Social Return on Investment- Frameworks & Approaches
Social return on investment (SROI) is a model used to quantify the social and financial benefits and value of a service, programme, policy or organisation to society.
The international SROI Network explains SROI this way:
Most public, private and third sector organisations have a pretty good idea of the costs of what they do. Annual accounts, management accounts, budget reports and a whole accountancy profession add up to a great deal of effort to make sure this is the case.
Some organisations are quite good at counting what they do with these resources. They can track the number of users or contacts, or customers. Many can provide some evidence that these activities lead to some sort of change. But very few can explain clearly why all this matters. What would happen if they did not exist? What is the real value of what they do?
Social Return on Investment sets out to redress the balance by looking at value not just cost.”