Measure program efficacy with the Social Return On Investment (SROI) model

All too often, the role and contribution of human service agencies to the greater good of the individual and community is not understood. SROI measures change in ways relevant to the people or organizations that experience or contribute to it, assigning monetary values to represent social, environmental, and economic outcomes. We are data collectors and can account for the delivery and impact of our services. Can we use this same data to tell a different story, that funding social service agencies is a not only for a good cause but is a good investment as well?

This workshop will identify the key components of SROI and its application for social service agencies. It will introduce participants to an online SROI Calculator where theory is put into practice to demonstrate, orient and educate agencies as to the utility and benefit of monetizing services and outcomes for the benefit of their clients and their communities.

The SROI model has a process of six key steps to be followed when undertaking an SROI analysis:

1. Establish scope and identify key stakeholders. This step relates to establishing clear boundaries about what the SROI analysis will cover, the people that will be involved in the process and the nature of their involvement.
2. Map outcomes. Develop an impact map, or theory of change that demonstrates the links between inputs, outputs and outcomes.
3. Evidence outcomes and value them. This stage relates to finding data that will show whether outcomes have occurred and then giving them a monetary value.
4. Establish impact. Having collected evidence on outcomes and given them a monetary value, this step involves discounting the impact by those aspects of change that would have occurred in any case or resulted from exogenous factors.
5. Calculate the SROI. This step involves adding up all the benefits, subtracting any negatives and comparing the result to the investment made. Test the sensitivity of the ratio.
6. Report, use and embed. Sharing the findings with stakeholders, responding to any questions they may have, embedding good outcomes processes and verifying the SROI report.

Benefits of SROI - Some of the potential outcomes of SROI include:

• Improved performance measurement, program planning and evaluation;
• Allowing organizations to easily demonstrate the social value and impact achieved from activities and programs;
• Facilitating the communication of the social value and impact achieved to internal and external stakeholders;
• Raising an organization's profile, which can improve the case for funding;
• Facilitating the comparison of social value creation across organizations in broadly similar areas or with similar goals (e.g. organizations that seek to train disadvantaged and socially excluded people for employment).

Frederick Richmond is the founder and President of The Center for Applied Management Practices, Inc., (CAMP) with offices in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania and Denver. Since its founding in 1996, CAMP has worked with health and human service organizations in all matters of planning, program development, evaluation and research. He was part of the team that created the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) first in Pennsylvania which expanded to the national program known today and was Pennsylvania’s first Kids Count Director. He is the author of two books; Introduction to Results Oriented Management and Accountability and The Accountable Case Manager and was a member of the team that developed the eLogic Model®, a web based software application used in nonprofit and local government health and human services agencies. He spends his time between residences in Denver and Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

Eligible for four-hour Certificate of Completion (COC)