Why measure social impact?
This week I am keeping the blog post short, sweet and to the point. Not necessarily in any order of priority, here is a reminder of the many reasons to jump in and get measuring your social impact !
- Provide enhanced performance reporting – linking the financial & the social – social impact analysis is a great way of having all the data ‘on one page’ and uniting people from different disciplines/teams in the company
- Demonstrate credibility and ensure people believe that you do what you say you do – key to answering that “Well, so what……?” question
- Motivate and inspire staff and volunteers – people in your organisations are so busy doing the good stuff so sharing the social impact analysis journey and insight with them is a great way to allow them to take a step back to really examine, reflect and celebrate the outcomes of their work
- Facilitate better engagement with your customers and stakeholders – stakeholder engagement is a key principle of many social impact methodologies ……….. we all need ways to begin and continue meaningful conversations
- Improve operational management – who doesn’t want to be better informed at the front facing end of the business!
- Enable the business to monitor that it continues to deliver its original aims & objectives….. and avoid ‘mission drift’
- Contribute to a more powerful marketing & communications plan
- Demonstrate the benefits that investors & funders will get for their investment or donation – providing access to ongoing funding and making your case for new capital and revenue opportunities – demonstrating what ‘bang for their buck’ they get
- Provide insight-led budget setting & business planning activity, especially where difficult decisions are needed about what to resource, how and when
- Allow service user experiences to directly inform and improve services, & for service users to be actively involved in service delivery, if they wish/are able
- Boost your approach to improving and understanding economy, efficiency, and effectiveness – to deliver more real cost savings ………..and if you’re a housing association vital for including in the annual HCA ‘Value for Money’ statement
