Measuring Social Impact Masterclasses

This Masterclass is for organisations who want to develop a framework, reporting process and system for measuring the social and economic impact of their projects.

    • The workshop will cover the following topics:
    • Defining your aims and objectives
    • Defining your outputs and outcomes
    • Methods of capturing evaluation data
    • Producing social impact materials
    • Designing a comprehensive client management and social reporting system

Find out more

Next Dates: 1-4pm on the 7th June.

Social Enterprises need to Gear Up for the Social Value Act

Social enterprises can produce social value through both their internal functions and external services.
Internally for example, social enterprises can achieve and demonstrate social value through employing specific groups (e.g. disabled, unemployed), train and invest in staff development, and purchase from certain organisations (e.g. local or TSOs).

Externally, social enterprises can achieve social value through the wide range of services they deliver and the beneficiaries they engage with and support.

Social enterprises will need to define, measure and evidence their social impact thoroughly to make the most of the new Social Value Act and the competitive advantage it offers TSOs during a procurement process. One of the main differences between a private company and a social enterprise, is the reinvestment of profit by the organisation, so outlining how profit is spent and how it contributes to social value will be a main differentiator for social enterprises.

  • To measure social value, an organisation has to be clear on its aims and objectives, outputs and outcomes for its organisation as a whole and it’s specific services.
  • Outputs define the quantity of services they deliver and the number of people who benefit. Outputs demonstrate how an organisation is achieving it’s objectives.
  • Outcomes represent the change and impact as a result of the service delivered, providing quantitative and qualitative evidence to demonstrate the difference made. Outcomes help to demonstrate how the organisation is achieving it’s aim.

To implement robust practices to measure social value, I would recommend
1) Having a social value strategy in place with annual targets.
2) Monitoring and measure your social value on a continual basis using a CRM tool as part of your operational management process.
3) Producing an impact report on an annual basis, ideally produced by an independent evaluator.
4) Apply for quality marks that demonstrate and verify your social value e.g. Social Enterprise Mark.

If you need help putting together your social impact strategy, attend our next Measuring Social Impact Masterclass

Funding for High Growth Organisations

If your organisation has the potential for high growth (20% turnover increase per annum or £1m turnover in 1 yr for a start up) in the UK, and you have less than 250 employees, you might be eligible for a grant to cover approximately 50% of our costs to help support your management team in developing your operational systems, social impact framework or business strategy.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Growth Accelerator Grant, then please contact [email protected]

Download our Social Enterprise Toolbox

Resources

Our Social Enterprise Toolbox offers guidance and tools to help you set up and run your social enterprise.

This comprehensive 60 page guide is written for a business leader at any stage of running their social enterprise as its intention is to help you undertake a considered and structured analysis of how well you are planning and managing your business.
Find out more here