SROI conference 091207

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SROI conference 7 December 2009

Measuring social return is a 'hot topic'

by Chrisanthi Giotis

"Investors that are already socially minded are not that fussed, the real prize for organisations is unlocking more mainstream investment"

Investors across the world are helping drive interest in measuring social return on investment (SROI), say leading practitioners gathered in London for a two-day conference.

Jed Emerson, one of the first advocates of measuring social impact as a way of moving away from funding based on 'politics, persuasion and perception', was keynote speaker at the first day of the Measuring Social Value Conference on 7th December. He is a partner at the blended value investment company Uhuru Capital Management and pointed to work going on across the world including the US, Europe, Canada and Australia. He said 'new money' coming from the founders of high tech business ventures was 'unencumbered by previous thinking'. Emerson said these people asked how to take a more business-like approach to philanthropy and this led to interest in new ways of measuring social value.

Martin Egberdink, managing director of Social E-Valuator, a social enterprise that is piloting an online tool http://www.socialevaluator.eu/ to help organisations use the SROI methodology, told the conference about the work his organisation does with 24 foundations, social funds and charities across Europe - all of which are exploring the same SROI methodology principles advocated by the UK SROI Network http://www.sroi-uk.org/. He said his organisation was conceived after interest from European venture philanthropists. Among others, Social E-Valuator works with Triodos and PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Netherlands, and the UK's innovation foundation NESTA and the Young Foundation, to help them measure the impact of organisations in which they invest. Egberdink said: 'I've just come back from doing a tour of Europe and SROI is a very hot topic.'

Impetus Trust CEO Daniella Barone Soares said using SROI methodology, which Impetus is now piloting with its investees, 'resonates' with its donors. She said: 'Our donors understand return on investment and to put an s [for 'social'] in front of that makes a lot of sense to them.'

Whitni Thomas, investment manager for venture capital at Triodos UK, said the 'real prize' from the widespread use of SROI was to gain the interest of new investors by making it quicker and easier for them to make investment decisions. She said: 'Investors that are already socially minded are not that fussed, the real prize for organisations is unlocking more mainstream investment.'

Outgoing director general of the Office of the Third Sector, Campbell Robb, said he believed that ways of measuring social impact developed alongside finding new methods of financing social enterprises. He highlighted the work around Social Impact Bonds, where the finance depended on being able to prove organisations were making long-term savings to society, as a case in point. 'New ways of financing different types of social investment seem to go hand in hand with how you measure social impact,' said Robb.

Source: Social Enterprise Livewire, 9 Dec 09

http://www.socialenterpriselive.com