Valuing Social Value Toolkit
A decision support tool for organisations
thinking about social measurement
approaches
Beta Version
1
Introduction to Beta Version
• This version has a limited circulation. Please
do not forward or cite.
• Assumed structure of resource; this
powerpoint with zipped data file. Access to
resources beyond those would require being
connected.
• No resources or internal linked on this version.
Seeking sign-off of final few case studies.
2
Feedback from Beta Version
• All feedback will be welcome although we
know the design and functionality require
work and we are particularly interested in
your views on:
– Pitch and tone
– What might we leave out/ include?
– How could it be more useful?
• Please use slide numbers for ease of reference
• Feedback to chris.ford@ncl.ac.uk
• Thanks very much.
3
Contents summary
Where you are...
I’m starting out, and not certain
about all this.
Section ...
Why do it?
- Why do you want to do this?
- What conversations might be
helpful?
- What are the priorities for your
organisation?
- What do you already do?
I know what I need but not I’m not
clear how to get it.
What tools?
-What are the options?
-Thinking about costs and
benefits
-Thinking about costs
- Thinking about benefits
I know what I’m doing and just need
to check my thinking
Which tools?
- Making a decision
- Testing your decision
- A checklist
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Contents detail
• [DN - insert slide matching headings to
contents; a ‘site map’ of the powerpoint +
resources]
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Introduction
• This section introduces the toolkit and
outlines where it came from.
– About this tool kit
– VSV Project
– Acknowledgments
6
About this tool kit 1/2
Aim: To help you make better informed
decisions about how to measure your
organisation’s social impact.
Limitations: We know its not perfect. If you
can further develop this work please do so.
The copyright is designed to enable this.
[DN - link to copyright doc: Disclaimer to be
inserted]
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About this tool kit 2/2
• This is an area that is littered with technical language
which sometimes, for some people, means very
particular things meanings.
• Two things seem important:
– Not to get lost in other peoples languages
– Seek to ensure that your own language helps create
shared meaning and understanding
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VSV project
• The toolkit has been produced through the
‘Valuing Social Values’ project, a partnership
between:
– Co-Ops North East
– NESEP
– Pentagon Partnership
– VONNE
With Newcastle University Business School.
• [DN - links to resources section: project and
partners]
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Acknowledgements
• As well as VSV partners and University
colleagues we would like to thank…
• All those that have allowed us to capture their
expertise and learning as case studies
• Participants in seminars, presentations and
less formal discussions throughout the year
• The many critical friends that have, almost
always in the nicest possible way, given us a
hard time and thereby helped hugely.
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Why do it? Section 1
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Why do it?
• This section outlines a process for clarifying
your organisation’s starting points.
– Why do you want to do this?
– What conversations might be useful?
– What are the priorities for your organisation?
– What do you already do?
– In summary
Why do it?
What Tools?
Which Tool?
Back to Intro
Resources
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Why do you want to do this 1/3?
Monitoring and evaluation has been identified
as having these purposes:
• The communication role
• Ensuring accountability and transparency
• The performance management role
• The wider learning role
• The policy role
(‘Accountability and learning: developing monitoring and
evaluation in the third sector.’ Ellis with Gregory for CES,
2009)
Next Slide in Section
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13
Resources
Why do you want to do this 2/3?
This project is more focused. It addresses
three needs of most organisations:
• Organisational development. Eg improving the quality
of experience for service users, employees and
volunteers
• Evidencing delivery. Eg meeting funders requirements
• Regulatory compliance. Eg demonstrating public
benefit to the Charity Commission
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Resources
Why do you want to do this 3/3?
But the key question is: ‘why do you want to do this?’
• If you are clear and confident about your reasons for
choosing a particular social value technique and these
are shared across the organisation please follow the link
to What tools?
• If not, the rest of this section provides some resources to
help you have some effective conversations. Although
this work could be done by an individual, working with
people from across your organisation will help develop
ownership of the process and so lead to a better
outcome.
Initial Slide in Section
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Resources
What conversations might be useful? 1/2
Programme operational
Organisational strategic
We work from project to
project but don’t share
resources across them
We want to understand and
communicate the effects of
our work
Project sustainability
Organisational governance
We look at a funding
We need better information
opportunity and know we
to make better decisions
can do it, but cannot prove it.
Next Slide in Section
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Resources
What conversations might be
useful? 2/2
• The scenarios are designed to help you have a
conversation about your organisation and
what it needs from any tool.
• Given the diversity of the VCS it is highly likely
that the scenarios will not accurately reflect
the unique position and activity of your
particular organisation; please adapt, adopt
and dismiss as relevant.
Initial Slide in Section
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Back to Intro
17
Resources
What are the priorities for your
organisation? 1/3
• If there are many reasons for doing this work,
there may be many different tools which
might be relevant. If so it is necessary to
prioritise your reasons.
• This exercise is best done by a group of people
drawn from across the organisation. It
develops shared understanding and
ownership, which leads to a better outcome.
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Resources
What are the priorities for your
organisation? 2/3
• Record on individual post-its short statements
that express the precise job(s) you need to do.
• Categorise by importance as:
1. Must have
2. Could do with
3. Would add value
• And by urgency as:
1. Now
2. Sooner
3. Later
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Resources
What are the priorities for your
organisation? 3/3
Reproduce the grid below on a flipchart or whiteboard. Place
each statement on the grid. Your priorities flow from the top
right hand corner to the bottom left.
Urgency
1
2
3
3
2
Initial Slide in Section
1 Importance
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Resources
What do you already do? 1/2
Information
gathered
Main purpose for
which information
is gathered
Opportunities to
‘reuse’ the
information
How reliable/
robust is the
information?
On a daily basis...
On a weekly basis...
On a monthly
basis...
On a quarterly
basis...
On an annual basis..
This framework can be used to summarise the information that
your organisation currently gathers or generates.
Next Slide in Section
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Resources
What do you already do? 2/2
• Most of this work is ‘back office’ , as such it
we need to minimise the time/resource and
maximise the learning. You might consider
adopting the COUNT principle: that is
Count Once Use Numerous Times
• There is another side to this: if you don’t use
information, why do you collect or generate
it? Make it count!
Initial Slide in Section
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Resources
Section 1 in Summary
Be clear about:
• Why are you (thinking about) doing this work?
• What job(s) do you want done?
• What are your priorities?
• What are you doing already?
• [DN - P&I includes decision tool which uses categorisation of
impact, strategy and quality; if this assessment was
integrated into the prioritisation exercise might be useful
reference. How to integrate is dependent on discussion with
NEF]
Onto What Tools
Back to Why do it?
Back to Intro
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Resources
What tools? Section 2
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What tools?
• This section outlines sources of information
about different approaches. We suggest
thinking about the costs and benefits of each
of them.
– What are the options?
– Thinking about costs and benefits
– Thinking about costs
– Thinking about benefits
– In Summary
Why do it?
What Tools?
Which Tool?
Back to Intro
25
Resources
What are the options 1/4?
• The VSV project started with NEF’s ‘Prove and
Improve’ toolkit. It outlines 20 methods and a
process for organisations to develop their own
frameworks. [dn – insert links]
• However it is not possible to produce a
comprehensive list
Next Slide in Section
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Resources
What are the options 2/4?
• Bespoke tools are constantly being developed.
These include:
• the particular requirements of a specific funder; central
or local government, foundation or investor.
• accreditation frameworks developed by national
federal organisations
• addressing a particular need such as community
buildings, volunteering.
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Resources
What are the options 3/4?
• In the absence of a comprehensive list the
following seem relevant sources of
information. What are these people doing
about this issue? What processes are they
using or recommending?
• Peers; personally and organisationally, your partners,
collaborators and competitors.
• Funders ; past, current and potential.
• Intermediary organisations ; local, regional and national
infrastructure and development organisations in the
VCS, public and private sectors.
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Resources
What are the options 4/4?
• These starting points may also help in a world
of imperfect knowledge:
• [DN link to resources ++ Content a function of
on/offline versions; and nef]
Initial slide in Section
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Back to Intro
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Resources
Thinking about costs and benefits
• Core questions that need to be answered:
– Will this tool do the job? [DN click thru to S1 slide]
– How much will it cost?
– What are the benefits?
• Please note we are not suggesting a formal
‘cost/benefit analysis’ rather that thinking
about the costs and benefits will help to
decide if the work is worth doing and to
identify the resources needed.
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Resources
Thinking about costs 1/2
• There are some costs involved in doing any of this
work. Perhaps most significantly, people’s time
including:
– Getting agreement and buy-in, across the organisation.
– Gathering or generating relevant information/data.
• Evidence from case studies suggest that the on-going
demands on time were less about using the tools
(which reduces as people become more familiar with
them) and more about using the information and
learning from the tools to help the organisation
develop.
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Resources
Thinking about costs 2/2
• There are some costs that are specific to a
particular tool. These might include:
• Securing permission to use the tool
• Some tools require specific capabilities
and/or competencies
• External validation.
• Some of these costs are ‘one-offs’ : some are
ongoing.
Initial Slide in Section
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Resources
Thinking about benefits 1/2
• What are the benefits you anticipate?
• Your priority and additional reasons for doing this work
[DN- link?]
• The benefits that others – the developers, owners and
those who have used the tool - identify.
• Other organisational needs that could be addressed by
using this particular approach.
• Opportunities for establishing and developing
relationships through using this particular approach.
Next Slide in Section
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Resources
Thinking about benefits 2/2
• For each anticipated benefits, the following
questions may be useful:
• Is there a good basis for concluding that this
benefit can be delivered by this tool?
• What might get in the way of realising this benefit:
and how can that be addressed?
• How would you know if this benefit is realised?
Initial Slide in Section
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Resources
Section 2 in summary
• Its useful to be clear about:
– What you know, and don’t know, about the
different tools
– Whether the work is worth doing:
• The costs of using the approach and responding to the
conclusions
• The benefits of doing so.
Onto Which Tools
Back to What tools?
Back to Intro
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Resources
Which tools? Section 3
36
Which tool(s) will be best for your
purposes?
• This section suggests an approach to
making and testing your decision and
preparing for the next steps.
– Making a decision
– Testing your decision
– A checklist
Why do it?
What Tools?
Which Tool?
Back to Intro
37
Resources
Making a Decision 1/2
• Having worked through sections 1 and 2 the
‘fit’ between the tools that are available and,
your needs and priorities will be clear.
• However it may be that :
– There is nothing available that starts to do the
job(s) you have. If so, you may need to develop
your own approach [DN link to PCP case
study/P&I]
Next Slide in Section
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Resources
Making a Decision 2/2
– There are two (or more) tools that partially
address your priorities. Several case studies [link]
illustrate how different tools can interrelate.
• If this is not the case, please contact us [click
thru to feedback] as we would like to include
your experience in a future version of this
decision support tool.
Initial Slide in Section
Back to Which Tool?
Back to Intro
39
Resources
Testing your decision 1/2
• Three approaches, which individually or together, can
increase your confidence in your decision:
– Revisit
• why you want to do this work [DN Section 1 Summary]
• what not to do [DN click thru]
• Ask yourself: what happens if we don’t do this?
– Use a critical friend. Ask someone who understands your
organisation and its context to listen to an explanation of
why this work should be done and ask the most awkward
questions they can think of.
Next Slide in Section
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Back to Intro
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Resources
Testing your Decision 2/2
– Do a SWOT analysis
Strengths; what
are the internal
reasons for doing
this work
Opportunities; are
there opportunities
beyond the
organisation that
this work allows or
supports?
Initial Slide in Section
Weaknesses; what
are the internal
reasons for not
doing this work?
Threats; are there
threats from outside the
organisation that this
work risks?
Back to Which Tool?
Back to Intro
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Resources
Next steps - a checklist
• Have you got...
– A plan; who will do what by when?
– Resources; people with the skills and the time to see the
work through; and a commitment to consider the learning
available from the process?
– Support ; understanding and engagement across the
organisation and with other significant stakeholders?
• Could you ...
– Work smarter rather than harder? For example, use
resources to do two jobs.
– Work with others to share resources and develop
relationships?
Back to Which Tool?
Back to Intro
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Resources
Resources
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Resources
•
•
•
•
•
Case studies
Scenarios
Prove and Improve
Individual tools
Further resources
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Case studies
PQASSO
VodaVODA
Excellence model
Groundwork NE
ISO 9000
NECA
SROI
Crisis
IiP
Chester-le-Street Mind
LM3
tbc
SAA
Community Campus
Balanced scorecard
Ousburn Trust
Impact framework
PCP
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DN - on case studies
• Additional materials available for some cases.
• CESPI [JB?]
• ‘Prove & Improve’ includes a process for developing your own
impact map. One of the case studies is from PCP, an
organisation that took this approach.
[http://www.proveandimprove.org/new/myimp/index.php]
• We could not identify any use of the IVR’s ‘Volunteer Impact
Assessment Toolkit’ within the North East. Voluntarism is
however a central feature of the sector. IiV has therefore been
included although it is not in ‘Prove & Improve’. [comment re
relationship btwn IiV and IiP]
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Scenarios
•
•
•
•
Responding to a Request for Quotation
Informing the management committee
Devising a strategic plan
Producing an annual report
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Prove and Improve
• [DN content function of final agreement (+
keeping file size managable). Ideally include,
rather than signpost:
– Table and dart board decision makers
– Summary doc on click thru?]
• www.proveandimprove.org
• Acknowledgement to NEF
• Click thru to Creative Commons
48
Individual tools
• Links to sites for individual tools
• [DN only those in P&I? All in P&I or only case
studies? And/or other tools eg social capital. In
which case, how to demarcate?]
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Further resources
• Annotated bibliograpy focusing on:
– NE and
– grey literature.
• Regional contacts and networks:
– SROI, SAA, Northern Excellence, Social Capital
• VSV Project documents
– Partner information
– Project report
– Creative commons copyright
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