinance institutions), this metric would include the number of individuals who currently have outstanding loan balances with the organization. For those financial institutions offering deposit products, this metric would include the number of individuals who have active deposit accounts with the organization. For those financial institutions offering insurance products, this metric would include those with active insurance policies. In all cases, the reported number should be based on the number of individuals, rather than the number of groups or number of active policies/accounts.
The definition of active may vary by offering. For example, for traditional financial services, “active” may include all individuals who have accounts registered in their names for at least six months and who have used their accounts to make transactions within the prior six months. For digital financial services, “active” may include individuals who have had accounts registered in their names for at least three months and who have used their accounts to make transactions within the prior three months.
This metric is intended to capture the unique number of specific individuals served. Organizations should not use any household multipliers when reporting against this metric. If organizations consider entire households to be the customer/client, they can report against Client Households: Total (PI7954) and its associated submetrics.
Many organizations may not be able to report on the number of clients using direct data. For example, organizations that sell solar lanterns through a series of local network distributors might estimate the number of client individuals reached based on the number of units sold. Organizations should footnote details on how and why these assumptions were made.
For healthcare providers, “client individuals” refers to patients. For housing providers, “client individuals” refers to residents or tenants.
This metric is multi-dimensional with regard to the five dimensions of impact. It may help describe the WHO dimension when the stakeholder group represented by the metric is the stakeholder group targeted by the investment or organization. It may also help measure the HOW MUCH Scale dimension, which helps estimate the number of the targeted stakeholders experiencing the outcome. 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.
This is a submetric of Client Individuals: Total (PI4060), which has 17 other related submetrics.
Metrics identified as "cross-category" are those that are relevant to any IRIS+ Impact Category or Impact Theme (i.e., these metrics are not specific to any particular industry/category or theme).
June 2022 - IRIS v5.3 Released (current version)
Immaterial change. Minor revision to usage guidance for clarity.
January 2020 - IRIS v5.1 Released
No change.
May 2019 - IRIS v5.0 Released
Immaterial change. Usage guidance updated to clarify the ways in which "active" may vary by product.
March 2016 - IRIS v4.0 Released
No change.
March 2014 - IRIS v3.0 Released
New metric. Client Individuals: Active (PI9327) was developed via the IRIS Taxonomy Group.
IRIS Metrics Work Better in Sets
To use IRIS metrics—and the resulting data—to understand impact performance, IRIS metrics should be used and analyzed in generally accepted sets and according to well-defined objectives. IRIS+ gives you access to generally accepted Core Metrics Sets aligned to common Impact Themes and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).