Why social impact reporting tools and social accounting have all been getting in wrong (until now…)
So – that’s quite a grand and likely provocative sweeping statement, and given that I’ve been involved in impact reporting and social accounting(including the development of tool-kits for ‘doing it’ ) for over a decade, might be seen to some as a contradiction to what I’ve always argued as being the benefit of doing it?
For a while now, I’ve noticed a growing interest and ‘appetite’ amongst social enterprises and other organisations I’ve worked with and supported to do some form of impact evaluation – they want to better ‘tell their story’ and understand the what/where/when/why and who they make a difference to. But as the same time, there’s also been a noticeable lack of people actually doing it…And I’m beginning to wonder if the reason for this might be because all the tool-kits and models for impact reporting that have been developed to date have largely an internal focus on the organisation – either based on their ‘type’ (co-operative, social firm, …) or thematic trading activity. And this includes SROI – after all, it asks stakeholders about how they feel the organisation has impacted upon them: another internal focus.And that’s fine, but in a wider context of increasing competition for contracts and customers, doesn’t easily translate into being able to better offer competitive advantage for the time and cost usually entailed in using them (especially for smaller enterprises).And that’s why I’m quite takenwith the latest kid on the block: “LIM” (Local Impact Assessment). It’s taken its starting point as being those broad issues and themes that are most commonly of interest to commissioning bodies when they seek to identify ‘added value’ when awarding contracts (and explains why measuring these issues are also useful in informing internal management decisions); it’s also designed to be able to be easily completed in an afternoon (or morning) and rather than generate a text-heavy report, it produces an attractive ‘infographic’ (great for marketing purposes).
For a while now, I’ve noticed a growing interest and ‘appetite’ amongst social enterprises and other organisations I’ve worked with and supported to do some form of impact evaluation – they want to better ‘tell their story’ and understand the what/where/when/why and who they make a difference to. But as the same time, there’s also been a noticeable lack of people actually doing it…And I’m beginning to wonder if the reason for this might be because all the tool-kits and models for impact reporting that have been developed to date have largely an internal focus on the organisation – either based on their ‘type’ (co-operative, social firm, …) or thematic trading activity. And this includes SROI – after all, it asks stakeholders about how they feel the organisation has impacted upon them: another internal focus.And that’s fine, but in a wider context of increasing competition for contracts and customers, doesn’t easily translate into being able to better offer competitive advantage for the time and cost usually entailed in using them (especially for smaller enterprises).And that’s why I’m quite takenwith the latest kid on the block: “LIM” (Local Impact Assessment). It’s taken its starting point as being those broad issues and themes that are most commonly of interest to commissioning bodies when they seek to identify ‘added value’ when awarding contracts (and explains why measuring these issues are also useful in informing internal management decisions); it’s also designed to be able to be easily completed in an afternoon (or morning) and rather than generate a text-heavy report, it produces an attractive ‘infographic’ (great for marketing purposes).
Given my background in this field, I was also encouraged by how keen the developers of this tool where to make sure they’d ‘got it right’ when they asked if I’d have a good ‘poke around’ and see if there were any parts of it that might be enhanced to create even more benefit to the user.
So – impact reporting still comes in lots of flavours and styles; if you’re doing it, it’s important to make sure you know what you’re hoping to get out of it and what you’re able to commit in terms of time, before you start to choose which standard or tool-kit to adopt.
LIM seems to be filling a gap in what’s available and seems ideally suited to those perhaps smaller enterprises that want to do this type of review/evaluation but would otherwise struggle to justify the time and cost of doing so. So what are you waiting for…?
This is a time and hassle reducing way to pull together all the information you need to demonstrate your local impact. I’ll bet you could be pleasantly suprised at the results!
We were really impressed when we say the tool. It backs up everything we believe will make an organisation more successful.
It gives you a marketing edge by explaining how your organisation supports your local community- really important for your customers and when you are tendering to local councils and big businesses. you can get a lovely visual to use as a poster or attachment to your sales documents.
It’s also simple and practical and gives you a management tool to help you identify any areas where you could improve.
This is an opportunity to be ahead of your competition. We’ve done it for inspire2aspire and it works.
Sarah & Bob Brown, inspire2aspire
“As someone who’s been involved in impact reporting for over a decade, I know the various benefits that organisations gain from doing it, but also the barriers that they face – this tool seems an ideal solution to allowing you to undertake an easy, cheap and quick impact assessment to reveal just how great you really are and the contributions you’re making to your community: both socially and economically. It’s not a magic bullet that will reveal everything about what everyone thinks about you and how they’ve been changed for the better, but its a great starting point – as a benchmarking tool, a way to better prove your worth to customers and commissioning bodies, and as a starting point to develop your reporting in the future.”
Adrian Ashton ( We know he’s been quoted before but we liked this so much!!)
Learn2Learn is a social enterprise based in Nottingham that works with excluded pupils from secondary schools in the area. Their infographic takes 9 things from their Local Impact Measurement Tool Report.
They chose the top 9 indicators from their Report that they believe would be of the most interest to their stakeholders.
Seean Maxwell, Chief Executive, says ” We are very proud of our achievements and my team during the last year. I am delighted that we have our LIM Infographic to show our stakeholders how much we contribute to the local economy and community.”
And so he should be too! With 43% of new staff having been long term unemployed, Learn2Learn is an organisation that lives its ethos.
