Sarah Cruickshank's blog

SROI and Demonstrating Value: How can both frameworks provide a deeper understanding of social impact?

Sarah Cruickshank — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:44:54 +0000

There’s added value in using multiple frameworks when completing an impact evaluation. SROI – an evaluation framework growing in popularity – expresses value in monetized terms, and is one such framework that can be used in conjunction with Demonstrating Value.

We sat down with Simon Anderson (left), senior SROI analyst with Social Asset Measurements and Garth Yule (right), manager of evaluation and community impact with Vancity Community Foundation to find out how Demonstrating Value and SROI can work together to provide a deeper understanding of social impact.

What’s the value of using Demonstrating Value or SROI? Is there added value in using both frameworks together?

SA: The value of using SROI is that it provides a set framework for measuring the social impact of an organization. The processes involved, and the end result, enables organizations to demonstrate, in monetized terms, the value created by the organization. As a result, a benefit-cost ratio can be calculated which can be used for internal management and external reporting purposes.

As for the value of using SROI in conjunction with DV, SROI focuses on the individual level, meaning that the analysis concentrates on how a program influences the outcomes for program participants. Therefore, SROI can be used alongside DV, as SROI can isolate the impact of the program and DV can be used to assess the organizational outcomes. In fact, combining the two will lead to a more fulsome and detailed analysis than using them independently from each other.

GY: It’s also important to recognize that DV and SROI are quite similar in the first phase of aligning indicators and data collection with the mission and goals of the organization. The choice of one framework or the other for the analysis and reporting phase should be made with the audience in mind. SROI may suit funders’ desire to know about the economic efficiency of their grants, whereas DV may suit investors’ and management’s desire for data to guide a strategic plan for achieving scale. Social enterprises often need to address both, and combining the frameworks saves duplicating the work in the first phase.

How do you choose the right indicators? Can the same indicators be used for both DV and SROI assessments?

GY: Indicators should provide information more beneficial than the cost of collecting it – DV recommends prioritizing indicators on a cost/benefit scale. DV offers more flexibility in including qualitative information and data about outcomes that are not easily monetized. Both frameworks aspire to be tools to improve management capacity; DV may offer more leeway to customize the indicators to address business planning and strategic questions.

SA: For a SROI assessment, choosing indicators involves a number of steps. First of all, it is important to determine the key stakeholders associated with the program that is being assessed. Once this is complete, it is necessary to consult with the stakeholders to gain their insight and understand how the program influences their lives. Once the outcomes are identified, indicators that are measurable and directly linked to the outcomes should be chosen.

Some of the indicators chosen for a SROI assessment can be used for a DV assessment. However, it should be noted that a SROI assessment emphasizes the use of indicators that can be monetized.

How can DV contribute to effective communication of an SROI analysis?

SA: The DV dashboard would be a useful tool for communicating the results of a SROI analysis. While the SROI process involves gathering and utilizing a significant amount of data, other than the SROI ratio, there is not a standardized way of communicating the results. Thus, the DV dashboard could fill this gap.

GY: DV also has a strong element of story telling to it – while developing a snapshot can benefit from using standard metrics libraries like IRIS, the workbook encourages users to design their snapshots in a way that captures the essence and spirit of their work in a way that can inspire and surprise the reader. This focus on narrative and reader engagement can add vibrancy and context to the technical depth of impact analysis that comes from SROI.

For organizations looking to complete a SROI assessment or work through the DV process, what are the first steps they should take?

GY: Assessing your own capacity to take on the work is very important. It is better to develop a manageable system for tracking three key indicators on an ongoing basis than to do a tremendous one-off report that doesn’t build impact evaluation into the core systems of the organization. For small organizations with limited capacity, DV offers building blocks that can be a precursor to a full fledged SROI analysis a year or two down the road.

SA: When an organization is looking at a SROI analysis, two important initial steps are to: 1) determine the organization’s theory of change; and, 2) assess the data that is already being collected by the organization.

1) In regard to determining the theory of change, this involves identifying: the key activities of the program, the stakeholders, and how the activities impact the stakeholders. This step ensures there is a clear vision regarding the outcomes of the program, which enables the development of strong indicators for the SROI assessment.

2) With respect to assessing the data that is already being collected, this is important because a SROI assessment requires detailed data, and if this is not being collected, planning is needed to implement the necessary data collection strategies.

blog type:

Issues & Ideas

Tools

tags:

SROI

Ear to the Ground: Impact Measurement and Evaluation Online

Sarah Cruickshank — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:31:06 +0000

These days, it’s not hard to find information online. Run a Google search – no matter how obscure – and you can instantly gain access to websites, magazines, newspapers and blogs dedicated to your topic. The difficulty then lies in sifting through the search results for quality content that’s current and relevant to your needs.

At Demonstrating Value, we keep a close eye on online discussions about social impact measurement and evaluation. Whether it’s for a social enterprise, non-profit or any other type of organization, we want to know! We’ve put together a list of five recent and noteworthy articles that further the conversation of impact measurement and evaluation. Don’t forget to keep an eye on our Twitter feed for interesting articles as well!

From the Guardian Social Enterprise Network: Why measuring impact is essential to any social enterprise
If you need convincing, this article by Laura Fedorciow from Vertico Ventures gives you five reasons why measuring impact is a necessity for social organizations.

From SEE Change Magazine: Measuring and valuing impact
This article from Stephanie Robertson, founder of SiMPACT Strategy Group examines SROI methodology, and the benefits of adopting an outcomes-based approach to evaluation.

From Stanford Social Innovation Review: Using the Right Tools
If you need help understanding the difference between evaluation tools like IRIS, GIIRS and PULSE, look no further. This article by Beth Busenhart, PULSE product manager at App-X goes through each one, with a focus on PULSE in particular.

From Social Enterprise Buzz: How to Measure Social Impact?
If you’re new to social impact measurement, this article gives a great answer to the question “Why measure social impact?” and like the article above, breaks down IRIS, GIIRS and PULSE so they’re easy to understand.

From EPG (Economic and Strategy Consulting): Social Impact Measurement: Current Inconsistencies
As the title suggests, this article examines the inconsistencies in social impact measurement with a focus on SROI.

blog type:

Issues & Ideas

Tools

What’s Going On With Impact Measurement in the Non-Profit Sector?

Sarah Cruickshank — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:26:22 +0000

That’s exactly what the UK based New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) was interested in finding out when they surveyed 1,000 charities in a recently released research project: Making an Impact. Released October 16, this 73 page document outlines the pleasant surprises and troubling challenges that face non-profits that are trying to demonstrate their impact.

The study examines the roles of charities, funders, and government and the changes that need to happen within each group to improve the overall practice of impact measurement. While this research was conducted in the UK, many of the trends are taking place in Canada too.

What Are The Findings?

There were promising results from the 1,000 charities NPC spoke with. While most charities were measuring impact to meet the requirements of funders, the number one benefit of evaluation for charities was realizing an improvement in their services. NPC also discovered that:

75% of charities measure the impact of some or all of their work;
52% of charities have increased measurement efforts to meet funders’ requirements;
22% increased measurement efforts because of board or organizational prioritization on measuring impact.

But it’s not all good news. Smaller charities are less likely to measure impact than larger charities, and 25% of all charities don’t conduct impact measurements at all.

NPC also learned that there’s a disconnect between funders and charities, that funders have specific reporting requirements for their grantees, but the requirements don’t always align with the information needs of the funded charities.

How Is Demonstrating Value Making A Difference?

It’s this last point that Demonstrating Value aims to change for social enterprises. At Vancity Community Foundation, Demonstrating Value is the reporting tool used for the Social Enterprise Portfolio program. Over the course of the one year granting cycle, Portfolio grantees complete a performance snapshot that speaks to the indicators and outcomes they have identified in their application to the Portfolio. When they report back, they develop their capacity to collect and analyze information they can use to improve the management of their social enterprise.

Remember: The Demonstrating Value tools were created to measure and evaluate impact. While they were designed with social enterprises in mind, they can be used by other organizations as well. NGOs, microbusinesses and any other organizations looking for an effective way to understand and communicate impact should take the first step and download and become familiar with the Demonstrating Value workbook today.

blog type:

Issues & Ideas

All About Data Visualizations

Sarah Cruickshank — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:25:44 +0000

Right now, data visualization is a hot topic! It’s a great tool for presenting long sets of data in a way that’s efficient and easy to understand. Data visualization isn’t a new concept, but through innovation and new technology there are now more ways to view, understand and remember high levels of information.

We’re partial to performance snapshots as an effective tool for data visualization. They’re succinct when sharing information, visually appealing, and allow the user to interact with the data, which ultimately increases their understanding of it. But we’ve come across other noteworthy data visualizations as well.

Nowadays, the traditional bar chart or pie graph is a thing of the past. Even mind maps, concept maps and other traditional graphs or mapping systems are just the tip of the iceberg. Data visualizations are now elegant and extraordinary, so much so that you may be inclined to hang them as art once you’re done analyzing the data.

Unique Data Visualizations

Infoesthetics.com from Andrew Vande Moere is an interesting blog that collects unique and inspiring data visualizations. Here’s a visualization he shared August 2012 from a Russian data visualization team that illustrates the vastness of the internet, with each circle representing a specific website. Learn more on this visual here.

Another visual that caused a recent buzz was the “photo-sharing explosions” from the creators at Facebook. These short videos traced the life of a single piece of content shared throughout the Facebook community. The effect is truly dazzling. View the videos here and check out the Stamen Design blog to find out how they were created.

Of course, we can’t forget infographics. Immensely popular, infographics can be made about anything from the composition of an organizations customer base, to the effects of too much sugar on the human body. They’re fun, colourful, and a great way to collect information and display stats and stories. We recommend dailyinfographic.com as a fun website if you’re interested in browsing designs.

How Do Performance Snapshots Stand Out?

So, what’s the difference between performance snapshots and other types of data visualizations? Well there’s many. Other data visualizations often speak to a single, specific topic, and once they’re created, they aren’t easily updated. Snapshots have the capability to be updated on an ongoing basis with minimal effort. This is what makes them an exceptional management tool and not just for one-time use.

Snapshots are also one of the few data visualizations that allow for interaction with the data, which is useful when using it as a communication tool. You can also enjoy the flexibility to design your snapshot exactly the way you want it. Whether that means stronger visuals or heavier emphasis on writing, it’s up to you.

Check out this recently-created snapshot from The Cleaning Solution, or play around with the interactive version in our gallery of performance snapshots.

But remember: whatever form of data visualization you’re creating – whether it’s a snapshot, infographic or even a basic pie chart, the most important thing to keep in mind is the balance between form and function. Your data visualization shouldn’t be boring, but it must be powerful and convey information quickly and efficiently. Otherwise, you lose the intention and ultimately your audience.

blog type:

Issues & Ideas

tags:

Visualization

performance snapshots

dashboard

DV user Cathy Deagle Gammon shares her story

Sarah Cruickshank — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:32:47 +0000

We got in touch with Cathy Deagle Gammon, Executive Director of Dartmouth Adult Services Centre in Dartmouth Nova Scotia to learn about how she used Demonstrating Value principles in a 15 minute presentation and raised $25,000!

DV: Can you talk a bit about Dartmouth Adult Services Centre?

Cathy Deagle Gammon: DASC is a non-profit vocational day program for persons with an intellectual disability. We provide services for people that range all the way from personal supports to employment supports.

DV: How did DASC first become involved with Demonstrating Value?

CDG: At a conference for social enterprises. I sat in on a presentation from Michele Cherot of The Right Stuff in Trail, BC. Listening to Michele I felt really engaged, and thought Demonstrating Value was something that would really benefit us.

DV: How does the DASC use Demonstrating Value?

CDG: We’re right in the middle of a capital campaign, so we haven’t created a performance snapshot just yet, but we did use Demonstrating Value principles to help us communicate our impact in a 15 minute presentation to receive $25,000 in funding - and we did it!
In our presentation we included quotes from parents and community members that demonstrated the value DASC offers. We used PowerPoint, but the information on our slides could have easily been repackaged into a snapshot.

DV: Do you feel this presentation would have been more challenging without Demonstrating Value?

CDG: Well, we wouldn’t have been as efficient in communicating everything in 15 minutes. We may have still received the funding, but Demonstrating Value helped us develop a more focused, polished presentation – it was crisp and clean and that ultimately made a big difference. Visually the presentation was much stronger, which was very important, specifically for the audience we were presenting to.

DV: Have you had any challenges with the IT systems aspect of gathering and analyzing data?

CDG: We have fairly sophisticated financial systems, but we don’t have a centralized database for our programs for gathering client indicators. It’s a bit more challenging technically to get these programs in place, but it’s a healthy challenge!

DV: How much time/effort/money did you invest in Demonstrating Value?

CDG: We invested almost no money. We did bring Michele back to present for our colleagues, but we invested more time than money – time to learn to use the Demonstrating Value principles. We learned that the trick to having useful information is ensuring the information has some depth to it, that it’s good quality.

DV: What are some of the tools and resources you’ve found most useful?

CDG: The website was very helpful, particularly the video tutorials (sadly not all of these are online anymore). We were also provided with a handout from Michele that incorporated parts from the Demonstrating Value Workbook, which was quite useful.

DV: Is there anything else you would like to add?

CDG: I’m looking forward to using Demonstrating Value more in what we do. It’s a concept I can’t wait to invest more time in. For 2013, we have plans to build our first performance snapshot as an interactive dashboard, and incorporate it into our annual report. So by the time I get our snapshot done next June, I can wow everyone!

DV: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us Cathy!

blog type:

Profiles

The Art of Storytelling: Our Favourite Discussion from SOCAP12

Sarah Cruickshank — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:34:43 +0000

Last week from October 1 – 4 San Francisco was host to Social Capital Markets 2012 (SOCAP12), an annual conference that connects global innovators, investors, foundations, institutions and social entrepreneurs in a discussion about directing the power and efficiency of market systems towards creating social good.

This year, impact investing, crowdfunding and issues facing young social enterprises were all hot topics. While you may not have been able to partake in the conference, you can still find out what was discussed, as SOCAP has shared all the presentations and panel discussions online.

We’ve been watching the presentations, and one in particular caught our eye: The New Connectivity: Storytelling for the Digital Age. In this hour long presentation and panel discussion, Jeff Leifer of Circadian Media Lab moderates a discussion about the art of storytelling between Jonah Sachs, author of Winning the Story Wars, and Jesse Shapins, co-founder and chief Strategy Architect of Zeega, a non-profit/for-profit hybrid that acts as a platform for inventing new forms of interactive storytelling.

We like how the speakers expand upon storytelling as more than just a narrative tool to frame the social good of an organization, to ultimately use storytelling as the means to connect audience to mission.

Sachs shares about the morals or values conveyed in stories, or more specifically, how your role as an organization is to “connect your audience to their deeper values.” Your story isn’t about you and the positive change your creating through your organization, it’s about motivating and empowering your audience. It’s your job “to provide hope to heal a broken world.”

Shapins makes an interesting point when he says “in the context of social change, engagement is also authored,” meaning that you can’t simply share your stories and expect people to flock to your cause. You must actively design your stories to encourage your audience to participate.

Shapins sheds light on ways to engage a society that is cluttered with information. He observes that with so much information coming at us, it’s rare that we are able to experience a moment of surprise, but that there’s value in this kind of experience. Referencing a Zeega project that profiles the more than 10,466 “Main Streets” in the US, Shapins elaborates on the opportunity in “allowing for openness and ambiguity” around a message or story to keep from falling into a standard narrative, thus allowing for the element of surprise. In doing this, you are ultimately strengthening your message or story.

So what does all of this have to do with Demonstrating Value? Your performance snapshot is your tool to communicate your value and share your story with the world. By keeping these storytelling tactics in mind when creating your snapshot – remembering that it’s not about you, but about your audience, and incorporating elements of surprise – your snapshot will be stronger, and ultimately more effective when conveying your value and impact.

blog type:

Issues & Ideas

Events

tags:

narrative

Turning to Twitter for the Latest on Social Enterprise, Data Visualization and Measurement and Evaluation

Sarah Cruickshank — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:44:53 +0000

Whatever you’re into, whether it’s sports, celebrities or the latest in impact measurement and evaluation, Twitter is the place to go for the up-to-date news and information. But sometimes sifting through the endless sea of “tweeters” in search of those posting truly thoughtful and innovative content can be overwhelming.

We keep a close eye on Twitter. On our feed - @demvalue - we like to share content about social enterprise, dashboard know-how, and impact measurement and evaluation. But we're not the only ones tweeting on these topics. We analyzed the people and organizations we follow and pulled out the ones who are really sharing interesting content. Take a look at our top picks!

The Guardian Social Enterprise Network – From the UK based newspaper, The Guardian, this network is a hub for those working in and with social enterprises, a great place to look for current trends and opinions. Follow @GuardianSocEnt

Mico Yuk – This xcelsius wiz has extensive know-how when it comes to SAP dashboarding software. She shares useful information, especially if you’re currently building a performance snapshot. Follow @MicoYuk

FSG – This global non-profit consulting firm specializes in strategy, evaluation and research. They share interesting tweets about #collectiveimpact, #sharedvalue and #socialinnovation. Follow @FSGtweets

Xcelsius – Straight from the source, this Twitter feed shares webinars, tutorials and other helpful tips about SAP Crystal Dashboard Design. Follow @xcelsius

Bernard Marr – This London-based author frequently tweets interesting articles on performance monitoring and measurement. Follow @BernardMarr

Mission Measurement – A Chicago-based consulting firm, they help their clients measure social impact and create value through social innovation. They post up-to-date news happening in the world of social change. Follow @MissionMeasure

Social Business Org – Social Business “is a place to find people, businesses and ideas that are creating positive social change.” And that’s exactly what they tweet about! Follow @socialbizorg

These are just a few of our favourites. Who would you recommend?

blog type:

Tools

Profiles

Expert advice from the Demonstrating Value event

Sarah Cruickshank — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 20:09:08 +0000

Yesterday evening Vancity Community Foundation and SAP co-hosted a special event to share advice about creating performance snapshots. With over 50 guests in attendance at the SAP Executive Briefing Centre, the event was a huge success. For those of you who missed out, here’s some highlights and useful recommendations that were shared yesterday evening.

We invited representatives from three social enterprises to speak on their performance snapshots. First was Gretchen Jordan Bastow and Amit Arora from Mama’s Wall Street Studio. Next was Graham Anderson and external consultant Susan Chambers from Shift Urban Cargo Delivery and lastly, Christa Mullaly from The Cleaning Solution.

After each presenter had a chance to explain their snapshot, all presenters reassembled for a panel discussion moderated by Steve Williams of Constructive Public Engagement, an authority on CSR strategy, impact measurement and data visualization.

A few of the topics brought up during the 30 minute panel discussion included: using performance snapshots in decisions on business strategy, the process of collecting data, and the number of hours needed to create a performance snapshot.

Steve asked each speaker about the audience they were trying to reach with their performance snapshots. Amit and Gretchen created their snapshot as a communications tool for an external audience of funders, supporters and clients, to get the word out about their organization. Christa from The Cleaning Solution was most interested in using their snapshot internally as a roadmap to help inform the direction of the organization.

When asked if the process of creating a snapshot was worth it, Graham admitted that it was a huge task, but now that it’s completed, he’s able to use his snapshot as a tool to measure against existing metrics.

There were some final words of advice from the speakers on necessities every organization should have in place before creating their own performance snapshot.

According to Christa, you must determine the data that is easiest to define, and the data that will be most beneficial to use. Gretchen recommends distilling data down so every word holds meaning, and Susan suggests opting for fewer indicators to start, so as not to be overwhelmed. Lastly, Graham suggests housing all your data in one place to save yourself from tracking it down later.

What advice can you offer to those creating performance snapshots?

blog type:

News

Issues & Ideas

Events

tags:

performance snapshots

social enterprise

Showing the Value of Our Local Farmers’ Markets

Sarah Cruickshank — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:05:46 +0000

We hate to see it go, but summer is quickly drawing to a close. While many people are busy wrapping up summer vacation plans and preparing for fall, we’re busy wrapping up another phase in a special pilot project here at Demonstrating Value: the Farmers’ Market Impact Toolkit.

For the past three months, MBA candidate Annie Lambla has been working with Demonstrating Value to build a toolkit that will specifically address the performance management needs of farmers’ markets. The project is a collaboration between Demonstrating Value, Vancity Community Foundation and the B.C. Association of Farmers’ Markets; Annie’s internship was funded in part by the ISIS Research Centre at the Sauder School of Business at UBC.

Once completed, this toolkit will provide a consistent, province-wide framework by which market managers can measure their social, environmental and economic impact. It will also enable them to make informed management decisions to meet the growing demand for local food products and engage the farmers and producers in the local food economy.

Where are we now in the Farmers’ Market pilot project?

For the 11 market societies and nearly 20 markets participating in the pilot project, completed surveys are now being collected. Work on building performance snapshots is about to begin and will continue through the winter. Once completed, many of these snapshots will be shared in our online snapshot gallery.

What is the Farmers' Market Impact Toolkit?

The toolkit is a series of four surveys for market management, customers, vendors and external stakeholders. These surveys are designed to describe how farmers’ markets impact three major outcomes: food security and sustainable agriculture practices, community building and local economic impact.

Once markets receive feedback from the surveys, the resulting data is used to create a performance snapshot. Just like our other performance snapshots, these snapshots are both an internal management tool for use in planning and policy decisions, and a communication tool for interaction with external stakeholders.

The toolkit is designed to adapt to different market capacities, giving market managers the guidance to get truly useful information. While there are several “need-to-know” questions that must be answered in the surveys, market managers can adjust the questions to speak to the individual needs of their market. This flexibility is something Demonstrating Value offers throughout all of its tools and resources.

Check back next week for more of Annie's photos from her experiences at the markets!

blog type:

Issues & Ideas

Tools

tags:

local food

Expressing Your Organizational Value: Monetizing Value

Sarah Cruickshank — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:06:04 +0000

There are major benefits to expressing the monetary value of your social enterprise activities. This is especially true when communicating with an audience focused on the financial bottom line of an investment. Increased credibility for your enterprise and improved communication with your investors – not to mention the potential to attract new investors – are just a few of these benefits. However, there are also some roadblocks that can happen along the way.

In part three of our series, we’re investigating these roadblocks, and helping you determine whether pursuing a monetary analysis is right for your enterprise.

What are the Benefits of Monetizing Value?

Assistance from investors is often financial, therefore expressing the result of their investment in dollar amounts provides a direct connection between their investment and the value your work brings. When you do this, you speak their language and help them really understand the significance of your services.

Determining the dollar value of your services can also help with management decisions and other internal operations because it gives you a new perspective on your enterprise and the value that it creates.

Financial Proxies

Sometimes it’s not possible to determine the exact monetary value for a specific activity. If this is the case, financial proxies are an excellent tool in helping you estimate these values.

Financial proxies are pre-calculated estimates of financial value that can be used for accurately estimating Social Return on Investment (SROI), a method for determining financial value. These financial proxies are always evolving, and can be accessed through various databases such as the SROI Edmonton Financial Proxies Database.

Review the resources at the bottom of the page to learn more about financial proxies and SROI.

What to Consider When Deciding to Monetize Value

It can be a difficult to pursue a monetary analysis of your social enterprise, especially if what you’re attempting to measure is qualitative in nature. Before you get started, make sure you consider the following:

Do you have the resources and information to support the analysis?
When completing a monetary review of your value services, it’s recommended to seek outside assistance to ensure your data remains credible.

The organizational information needed to support the analysis may also be challenging to develop and/or access. Ensure you have solid accounting practices and monitoring systems in place that collect data related to your social and environmental outcomes.

What will you gain by trying to monetize your value?
Will your stakeholders be able to interpret the information? Would this information be more credible if you were to demonstrate your value in other ways?

To what extent can your social benefits be associated with public (tax-payer) cost savings?
If there are limited public cost savings, the monetized social value may not be that impressive with no reflection on the actual social value.

For instance, if target employees in an employment development enterprise no longer receive social assistance as a result of being employed, they will have a much higher social dollar value than target employees that maintain disability payments while being employed.

Are you likely to have significant economic impact within a geographic community?
If not, estimating the local economic impact may not be a convincing way to express your value.

Remember! Monetization in order to demonstrate value is most effective when combined with methods of describing and quantifying value. A compelling story, backed-up by need-to-know facts is a winning combination for creating a persuasive argument when demonstrating the value of your enterprise.

Here are a few tools to refer to when pursuing a monetary analysis:

The Social Costs Worksheet
This Demonstrating Value worksheet is designed to help you identify and measure social costs, the additional costs incurred above and beyond normal business expenses due to the social, environmental or cultural mandate of the enterprise.

Financial Intelligence Guide for Social Enterprises
This Demonstrating Value resource introduces financial management fundamentals that will help you successfully measure your financial performance and grow your social enterprise.

Social Return on Investment (SROI) Ratios
SROI is a framework that analyzes and places a dollar value on the activities of a social enterprise in order to develop a value that represents the benefits of the social enterprise. This method provides a consistent approach for various social enterprises to understand social value.

The following resources are helpful for learning more about SROI:

Expanded Value Added Statement (EVAS)
The Expanded Value Added Statement is another way of incorporating an estimate of “social value” into traditional accounting. The EVAS measures the wealth of an organization by combining financial and social data to provide a complete picture of the social and economic impact.

For more information about this method, consult the following resource:

Quarter, Jack, Laurie Mook & Betty Jane Richmond. What Counts: Social accounting for Nonprofits and Cooperatives. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003.

Canadian Resources:

Canada SROI Network tools and resources
Database of Financial Proxies
The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) SROI case studies. This resource has similarities to the Demonstrating Value Social Costs Workbook. To access this resource, you must have an account with REDF.

blog type:

Issues & Ideas

tags:

monetization

impact

SROI