Social Impact Measurement
What gets measured gets managed
Benjamin Brown
Senior Policy Research Officer
Social Enterprise UK
What is Social Impact measurement?
“The measurement of the impact of changes
intentionally achieved in the lives of
beneficiaries as a result of services and products,
delivered by an organisation, for which the
beneficiary does not give full economic value”
……..
What is Social Impact measurement?
Why measure social impact?
“In God we
trust, all
others must
bring data”
Edward Deming
“What gets
measured,
gets
managed”
Peter Drucker
Why measure social impact?
Prove
• Proving which
is about
demonstrating
that change is
actually taking
place.
Improve
• Improving
which refers to a
continuous process of
learning and growth, to
support the social mission
and also to sustain and
grow the business.
Why measure social impact?
• To tell the whole story of the companies performance
•To inform the strategic development of the enterprise
•To gain competitive advantage in a market where cutting costs
constantly won’t work
•To build social capital with clients
•To build reputation, and attract partners and investors
•To inspire staff
•To know if you’re actually making a difference!
Every organisation – no matter how
small or new – can measure its social
impact
7
7
PM Training, Staffordshire
What does it look like?
No universal standards.
But lots of common ground:
•
•
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A clear story and theory of change
Beneficiary perspective
Evidence of outcomes
Demonstration of change over time
Linking learning back to organisation
Theory of change
The INPUT
resources
fed into the
project
(e.g. people,
money, time,
buildings)
ACTIVITY
The actual
activity of the
project
OUTPUT
What happened
as a result of the
inputs and
activities
OUTCOME
What are the
short/medium
term changes
that you are
trying to effect
IMPACT
What is the long
term impact on
the world
Theory of change
The lower your confidence in your theory of change, the more important it is to
try to measure outcomes and impact.
ULTIMATE
IMPACT
OUTCOMES
Where do
you need to
measure
progress?
OUPUTS
ACTIVITIES
INPUTS
HIGH
LOW
Confidence in theory of change
To prove and improve: the 10 steps
1. Ask why evaluate? Know why you’re proving and
improving.
2. Clarify your key objectives, mission and values. Know
where you are going.
3. Identify your stakeholders.
4. Map out the story (the hypothesis or theory of change) and
describe the milestones. This is to determine the scope of
an evaluation.
5. Choose your indicators wisely (be challenging but realistic
about what you can measure.)
To prove and improve: the 10 steps
6. Make a plan. Choose a methodology – how to go about
measuring these things.
7. Collect the information: Identify existing records / Consult
stakeholders / Pull together data
8. Analyse the information, and draw conclusions
9. Share it with others.
10. Learn from it and act on it.
Elvis and Kresse, London
Measuring your success:
The tools
• There are around 25+ tools which can assist
in the measurement of social impact
• Most prominent are:
– Social Accounting and Audit
– Social Return on Investment
– LM3 (Local Multiplier 3)
Measuring your success - tools
• Eco Management & Audit Scheme (EMAS)
• Local Multiplier 3 (LM3)
• Prove it!
• The Social Impact Measurement for local
Economies (SIMPLE)
• Social Accounting and Audit (SAA)
• Social Return on Investment (SROI)
• Volunteering Impact Assessment Toolkit
• C3 Perform
• Customer Service Excellence (previously
Charter-mark)
• European Foundation for Quality Management
(EQFM)
• Fit for Purpose
• Practical Quality Assurance System for Small
Organisations (PQASSO)
• Social Enterprise Balanced Scorecard
• 3rd Sector Performance Dashboard
• Quality First
• Outcomes Star
• SOUL Record
Questions for your organisation
1. Who owns evaluation?
Who gets involved? (which stakeholders?)
2. What %age of overall budget is spent on it?
3. What are the internal barriers?
(e.g. data, lack of senior buy-in, delivery staff)
4. Do you use an external agency?
How would it help?
5. How can you hardwire it into activities?
What types of information help us prove & improve?
Good
Better
Contribution
Attribution
(you helped)
(you were responsible)
Qualitative
Quantitative
(stories and descriptions)
(numbers)
Subjective
Objective
(peoples’ perceptions)
(facts)
Independent
Comparative
(just about you)
(you in the context of others)
Useful points of contact
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Quality and Impact Toolkit for Social Enterprise www.proveandimprove.org
Social accounting and audit - www.socialauditnetwork.org.uk
New Philanthropy Capital - www.thinknpc.org
Social Return on Investment - www.thesroinetwork.org
Inspiring Impact - http://inspiringimpact.org/
Key Social and Co-operative Performance Indicators
www.cooperatives-uk.coop
Charities Evaluation Service - www.ces-vol.org.uk
NESTA - www.nesta.org.uk (standards of evidence)
TRASI - http://trasi.foundationcenter.org/
www.socialenterprise.org.uk
@SocialEnt_UK
benjamin.brown@socialenterprise.org.uk