Impact Measurement Methodology
BOOK
Social Innovation: Comparative perspectives
Social innovation is a topic that is more and more being discussed on both national and European levels (hence, the announcement of this being a strategic priority EU wide). To better be able to provide social impact in the society and find novel solutions also for operating social enterprises, it is necessary to explore how social innovation comes into life and what aspects are necessary to foster it.
This open access book is a valuable source for understanding in particular the organizations’ capacity to generate novel ideas, ways and means of doing things, and of addressing public and social problems of many kinds.
This volume’s primary assertion is that the third sector, specifically through stimulating civic involvement, is best placed to produce social innovation, outperforming business firms and state agencies in this regard. By investigating actor contributions to social innovation across seven fields of activity, Social Innovation: Comparative Perspectives develops our understanding of why and how the third sector is central to functioning, cohesive and viable societies.
THE CONTENT OF THE BOOK
Impact of the Third Sector as Social Innovation The third sector or non-profit sector has increasingly gained, in recent years, policy recognition and attracted academic attention. Researchers have analyzed non-profit organizations from different perspectives, usually emphasizing specific roles this set of institutions is assumed to perform.
The read the whole book click HERE or download below.
This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
IMPACT MANAGEMENT TOOLBOX
For the organisations working with the youth
This toolbox helps organizations and organizers to plan, implement and communicate the positive changes that they aim to create with their initiative or organisation in the lives of young people. It has been designed to help to do, measure, improve their activities… and repeat! In other words – to be able to create a more positive impact. Besides providing more clarity and increasing efficiency, it will help to involve the core project/activity team and explain the work outside the organisation, too. In conclusion, the toolbox help in creating a lasting legacy.
ABOUT THE TOOLBOX
What? A combination of nine tools especially developed for planning, measuring and increasing positive impacts of the organisations and reducing any negative effects of their activities.
For whom? For you. If you are active in an organisation that works with and for the young people. For example, youth associations aiming to develop their members or social enterprises providing services to youngsters.
What if I don’t work with young people? The tools will be absolutely suitable for designing and measuring the impact of your activities too! However, all the examples in this toolbox are related to young people as they are the main target
group here.
With the help of this toolbox, you can be even more successful in your activities! If you are reading this, you are probably active in an organisation that aims to create a positive impact in the lives of young people. Perhaps you want to unleash the creative potential of youngsters… or help young people who have had lesser opportunities compared with their peers…. or provide valuable knowledge and skills to the members of a youth organisation.
The document includes following methods: problem tree / goal tree / stakeholder map / beneficiary journey map / theory of change / impact indicators list / research methods list / measurement plan / organisational model canvas
The toolbox has been developed by the top organisations developing social impact measurement, youth field
and social entrepreneurship in the Baltic States. For more information about the project, click here.
This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
B Impact Assessment
B Impact Assessment
Developed by B Lab, a non-profit organization dedicated to using the power of business as a force for good, the B Impact Assessment helps companies measure their impact on workers, community, environment, and customers, empowering them to assess the performance, compare themselves to peers, and identify areas for improvement. This is a good choice for a for-profit organization looking to measure the social impact of their organization holistically. The tool is easy to use and available online free of charge.
Assessment is based on certain standards.
Who develops the standards?
The standards are created and revised by the Standards Advisory Council (SAC), a group of independent experts in business and academia.
Although the SAC creates the standards, we invite all interested to provide feedback to the standards. The best way to submit your feedback is to log into the B Impact Assessment and select “Leave Feedback” next to each question. If you are interested in learning about updates and opportunities to provide feedback as drafts are made available for testing and public comment, please subscribe to our V6 distribution list.
The Assessment also goes through a private and public beta period in which feedback is collected and integrated into final versions. Expert working groups are convened in order to explore our specific issues more closely in an objective manner. The Assessment is updated every three years in order to accommodate new and innovative practices, respond to the feedback of its users, and to more accurately assess the impact of all types of businesses.
In addition, B Lab has Regional Advisory Groups whose mandate is to deepen the engagement of regional experts in improving the Standards of the B Impact Assessment. Currently, B Lab has advisory groups in Latin America, East Africa, Australia and UK which provide constructive feedback and recommendations to B Lab and our Standards Advisory Council ( SAC) on regional specific issues. Learn more about the Regional Advisory Groups members here.
SE Impact Tool to assess impact measurement, planning, and implementation.
SE Impact Tool
This tool is developed for helping social entrepreneurs and people working in the SE field to assess their perceptions of SE Impact measurement, planning, and implementation. Afterward, it helps to deeply understand the value and range of tools of the SE Impact, outlining their needs and steps for the progress in this field.
in order to receive the final outputs of this tool on your e-mail, which will be generated based on your answers, please click the “Questionnaire” , and log in (register).
Find more about SE online toolbox where you can find also SE Canvas tool, SE Pestel tool, SE diagnostic tool and SE Financial modeling tool. Here
Wises’ Social Impact Measurement in the Baltic States
WISEs’ Social Impact Measurement in the Baltic States
ABSTRACT
WISEs devote most of their time and resources to working with the target group – not only organizing their employment activities and developing skills but also adapting their work environment, improving the psychological climate, organizational culture, etc. Thus, the implementation of the social mission of this type of social enterprise requires a particularly large amount of time and other resources. In addition, they have to take care of the financial sustainability of their organization. However, WISEs as all social enterprises face the pressure from society and other stakeholders to measure their social impact. Nevertheless, it is also important to note that scientists still disagree on the definition of social impact. It is noteworthy that there are no common criteria for measuring social impacts and there are many different methods and tools for impact assessment and measurement (Arena et al. al., 2015; Hadad and Găucă, 2014). Thus, it remains unclear what and how WISEs should measure their social impact. However, it can be argued that social impact measurement it’s very important for the WISE itself. The aim of this article – to identify what and how WISEs should measure their social impact in the organization. The methods of the research are an analysis of scientific literature and experts’ interview. The results of the research disclosed the possible measurement framework and indicators.
Urmanaviciene, A., & Arachchi, U. (2020). The effective methods and practices for accelerating social entrepreneurship through corporate social responsibility. European Journal of Social Impact and Circular Economy, 1(2), 27-47. https://doi.org/10.13135/2704-9906/5085
Read here: https://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/ejsice/article/view/5091/4690
This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
An Overview of Baltic Youth Impact
A consortium of partners has released a paper on impact management needs and challenges of youth associations in the Baltics, and the best practice examples. It provides an overview of whether and how youth organizations and social enterprises in the three Baltic States — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — measure their impact and presents different examples to give other organizations tips for measuring their organization’s impact.
Definition of impact : The impact of a youth organization or social enterprise is any effect of the organization’s activities on individuals or groups or the surrounding environment. The easiest way to think about impact is by asking such questions as “What changes do we cause?” and “What changes would not have happened had we not organized our activities?”
Different impacts can be positive or negative, intended or unintended. Typically, youth organizations may influence young people’s attitudes, knowledge, skills, and experience as well as their living conditions.
The aim is to establish the experience for today and determine the aspects motivating organizations to assess their impact. In light of the current situation, the authors of the project seek to determine the impact measurement tools or instruments which would help organizations to measure their impact more effectively. Furthermore, this paper gives an overview of the reasons due to which some organizations do not measure their impact, the aspects that would motivate them to do so, and the skills and tools needed to begin measuring impact. Finally, the best practice examples from Baltic youth organisations are introduced.
The main conclusion is nevertheless that the literature overview demonstrates a decline in active participation of youth, therefore, it is substantially important to provide quality service in youth organizations.
If you too are interested in finding out the benefits of measuring the impact, the most common tools and some of the most prominent examples among youth organizations in the Baltic states, download the full paper in one of four languages here:
The paper was created by Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia in collaboration with the National Youth Council of Latvia (LV), Eesti Noorteühenduste Liit (EST), Stories For Impact (EST), Geri norai (LT).
This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
In France, a mission-based approach is seen as a commitment versus an opportunity!
Inspiration from France! In France, a mission-based approach is seen as a commitment versus an opportunity – La Loi Pacte was amended to encourage companies to be more social.
Last year, in collaboration with Dealroom, this report proposed a methodology to measure entrepreneurial activity and capital invested into purpose-driven tech companies across Europe. This was based on a simple framework aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”).
The first iteration in 2019’s report focused on a subset that started with seven of the 17 SDGs. Since last year’s report, Dealroom has continued to develop the methodology and build out its coverage of purpose-driven tech companies to enable an analysis that is now extended across all 17 SDGs.
For each of the individual SDGs, Dealroom’s team has manually assigned keywords to tag companies in its platform with relevant categories. Each company is then individually reviewed and assigned to either “core” or “side” depending on the business model alignment with the SDGs, in other words whether it is core to a company’s business model, or simply a peripheral or indirect aspect of the business model. By extending the analysis in this way, Dealroom has grown the dataset from 528 unique venture-backed, purpose-driven tech companies analysed in the 2019 report to over 3,000 in this year’s report. As always, we understand the methodology has limitations and welcome feedback both in terms of scope and methodology in future iterations. The dataset and methodology are accessible on the ‘Impact & Innovation’ section of their website.
To follow the entire report and analysis read more here
Actionable Impact Management – A Roadmap for Your Organisation
Actionable Impact Management (AIM) is designed to assist in defining an internal organizational framework. This is executed by establishing an enduring impact measurement process which is primarily data and outcome oriented. AIM’s objective is to outline a roadmap for your organization to follow in the hopes to reaching a point where you are able to more accurately and effectively communicate your impact to multiple stakeholders. Impact Management refers to an organization’s ability to define an impact framework that is practical and enduring and translate insights through effective communication on impact via your website, reports, content generation, etc.
A guide to AIM has been composed by SOPACT and Asia Pacific Social Impact Centre to explain four major parts (steps) of impact measurement and management:
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Groundwork – vision, mission & goals, programme structure, theory of change, managing change
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Metrics – measure what matters, standard metrics alighments, metric data pipeline + tools
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Data – data capacity, data tools, data strategy
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Communication – evaluation, storytelling approach, quality principles, what to include in an impact report, reaching audience
This guide is designed for functionality and accessibility of content, complete with instruction and activities to work through the process. The thoughtful introspection required by ‘Volume One: Groundwork’ makes it the most time intensive of the AIM series. Groundwork lays the infrastructure for all subsequent impact measurement practices.
Actionable Impact Management is not intended for grant management or the monitoring of activities. This guide is not a deep-dive into the theoretical considerations of the processes but will reference additional resources for those that want to gain more substantial insights into any of the topic areas. Each organization is unique in its own entity, therefore AIM is not intended to serve as a one-size-fits-all practice.
The source: https://www.sopact.com/social-impact-measurement-framework
This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020-1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
SDG Impact Assessment Tool
I you as a social entrepreneur want to work with the SDG´s the SDG Impact Assessment Tool can be a useful tool to visualizes how your activities affects the SDG´s.
For social entrepreneurs and everybody else, who is trying to create a better world, it is important to see this change in a larger and global context ant to make sure that the efforts are in fact part of and aligned with a common global effort and plan.
The SDG’s offers such a common plan, that almost every country in the world has agreed upon.
The SDG’s were adopted by the world’s heads of state and governments on 25 September 2015 at the UN summit in New York. All of the UN’s 193 member states have signed, and thereby committed to work to achieve the goals by 2030. The SDG’s are a framework to create a more sustainable future towards 2030, both for humans and the planet, we live on.
The SDGs consists of 17 different Goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators and address the major challenges we face globally. The goals include e.g. eradicating poverty and hunger, improving the climate and human health, and creating more responsible consumption and more responsible production. Reaching the goals is vital if we want our children and grandchildren to have the opportunity for a good future.
Social entrepreneurs, that are trying to create a better world, can find a common language and a detailed description in the SDGs of, what we actually mean, when we are talking about a better world – a sustainable world.
The SDG’s gives social entrepreneurs a possibility to contribute to something bigger in a very concrete way, but it also gives social entrepreneurs a possibility to feel and experience, they are part of a community across sectors and countries, working on the same agenda. Furthermore, the SDG’s can help communicate and share the value of the work that social entrepreneurs create through their actions.
To communicate this value tools like the SDG Impact Assessment Tool can be very useful. It is a free online tool that can help you assess impact of solutions, activities, projects and other initiatives onto the Sustainable Development Goals.
Building on your own knowledge, you can identify opportunities (positive impacts), risks (negative impacts) and knowledge gaps. And at the end of the assessment you will have a better understanding of, how your activities relates to and affects the SDG´s, and in that way you will also be better equipped to prioritize which actions you should take in the future.
In that sense the tool is a learning experience that can provide you with new insight and be the first step towards new strategies to improve sustainability in the actions of your social enterprise.
The tool can be used by anyone who has a project or a solution that they want to assess in regard to the SDG´s.
SDG Impact Assessment Tool consists of five phases:
1. Gather your forces.
You might be able to do the assessment alone, but you might also do a better assessment if you gather a team of people and collaborators to help you. In this way you can have discussions that can inspire and you would have more knowledge of the SDG´s to start with.
2. Define, refine and draw the line.
It is important to agree on what it is you are assessing and where you draw the line of your study object. Don´t take on a larger task, than you can overview.
3. Sort the SDGs.
You do not need to do the assessment from SDG 1 to 17. Sometimes it is a better way to take them in their order of relevance to your assessment. You can eg. sort them according to “Relevant”, “Not relevant” and “I don’t know”. Basically in this step you just need to establish an order of assessment.
4. Assess your impact.
The objective in this step is to formulate one summarized assessment to each SDG.
The assessment in done in order of relevance, and the tool provides a short introduction to each SDG and its targets.
Remember that the SDGs are a global agenda, so you might need to put them in a more local context.
Each SDG is assessed according to the following categories:
Direct positive
Indirect positive
No impact
Direct negative
Indirect negative
More knowledge needed.
For each impact assessment you should provide relevant arguments for which category you choose.
5. Choose your strategy forward.
Based on the results from 1-4, in the final phase you form a strategy on the actions you want to take and which additional partners you would need to involve, or which competencies might need to developed.
You can find a detailed guide on how to use the tool here
SDG Impact Assessment Tool can be used to work more systematic with how the actions of your social enterprise relates to the SDGs and make sure that all the different aspects of sustainability are covered and discussed.
Remember that sustainability is not a static but a constant process so it is a good thing to do the assessment once in a while.
SDG Impact Assessment Tool is developed by Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development, at Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg, in collaboration with SDSN Northern Europe and Mistra Carbon Exit, and with financial support from Region Västra Götaland through the Maritime Cluster of West Sweden.
See more at: https://sdgimpactassessmenttool.org
This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020-1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
Corporate Impact Analysis Tool by UNEP FI
Picture taken from Corporate Impact Measurement tool
Initially Corporate Impact Analysis Tool was developed for banks and investors to gain a cross-cutting view of the impact status and possibilities of their clients and investee companies. Based on the Positive Impact Initiative’s unique approach, it provides a holistic analysis of companies’ impacts across different sectors and countries.
The tool may be used by corporates themselves as a contribution to strategic planning and business development. The tool is intended to help organisations manage their portfolios, set and meet impact targets, and ultimately become more effective at managing impact-related risks and opportunities in close collaboration with their clients and investee companies. It allows to monitor the progress towards the targets of creating positive impact and reducing any harmful consequences as a result of the business activities.
To complete the assessment, collection of significant amounts of data from both internal and external sources should be done. The Stories For Impact team has developed comprehensive Manual explaining on how to use the data in a proposed tool. It guides through the investigation and learning process, that allows organisations to answer 3 significant questions for impact measurement: “Where?” (Identification), “What?” (Assessment) and “How?” (Monitoring).
The first part of the analysis stands for identification of significant impact areas based on company typology, geography and sectors of activity. After entry of the related data, the tool will tell which geographical and impact areas (according to SDGs) the company influences the most, taking into consideration countries of activity, their income level, generated assets, unemployment rates, other social and environmental challenges (based on rankings and statistics), impact areas associations etc.
The second part assesses the company’s impact performance and impact management capabilities, demonstrating the company’s actual impacts in defined impact areas. The precise metrics need to be chosen by yourself, for instance, with the support of the IRIS catalog of metrics. The methodology and applied classifications are based on The Impact Radar (2018) analysis tool.
Based on entered data, Corporate Impact Analysis Tool demonstrates the status of the company according to the worked-out criteria: “PI” (Positive impact), “PI transition” or “Not PI”. The criteria for receiving “PI” status are the following:
- No activities in any exclusion list sectors;
- >50% of revenue generated in low-income countries;
- good impact performance;
- good impact management capabilities;
- >50% of revenue generated in sectors that fall under a recognized taxonomy (e.g. EU taxonomy).
All relations between the social and environmental challenges and the impact company has on their improvement are visualized in Excel spreadsheets, making the analysis as simple and comprehensive as possible.
The Corporate Impact Analysis Tool is open source and freely available – for direct use or for adaptation and integration into proprietary systems.
The Manual: https://storiesforimpact.com/user-manual-of-the-new-corporate-impact-analysis-tool-by-unep-fi/
More about the tool: https://www.unepfi.org/publications/positive-impact-publications/corporate-impact-tool/
This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.
Green Care -based wellbeing services and impact? How to.
Natural Resource Center in Finland has published learning materials and a workbook about modelling and measuring your wellbeing service’s impact. The materials are available in Finnish. The workbook is part of a wider impact program aimed to service providers who provide green care -based wellbeing services.
The materials state that impact modelling, measurement and communication is important, because the methods used in them can be used also in quality work and service development. Measuring impact helps service providers differentiate themselves from competitors, and impact-driven ways of describing services is the way to succeed in results-based contracting.
The workbook is designed so that service providers are able to use the tools directly into their own services. More learning is available through webinars where Saila Tykkyläinen from Vaikuttava Yritys, an experienced impact trainer teaches how to use them.
Materials are part of Natural Resource Center in Finland project HyvinVoikoordinaatio 2018–2021 and is funded by EU.
Find the whole workbook here
. Contents, topics, tools and tips of the workbook include:
- Different levels of impact work
- Mapping of stakeholders
- Service impact communication planning
- Defining the problem and designing the impact goals
- Modelling impact
- Setting measurement practices and planning for data gathering
- Building an impact story.
Picture: Natural Resource Center of Finland
Measuring the Good – Developing Impact Measurement in Finland.
(NOTE: The links from this article refer to pages that are currently only available in Finnish)
Finnish association for social enterprises ARVO has partnered during the recent years partnered with a range of high-profile impact investing and developing partners – such as ME-Säätiö – in an impact measurement development project called Hyvän Mitta (Measure for Good). The project has had an ambitious aim: to develop common tools for impact measurement to be used by the impact ecosystem in Finland.
Measuring Good since 2016
Since 2016, the project has done systematic work on this theme. The results of the development phase 1 are already visible. On top of the 12 case organizations’ impact assessment reports, an outline of the work done and findings of the impact assessments can be found now in the project’s materials.
Phase 2 of the development work is still ongoing. There are new pilot organizations involved, and more defined work done in their impact measurement. As the first phase introduced a new impact modelling tool, the Impact Chain, work is now being done to put this model into action.
Impact Chain – a model for systematic impact work
Impact Chain is a systematic framework for measuring impact. As it defines the society’s NEED and an organizations VISION and GOAL on how to meet this need, takes into account the RESOURCES and ACTIONS of an organization, and goes on the follow up on the RESULTS and IMPACT, all the way back comparing these to the original need – it gives an interesting, comprehensive yet quite simple-to-use basis for impact work.
The tool is described in more detail here, with instructions on where to start with your impact work. For some great tips on how to use the tool, check also this blog post.
From data chains to impact stories
The beauty and potential of this kind of systematic framework, if used as an everyday tool in leading for impact, is the way it may help an organization to streamline their data. As data is gathered from each part of the chain, and organized in a systematic manner, it eventually forms a data chain.
There’s naturally a lot of work behind all this impact modelling and data gathering. But when done in an careful manner, prizes might make them well worth it. Better decisions can be made, based on measured facts, on how to use the organizations resources and what kind of actions to take to make the impact even wider. And not only that. Impact communication – telling your own story of change, the logic of how the impact is achieved – becomes much easier. Data chains can be turned into stories of impact.
Communicating impact
After the good has been measured, it’s time to tell the impact stories. In an engaging and informative way, by using modern media. The latest work package of Hyvän Mitta project, Vaikuttavuusvideo – Impact Video – was launched in June 2019, to do just that. Here, research is done on how and where the Finnish impact producers are communicating their impact. Impact producer’s capabilities to communicate their impact is developed, and piloting will be done on how to – in a most impactful way – communicate social impact on video. A short overview of the project aims can be found in English from the producer’s website, and more info in campaign site vaikuttavuusvideo.fi.
Measuring the Good
In short, measuring the good is all about cooperation, systematic leadership and modelling of impact, gathering relevant data, and eventually telling the impact story. For impact investors, customers, employees, partners and audiences of difference kinds, it’s ultimately about getting to know what kind of social change is really taking place and where.
Keep your hearts and minds open – proven impact coming up!
Ten Reasons Not to Measure Impact—and What to Do Instead
It’s important for every social enterprise – especially the small ones with fewer resources to place their focus on right things. Making impact happen.
10 Reasons Not to Measure Impact – and What to Do Instad provides a thought-provoking ideas and an important learning – the side in impact measurement that’s still very rarely talked about. Why might impact measurement not be the appropriate focus at all times, all situations?
Read carefully, the article provides insight on how to focus on making decisions and actually create a culture of making impact happen – instead of pausing to measure too many or not-relevant things – and not having enough focus on the doing. It also provides practical examples of how this focus can be made more clear – which type of questions to ask and how to make them relevant.
(Illustration by Davor Pavelic, from the original article)
Deloitte Social Investment Leveraging Index in CEE
The new Deloitte Social Investment Leveraging Index (DSILI) developed by Deloitte in partnership with EVPA and GSEN provides arguments on why investing for impact through social investment may yield significant social returns in Central and Eastern Europe. Showcasing the social investment leverage across the four sub-regions in CEE (the Balkans, South Eastern Europe, the Baltics and the Visegrad Countries), this report argues that by investing in one of the countries of this region, one is contributing to the growth and development of an integrated Europe. The report also offers specific steps one can take to actively invest in the region.
News from Finland: New impact management system for social enterprises
Arvoliitto – The association for social enterprises in Finland and Laatukeskus – Excellence Finland – The Finnish Association for Quality have started to develop a new impact management and quality system tailored for social enterprises and other impact organizations.
The new system and it’s tools will enhance also the social procurement practices of municipalities. The aim is that the public sector can make more impact -driven procurement in the future.
”There is a great need for impact management system”, says the CEO of Arvoliitto, Kimmo J. Lipponen. “We need a system with which socially beneficial organizations’ impact can be assessed systematically.”
The future system will help socially beneficial organizations to assess their own operations and to develop it to be even more impactful.
”The plan is to create a 3-step assessment assessment model”, says Lipponen. The criteria will be developed also based on the learnings from Arvoliitto’s previous work in impact assessment projects. 4-6 pilot organizatios will be included in the development work from the start. The aim is to get the system ready for piloting during fall 2018 and spring 2019.
Laatukeskus – Excellence Finland CEO Tani Järvinen is happy about the strategic cooperation with Arvoliitto. The system in development will be built upon the international EFQM leadership model with which Laatukeskus have been working with before.
More information:
Kimmo J. Lipponen, ARVO, p. +358 40 7587 247, www.arvoliitto.fi
Tani Järvinen, Laatukeskus, p.+358 40 844 5767, https://www.laatukeskus.fi/en/laatukeskus/us.html
More information about the EFQM-johtamismallista: www.efqm.org
The original article (in Finnish)
Four types of Impact
As social entrepreneurs we have become quite familiar with the term impact, as it’s the way we bring our mission vision statement to life and create change in society. Across all the different types of organizations and their relevant impact, there are 4 distinct types of impact that can be observed according to the MetaIntegral framework.
The MetaIntegral framework clarifies the 4 types of impact being
- Clear impact
- High impact
- Wide impact
- Deep impact
Clear Impact
“One of the most common forms of impact is Clear Impact, which measures change in stakeholder performance. Many businesses and organizations include various metrics to assess this area of impact (e.g., skill assessments, analytics, observation tools, and various KPIs). What all these metrics have in common is the focus on objective criteria to track behavior and performance.”
High Impact
“The other main form of impact is High Impact, which measures change in stakeholder systems (e.g., supply chains, cash flow, customer engagement) . Many businesses and organizations include various metrics to assess this area of impact (e.g., environmental impact assessments, financial impact assessments, input indicators, and various KPIs). What all these metrics have in common is the focus on interobjective or systemic criteria to track organizational and market dynamics.”
Wide Impact
“Over the last decade it has become more common for organizations to include Wide Impact, which measures change in stakeholder relationships. With forms of network analysis and social mapping there have emerged various metrics to assess this area of impact (e.g., 360 Assessments, relationship mapping, interviews, and social impact assessments). What all these metrics have in common is the focus on intersubjective criteria to track the quality and quantity of relationships and their influence.”
Deep Impact
“Arguably, one of the most important forms of impact is Deep Impact, which measures change in stakeholder experience. There is a growing awareness among many businesses and organizations that this form of impact needs to be included. Various metrics are used to assess this area of impact (e.g., self-evaluations, psychometrics, satisfaction surveys, and happiness inventories). What all these metrics have in common is the focus on subjective criteria to track somatic, emotional, and psychological dimensions of experience.”
Knowing that there are different kinds of impacts and which your organization is most likely to focus on, enables your organization to be clearer on areas to develop with regards to growth practices as well as what measurements are best to use to track your impact in your given area.
For more information on the MetaIntegral framework and its applications, there are Youtube videos available as well as an online course.
Statements in “ “ are direct quotes from the MetaIntegral website as well as the included images.
Finnish Online courses on impact assessment
Want to learn how to develop skills in impact assessment or writing a story about your impact?
Impact assessment online courses are now available in Finnish through online video platform Videokoulutus.fi
There are several courses available for the fall 2018 that help you start your journey:
Vaikutustarinalla vaikuttavuus esiin is all about how to build a story about your impact.
Vaikuttavuuden arviointi haltuun course is giving you tools and framework to work on your impact assessment on a daily basis.
Check for more courses on the Videokoulutus website
Unleashing the Impact of your Social Enterprise
Recent exploration on worldwide known educational platform Coursera has lead to discovery of some valuable resources, which might help social entrepreneurs in defining the social impact of their social and commercial activities. As it is not always clear what to measure, how to measure and how to communicate the impact, there are some video interviews prepared by Copenhagen Business School and available for you.
In these videos you will learn about Social Impact Assessment. Hence you will be able to develop a method to evaluate the social mission that you achieve while implementing your business plan. You will learn how to outline an appropriate communication strategy for your social enterprise and will demonstrate how to market your products and services to beneficiaries and other customers. To accomplish that you will employ an adaptable communication strategy as you move from “early adopters” to a broader market share. Furthermore you will determine growth strategies and how you can scale or replicate your business plan internationally in order to reach a larger number of beneficiaries. In particular you will discuss organic growth, social franchising, and an open source approach. Finally, you will evaluate exit strategies. Thus you will review options social enterprises have when they need to finance their growth, but the original funders can not or do not want to finance the expansion.
This is a Part 3, which follows first two Modules of the course prepared by Kai Hockerts from Copenhagen Business School:
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Identifying Social Entrepreneurship Opportunities
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Social Business Model and Planning for Social Innovation
To get access to the rest of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/social-impact-growth. 7 days trial is available to view the materials.
What is Coursera?
Coursera is a platform for learning, which provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online. Courses include recorded video lectures, auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments, and community discussion forums. When you complete a course, you’ll receive a sharable electronic Course Certificate. Some content is available for free, some require registration and payment. More about coursera can be found on: https://about.coursera.org/.
Why it is relevant?
You can find a lot of valuable things to learn about social entrepreneurship in Coursera, among other topics related to business management, impact assessment, social innovation etc. Explore the topics here: https://www.coursera.org/browse.
Steps towards impact – Tools and examples
We all long for simple tools and examples how to understand the logic of stepping towards social impact. Finnish innovation fund Sitra has for 3 years built a impact investment ecosystem in Finland, and as part of the work, aimed to enhance the service providers’ and municipalities’ capability to work towards more impactful procurement. As the public sector acquires products and services with a yearly sum of approximately 35 billion euros, this competency is more than highly needed.
Recently, Sitra released a publication which provides tools and examples that help develop more impactful investments and investment-ready operations. The first part of the publication brings insight to the Finnish impact investment field in general and presents ideas how service providers can engage their operations with a bigger picture. The second part describes the first impact accelerator, and gives examples of steps towards impact that the accelerator participator organizations have taken.
This case study provides an excellent study for those social enterprises trying to find practical help how to map and communicate their own impact.
Part 1
Impact chain and the impact ecosystem
Impact chain – thinking is widely used in Finland when mapping the social impacts of service providers. The principle is easy to understand and use for demonstrating organisation’s operations and solutions. Internationally, the method is known and “iooi”: input, output, outcome and impact. The model helps understand the elements that impact is built upon, and to see the relations between those elements.
Impact chain -method can be used in two different ways. The first is the impact footprint; starting with the organizations inputs and outputs and assessing their potential impacts to society, we get an organization-based description about the impact. This can be used for example in CSR reporting.
The publication puts more emphasis on the impact handprint, which refers to the goal-oriented impact. The starting point here is the actual pursued impact, which then will defines the other elements; what kind of outcomes do we aim for, and what inputs and outputs shall build these most efficiently? The impact handprint approach is needed for example when projecting future impact and it serves well in impact investment cases.
The publication goes on describing in detail the elements of impact chain, and their relations.
It also introduces an idea of impact ecosystem. As impact is many times built upon inputs, outputs and outcomes from different sources, it’s important to map the different sources and understand the whole picture. One service provider rarely produces all impacts for a certain group of beneficiary or cause alone, but there are many organizations that aim for the same goal, and impact is created together. Usually the service provider is also involved in many different societal change processes at the same time. All this can be described by using the impact ecosystem approach.
Modelling impact
Modelling impact is an important part of goal-oriented impact. There are a number of ways to modelling, as the situations for the model’s use vary. There are however 3 common stages in modelling: 1) modelling societal benefit, 2) modelling impact, and 3) modelling operations (on how benefit and impact are created). One result of careful work of modelling is that it can reveal new sources of competitive advantage for a service provider, and help in developing new and better services for customers.
Modelling societal benefit can for example reveal how much savings can be achived to society through using certain service. Model can be based for example on statistical research and expert evaluations.
Modelling impact is done based on social benefit model. It includes the inputs required for reaching the change goals and an evaluation of investments needed to make those imputs.
Depending on the impact goal, this can be describing systemic change, or it can concentrate on mapping a single intervention. For the service provider, modelling impact will show what kind of inputs are needed to reach goals, and thus helps in developing better services.
A best practice approach to modelling is to always include wider range of experts and evaluators as well as customers in the process.
Modelling operations is the most important step for a service provider. It is a carefully defined presentation on how the service is producing certain results, and so it describes in a detailed way the inputs and outputs of the service. Return on investment (ROI) calculations are often included in this stage.
Again, the publication goes on describing, with examples, the 3 ways of modelling in action. A method of impact tree is also described, as well as ideas given to data gathering and impact indicators.
Communicating impact
Impact communication is definitely a big source of competitive advantage for a social enterprise. Impact information and understanding is appreciated by customers, investors, employees and the public. Four useful tools for communicating impact are
- Company story, including story of change and impact
- Communicative impact chain
- Impact story, describing impact through a person or a case
- Indicator dashboard, and infographic about the impact indicators and their results
Part 2
Sitra Impact Accelerator
Finnish innovation fund Sitra organized 4 impact accelerators in 2015-2017, with 37 service provider participants. Most of the participants were limited companies (social enterprises), also a few service-providing non-profits attended. The aim of the impact accelerator was to support the participants development towards more impactful actors, and create new channels towards investors interested in social impact.
Accelerator was a 2-month intensive training- and mentoring program. Program themes included social impact modelling and measurement, building of results-based business logic and developing investment-readiness, for scaling up the impact business in Finland.
While these pilot accelerators provided useful experience on what type of support is needed in the field, it was also concluded that such impact accelerators should not be the only ones using the impact goal approach. Indeed, as “all operations have an impact”, more traditional business accelerators and investors could learn from these approaches and add impact education in their operations as well.
Steps towards impact
The last part of the publication describes in detail the impact accelerator participant organization’s paths to impact and their impact chains. The 24 cases demonstrate the methods and approaches discussed in this introductory blog, and are an excellent bank of ideas on any social enterprise to start thinking and designing their own approach to modelling impact.
As the original material is at the moment available only in Finnish, it is highly recommended that social enterprise communities in different Baltic region countries gather resources and translate the material to respective languages.
Source:
Heliskoski, J., Humala, H., Kopola, R., Tonteri, A. & Tykkyläinen, S. (2018). Vaikuttavuuden askelmerkit Työkaluja ja esimerkkejä palveluntuottajille. Finnish innovation fund releases 130. (Only available in Finnish)
Helping social ventures scale their impact
This content is delivered to you in the framework of the SEBS2 project co-funded by the Erasmus+, as our aim is to popularize social business and social entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region.
Around the world, millions of children’s needs are not being met. Addressing these needs is a vital part of reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as 56 % of the 169 SDG targets are either directly or indirectly connected to children.
Reach for Change core belief is that human innovation and entrepreneurship are strong and necessary tools for achieving the SDG targets, and are committed to unleashing its power.
Through multi-sector partnerships, Reach for Change finds and scale social innovations, which help children to lead better lives. Their core program is a three-year incubator, specifically designed for early stage social ventures.
Read more how Reach for Change helps social ventures scale their impact here:
https://reachforchange.org/en/impact/helping-social-ventures-scale
Eestikeelne ühiskondliku mõju hindamise käsiraamat
Sotsiaalsete Ettevõtete Võrgustik andis välja ühiskondliku mõju hindamise käsiraamatu nii eesti (LINK siin) kui inglise keeles (LINK siin). Õppematerjaliks sobiva raamatu autoriks on Jaan Aps, kes lisaks SEV-i juhatuse esimehe rollile on võrgustiku meeskonnas ka mõju kaardistamise lahenduste suuna eestvedaja.
Iga sotsiaalse ettevõtte või mõne teist tüüpi ühiskondliku eesmärgiga organisatsiooni olemasoluks on ainult üks õigustus: luua positiivset muutust, mis teisiti aset ei leiaks. Seega lasub neil ettevõtetel vastutus selle eest, et muutused oleksid võimalikult laia kõlapinnaga ja süvitsi minevad. Vastasel juhul lõikaksid sihtrühma liikmed tunduvalt suuremat kasu mõne teise organisatsiooni tegevusest.
Kuigi sotsiaalsetele ettevõtetele on kättesaadavad täiesti adekvaatsed süsteemid oma finantsolukorra ja personali voolavuse analüüsimiseks, on oma mõju määratlemine ja kaardistamine paljude jaoks paras katsumus. Sellel on muidugi mitmeid põhjusi – ebamääraste eesmärkide seadmine ja piiratud ressursid on ainult jäämäe tipp.
„Kui Sotsiaalsete Ettevõtete Võrgustik 2012. aastal Eestis ametlikult loodi, olin selle asutajate seas ja mõtisklesin, kuidas pakkuda võrgustiku liikmetele sobivat mõju kaardistamise viisi – tegemist on ju ühe meie olulisema tegevussuunaga. Praeguseks oleme välja arendanud lahenduse, mis on Eesti sotsiaalse eesmärgi nimel tegutsevate ettevõtete seas mõju kaardistamise standardina juba üldist tunnustamist leidnud, kuigi see ei ole ainuke omataoline,“ selgitab Jaan Aps ühiskondliku mõju hindamise vajalikkust.
Õppematerjal on mõeldud neile asjaosalistele, kellel on vaja arendada oma ühiskondliku mõju analüüsimisega seotud oskusi. Loodetavasti on õppematerjalist kasu ka vastavaid kursusi (sh sotsiaalse ettevõtluse teemal) pidavatele õppejõududele ja neis osalevatele üliõpilastele, samuti neile, kes juba praegu osalevad muutuste loomisel kohalikul tasandil ja soovivad oma lähenemisviisi välja kujundada või seda täiustada.
Standardlahendust on järele proovinud paljud Eesti Sotsiaalsete Ettevõtete Võrgustiku liikmed (seda loeme mitteametlikuks liikmelisuse kriteeriumiks). Selle kasuks on otsustanud ka mõned teiste katusorganisatsioonide lipu all tegutsevad ühiskondliku eesmärgiga organisatsioonid (nt Eesti Lasterikaste Perede Liit).
Raamatu valmimist toetas Erasmus+ projekti „Social entrepreneurship development in Baltic Sea region“ („Sotsiaalse ettevõtluse areng Läänemere regioonis“) raames.
Selected impact analysis resources in English
Hereby please find some of the greatest hits of impact analysis materials in English. Be inspired and guided!
- “Impact Measurement. An introductory guide for Irish social enterprises and charities on using Logic Models, Theory of Change and Social Return on Investment” by Quality Matters
- “Theory of Change: A Practical Tool for Action, Results and Learning” by Organizational Research Services
- “The Community Builder’s Approach to Theory of Change: A practical guide to theory development” by The Aspen Institute
- “Impact measurement in practice: in-depth case studies” by European Venture Philanthropy Association
- “A Practical Guide to Measuring & Managing Impact” by European Venture Philanthropy Association
- “Measuring Impact: Guidelines for Good Impact Practice” by the Impact
Measurement Working Group (IMWG) of the Social Impact Investment Taskforce
established by the G8, including “Impact Measurement Guidelines in Practice: Five Case Studies“
- “Talking about results” by New Philanthropy Capital
- ““More of an art than a science”: Challenges and solutions in monitoring and evaluating advocacy” by INTRAC
- “How to Measure and Report Social Impact: A Guide for investees” by The Social Investment Business Group
- “Measuring well-being” by NEF
Impact analysis resources in national languages
While most of impact analysis materials are still available only in English, there are luckily more and more materials also in national languages of the Baltic Sea Region countries.
Please find selected materials in Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Lithuanian and Polish.
DENMARK
1. The Danish Ministry of Education´s guide on how to create a Theory of Change – link is here.
2. Example of the SROI report by Gallo Crisis Counseling in 2014 – link is here.
3. Example of the Impact Analysis Report by The Specialist People Foundation in 2013 – link is here.
ESTONIA
1. Social impact analysis handbook for civil society organisations – link is here.
2. Outcome and impact reports of Estonian social enterprises – link is here.
3. A video about social impact analysis for the municipalities that cooperate with social enterprises and other civil society organisations – link is here.
FINLAND
1. A report by the ESR project “Third Source” (2013) investigates a wide range of impact
measurement methodologies and also includes a wide range of links to databases, indicator banks, publications etc. – link is here.
2. Jelli – A compilation site that introduces helpful tools and links to impact measurement methodologies – link is here.
3. A handbook of social accounting – link is here.
4. Sofie method – a Finnish impact measurement system combining Social Accounting and SROI methodologies – link is here.
LITHUANIA
1. General methodology of state impact assessment system, including social impact, which provides the baseline for impact assessment of state funded projects and strategies – link is here.
2. Methodological support for impact assessment provided by the Association of Public
Private partnerships – link is here.
POLAND
1. eRPES – IT tool for the evaluation and benchmarking of social economy entities in five
dimensions: economic efficiency, cooperation, resources and organizational competence and social utility – link is here. A presentation about the tool can be found here.
2. ProveIt.pl – a tool for measuring various aspects of social economy entities, including the impact of socio-economic, human and social capital (including the contribution of volunteers) – links are here and here.
3. Esometr – a tool for verifying the extent to which social economy entities meet the targets that are placed before them (social and professional integration, social capital, local community)
– links are here and here.
