News

SROI Exchange 30 May

New Reports from Northern Ireland posted in Case Studies

FAQ's

1. Doesn't  "Performance Measurement" leads to more bureaucracy, paperwork and is therefore not supporting practice.

That depends. If you start measuring all kind of outputs (not, or just partial related to your organizations' mission), you may end up with a lot of useless information. Many performance measurement- and management information systems tend to collect a lot of information that only tells you about processes and outputs. SROI want to measure and manage your impacts. Therefore it is crucial to know your stakeholders, their intended impacts and about the indicators that tell you about the progress on these indicators.

2. Is it ethical to put a money-value on social change?

We consider monetized values as a ways to make the values of social change visible and ready for discussion. Money-values are not considered as a trade market where we seek to choose for the best financial option.

3. Is SROI expensive? Is it difficult; do I need a consultant?

If you decide to start with SROI you can start with the basic version. That's no rocket science. The more sophisticated your SROI-research needs to be, the more costly it can get. But starting and developing does not require an outside consultant. Of course we can provide support and training.

4. We have already many "quality-systems" in our organizations; how can SROI fit in?

SROI fits in existing tools and methods like Balanced Scorecard, AA1000, EFQM, Social Auditing, Social Accounting, etc. In fact, we consider SROI to be an extra extension of these methods. SROI is using a lot of material of these methodologies, and adds some unique components like indicators, monetization, attribution, deadweight, sensitivity-analysis, etc.
Furthermore, SROI can be used as a practical management-tool and/or investment-decision-tool. SROI aims to show concrete social results.

5. What is the difference between Cost-Benefit-Analyses and SROI?

Cost-benefit-analysis uses partly the same business-accounting principles, like Discounted Cash flows, discount rates and monetization. However, CBA doesn't use other methods, like stakeholder analysis, which SROI does include. In fact, SROI is a combination of existing methods.
SROI is both an investment tool (as CBA) and a management-tool, which can be implemented in your regular reporting systems.

6. Does it take a long time to do an SROI-analysis?

Well, that depends. If you implement SROI in your management-system, we hope it will be there for a long time! But doing your first analysis will definitely take you a about 10 days of study, research and analysis.

7. Social work is very much inspired by idealism, drive, motivation, etc. Isn't it unfair to calculate this back in a rational form to just a number?

Yes, you are right: social ventures and CSR needs more than just calculations. But how much these enterprises are built on idealism and motivation, you will need to prove your value added in a comparable and quantative way. SROI is not meant to reduce your motivation: it is there to support it!

8. Can I see an example or case-study how to do it? Where can I get more information?

Check our links, or read the book on Social Return on Investment, published in October 2006. Or ask your country-contact person. SROI is not a patented but open-sourced and the members of ESROIN are willing to share their information with you.
Also check the links to relevant websites at our link-page and country-pages.

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