Measuring Real Value: A DIY guide to social return on

investment

Lisa SanfilippoQ & A with Eilís Lawlor and Richard

Murray

What is SROI?

SROI: a practical research tool• ‘Seeing’ value of Social Enterprise &

any organisation more clearly• Stakeholder engagement provides

evidence base• Based on Social Accounting principles• Alternative to HMT-style Cost-Benefit

Analysis

The Guide

‘Setting the standard’

• Step by step• Case studies- 2 social

firms• For you…

organisations, evaluators, researchers, decision makers

The method:

• Understand & Plan• Stakeholders• Boundaries• Impact Map/Indicators• Plan

• Collect data- with people

• Project into the future• Analyse Income &

Expenditure• Calculate SROI• Report

Pack-IT

• For every £1 invested in Pack-IT, £1.90 of social value is created each year for society in terms of reduced welfare costs and increased local purchasing.

• Pack-IT generates a combined social return on investment of £71,600 – of which £33,700 is the value added after adjustments are made for grants and wage subsidies.

Millrace IT

• For every £1 invested in MillRace IT, £7.40 of social value is created -reduced health care costs, reduced benefits costs, as the long-term unemployed come off benefits.

Coming soon…

Adventure Capital Fund• Exploring loan

repayment in ‘social value’

• Making the value/benefits/ outcomes stronger part of the award-making process?

- community space- child care- recycling/composting

Why do it?

• Managing outcomes/ improving• Competing in the marketplace• A good place to hang your hat• Will not mask poor performance (benefit?)• Staying mission driven/prevent mission drift

• Adaptability- project level, organisational level, policy level: in a more inclusive way

• Use with ‘types’ of SE or SE support?

The Kinks

• Comparisons among organisations?• Potential for misreporting of SROI ratio• The trouble with money- the search for values &

proxies• Toting up the value or ‘added value’ of social

enterprises- attribution• Evidence vs. assertion• Robustness vs. useability• The booster effect

Where next?

• Refining the process• More and better values• Drawing together and sharing knowledge• New areas of social, environmental and

economic impact

• Measuring What Matters Programme: informing public sector decision-making

• Invest to Save (HMT) procurement• Social Investment… the obvious frontier

Co-parents

Thanks to authors, co-editor– Jeremy Nicholls, Cat’s Pyjamas/ nef– Alibeth Somers, LSBU– Susan Mackenzie, Philanthropy UK– Eilís Lawlor (ed.)

Get the Guide!

It’s free and online now:

www.neweconomics.org