05 March 2010

It’s time to stand up and be counted

How much does your organisation actually contribute to society in Northern Ireland?

A new way of measuring the impact of your company, charity or social enterprise has been launched by Gauge, a social enterprise consultancy supporting the NØW Project.

Gauge is the only consultancy in Northern Ireland using Social Return on Investment (SROI), which incorporates a thorough analysis to provide a final monetary value for the work completed by an organisation. Using SROI to measure the impact of NØW’s training and employment programmes for people with learning difficulties and autism revealed that for every £1 invested, £7 of social value was created.

“It’s hugely powerful to be able to go to funders and put a true figure on your impact,” explained Gauge’s Sales and Marketing Manager Martin Mayo.

Developed from cost-benefit analysis and social accounting, SROI uses economic valuation to make visible a far greater range of social, environmental and economic costs and benefits than conventional analyses. In so doing, it provides a fuller picture of the value that is being created or destroyed and enables more informed decision-making about how resources are allocated.

The company was launched in September 2009 and is near completion on its first SROI report with client The Cedar Foundation.
“We decided that we really needed to measure the impact of our Community Inclusion Programmes. These aren't programmes that gets lots of media coverage or huge public interest but we feel they are extremely important projects and we needed to see what effect they are having,” said Kieran Molloy of the Cedar Foundation.

“The process has been really positive for us. It’s helped us to look at all aspects of the projects and what the key outputs are. Because it has involved our staff as well as service users, it’s given us feedback that we simply would not have had,” he added.

When the final report is completed, the Cedar Foundation will share the findings with funders and other key stakeholders in order to underline the impact of work in the community. “I think it’s time to really highlight these programmes and prove how worthwhile they are,” he added.

Gauge offers three different services to customers. A two day impact mapping which helps companies understand their stakeholders; agree objectives and understand the beginning of the SROI process to benefit their organisation. The second produce is a full SROI Report completed by Gauge over approximately 10 days. This undertakes all stages of the SROI process with the end product being an SROI report with narrative and SROI ratio telling the impact of the organisation in monetary terms. The final service is SROI Embedding, which also takes 10 days to complete. In this programme-you and your managers will be trained in the SROI process and how it can be used monthly within your organisation and will be able to record and report on your SROI internally.

“An SROI analysis can be a huge help to any organisation. It defines areas where your organisation is really making a difference and helps you plan for the future so you are making the biggest impact,” Martin Mayo said.”Clear visibility and transparency is there for all, to see the true benefits of investing in your organisation”

For more information on Gauge contact Martin on 028 9090 0069 or go to www.gaugeni.co.uk.