NEF: Measuring Social Impact (for LVSC's London For All project, Oct 2014)

Measuring Social Impact

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Basic principles of social

impact measurement

Rosemary Maguire

NEF Consulting

(the New Economics Foundation)

October 2014

Measuring Social Impact

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Overview: the essence of

understanding and measuring

social impact

Measuring Social Impact

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1. Financial measurement:

limited measure of value

2. We allocate resources only

to the things we can measure

3: Stakeholders are left out of

decision making

Measuring Social Impact

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The challenge

Measurement across the ‘triple bottom line’

The environment The economy People

Measuring Social Impact

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Why measure

social impact? A robust monitoring and evaluation system

can help prove and improve

External- Prove impact to funders,

customers, government and other

stakeholders

Internal- Improve impact to increase

benefits created

Measuring Social Impact

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Identify impact

Measure impact

Claim net impact

Value net impact

Four stages to

understanding

impact

Increasing

resources

and

expertise

required

Measuring Social Impact

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Principles of

understanding

impact

7

1. Involve Stakeholders

2. Understand what changes

3. Only include what is material

4. Do not over claim

5. Be transparent

Take slices

out of your

pie to

ensure that

you don’t

over-claim

Proportion of

outcome that

can be claimed

by your

organisation

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Robustness Feasibility

Balancing

robustness and

feasibility

If too intensive for an

organisation it will

detract from other

activities.

If too light-touch and it

will not provide useful

information.

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Second-tier

organisations

Second tier Direct delivery Communities

Impact on… Social impact on…

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Sharing stories: our

experiences

Measuring Social Impact

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• Second tier organisation

• After the two day training- planned to undertake a

Theory of Change

• Talked with colleagues and raised awareness

• “As a result of this training course I have raised

awareness of the importance of measuring our impact

people are now questioning what they are doing and

our strategic plan now has a section in it on how we

will evidence our impact”

• “As a result of this course I feel more confident about

articulating the value of the sector”

• Able to articulate the added value of volunteers within

the organisation (in addition to cash investments)

Case study 1

Measuring Social Impact

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• Direct delivery organisation

• Originally a human rights organisation- runs through

their work

• Wanted to shift the mind-set of the organisation from

outputs to outcomes, and tackle working silos

• “The value of this course for us has been in planning

design and improving what we do as well as thinking

strategically about why we are bidding for things. It has

given us more confidence to insist on an outcome

focused approach and we have collected useful data to

inform funding bids. We have done all this by involving

our stakeholders. It has also been useful to bring the

language from this course into project planning. We

are beginning to articulate the value of everything we

do such as volunteering and placements”

Case study 2

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Sharing learning and moving

forward

Measuring Social Impact

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• Be clear about why you want to measure social impact

• Get staff buy-in to the process

• Focus on measuring the impact of something

manageable

• Take some action and things follow just do something

no matter how small

• Be prepared for the unexpected or for uncovering

unanticipated issues

• Accept that it takes time

Top tips from

course

participants

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Questions?

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Websites:

http://www.nef-consulting.co.uk/

http://www.neweconomics.org/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/nefconsulting

https://twitter.com/nef

https://twitter.com/_RosieMaguire

Email:

Rosemary.maguire@nefconsulting.com

Stay in touch!