A guide to Social Return on Investment

There is increasing recognition that we need better ways to account for the social, economic and environmental value that results from our activities. The language varies – ‘impact’, ‘returns’, ‘benefit’, ‘value’ – but the questions around what sort of difference and how much of a difference we are making are the same. Understanding and managing this broader value is becoming increasingly important for the public and private sectors alike. This is true whether it is civil society organisations working to create value, Governments commissioning and investing in activities to create social value, investors seeking to ensure that their investments will make a difference, or private businesses recognising both risk and opportunity in the wider effects of operations. All this means that it is also more important that we have some consistency and a shared language when we talk about value. SROI is the application of a set of principles within a framework that is designed to help bring about that consistency, whilst at the same time recognising that what is of value will be very different for different people in different situations and cultures. The first edition of this guide, which itself built on the work of three earlier SROI guides1, was prepared as part of a three year programme on measuring social value funded in 2008 by the then ‘Office of the Third Sector’ based in the Cabinet Office of the UK Government. This was delivered by a consortium of organisations: the SROI Network, nef (the new economics foundation), Charities Evaluation Services, the National Council for Voluntary Organsations and New Philanthropy Capital. In addition to this programme, the Scottish Government also supported the development of SROI, including a database of indicators to support SROI analysis. The work of the SROI Network now stretches across many different countries and continents, and this second edition of the guide reflects that interest. We have though decided to use only one currency symbol, for reasons of clarity and consistency, and so have continued to use £. However, readers will be able to find examples in various currencies and translations of the Guide on our website. For more information on the developments of SROI, please refer to the SROI Network website: www.thesroinetwork.org