valuing social value toolkit a decision support tool for organisations thinking about social...

Valuing Social Value Toolkit

A decision support tool for organisations thinking about social measurement

approachesBeta Version

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Introduction to Beta Version

• This version has a limited circulation. Please do not forward or cite.

• Assumed structure of resource; this powerpoint with zipped data file. Access to resources beyond those would require being connected.

• No resources or internal linked on this version. Seeking sign-off of final few case studies.

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Feedback from Beta Version• All feedback will be welcome although we know

the design and functionality require work and we are particularly interested in your views on:– Pitch and tone – What might we leave out/ include?– How could it be more useful?

• Please use slide numbers for ease of reference • Feedback to [email protected]• Thanks very much.

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mailto:[email protected]

Contents summary

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Where you are... Section ...

I’m starting out, and not certain about all this.

Why do it? - Why do you want to do this? - What conversations might be helpful? - What are the priorities for your organisation? - What do you already do?

I know what I need but not I’m not clear how to get it.

What tools?-What are the options?-Thinking about costs and benefits-Thinking about costs- Thinking about benefits

I know what I’m doing and just need to check my thinking

Which tools? - Making a decision- Testing your decision- A checklist

Contents detail

• [DN - insert slide matching headings to contents; a ‘site map’ of the powerpoint + resources]

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Introduction

• This section introduces the toolkit and outlines where it came from.– About this tool kit– VSV Project– Acknowledgments

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About this tool kit 1/2

Aim: To help you make better informed decisions about how to measure your organisation’s social impact.

Limitations: We know its not perfect. If you can further develop this work please do so. The copyright is designed to enable this. [DN - link to copyright doc: Disclaimer to be inserted]

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About this tool kit 2/2

• This is an area that is littered with technical language which sometimes, for some people, means very particular things meanings.

• Two things seem important:– Not to get lost in other peoples languages– Seek to ensure that your own language helps create

shared meaning and understanding

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VSV project• The toolkit has been produced through the ‘Valuing

Social Values’ project, a partnership between: – Co-Ops North East – NESEP – Pentagon Partnership – VONNEWith Newcastle University Business School.

• [DN - links to resources section: project and partners]

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Acknowledgements

• As well as VSV partners and University colleagues we would like to thank…

• All those that have allowed us to capture their expertise and learning as case studies

• Participants in seminars, presentations and less formal discussions throughout the year

• The many critical friends that have, almost always in the nicest possible way, given us a hard time and thereby helped hugely.

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Why do it? Section 1

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Why do it?

• This section outlines a process for clarifying your organisation’s starting points. – Why do you want to do this?– What conversations might be useful?– What are the priorities for your organisation?– What do you already do?– In summary

Which Tool?Why do it? What Tools? Back to Intro Resources12

Why do you want to do this 1/3?

Monitoring and evaluation has been identified as having these purposes:

• The communication role• Ensuring accountability and transparency• The performance management role• The wider learning role• The policy role (‘Accountability and learning: developing monitoring and

evaluation in the third sector.’ Ellis with Gregory for CES, 2009)

Back to Why do it? Back to Intro ResourcesNext Slide in Section 13

Why do you want to do this 2/3?This project is more focused. It addresses three needs of most organisations:

• Organisational development. Eg improving the quality of experience for service users, employees and volunteers

• Evidencing delivery. Eg meeting funders requirements• Regulatory compliance. Eg demonstrating public

benefit to the Charity Commission


Why do you want to do this 3/3?But the key question is: ‘why do you want to do this?’

• If you are clear and confident about your reasons for choosing a particular social value technique and these are shared across the organisation please follow the link to What tools?

• If not, the rest of this section provides some resources to help you have some effective conversations. Although this work could be done by an individual, working with people from across your organisation will help develop ownership of the process and so lead to a better outcome.

Back to Why do it? Back to Intro ResourcesInitial Slide in Section 15

What conversations might be useful? 1/2

Programme operational

We work from project to project but don’t share resources across them

Organisational strategic

We want to understand and communicate the effects of our work

Project sustainability

We look at a funding opportunity and know we can do it, but cannot prove it.

Organisational governance

We need better information to make better decisions


What conversations might be useful? 2/2

• The scenarios are designed to help you have a conversation about your organisation and what it needs from any tool.

• Given the diversity of the VCS it is highly likely that the scenarios will not accurately reflect the unique position and activity of your particular organisation; please adapt, adopt and dismiss as relevant.


What are the priorities for your organisation? 1/3

• If there are many reasons for doing this work, there may be many different tools which might be relevant. If so it is necessary to prioritise your reasons.

• This exercise is best done by a group of people drawn from across the organisation. It develops shared understanding and ownership, which leads to a better outcome.



• Record on individual post-its short statements that express the precise job(s) you need to do.

• Categorise by importance as:1. Must have 2. Could do with 3. Would add value

• And by urgency as: 1. Now2. Sooner3. Later



Reproduce the grid below on a flipchart or whiteboard. Place each statement on the grid. Your priorities flow from the top

right hand corner to the bottom left.

Urgency1

2

3

3 2 1 Importance


This framework can be used to summarise the information that your organisation currently gathers or generates.

Information gathered

Main purpose for which information is gathered

Opportunities to ‘reuse’ the information

How reliable/ robust is the information?

On a daily basis...

On a weekly basis...

On a monthly basis...

On a quarterly basis...

On an annual basis..

What do you already do? 1/2

21Back to Why do it? Back to Intro ResourcesNext Slide in Section

What do you already do? 2/2

• Most of this work is ‘back office’ , as such it we need to minimise the time/resource and maximise the learning. You might consider adopting the COUNT principle: that is

Count Once Use Numerous Times• There is another side to this: if you don’t use

information, why do you collect or generate it? Make it count!

22Back to Why do it? Back to Intro ResourcesInitial Slide in Section

Section 1 in Summary

Be clear about: • Why are you (thinking about) doing this work? • What job(s) do you want done?• What are your priorities? • What are you doing already?• [DN - P&I includes decision tool which uses categorisation of

impact, strategy and quality; if this assessment was integrated into the prioritisation exercise might be useful reference. How to integrate is dependent on discussion with NEF]

Back to Why do it? Back to Intro ResourcesOnto What Tools 23

What tools? Section 2

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What tools?• This section outlines sources of information

about different approaches. We suggest thinking about the costs and benefits of each of them. – What are the options?– Thinking about costs and benefits – Thinking about costs – Thinking about benefits– In Summary


What are the options 1/4?

• The VSV project started with NEF’s ‘Prove and Improve’ toolkit. It outlines 20 methods and a process for organisations to develop their own frameworks. [dn – insert links]

• However it is not possible to produce a comprehensive list

Back to What tools? Back to Intro ResourcesNext Slide in Section 26

What are the options 2/4?• Bespoke tools are constantly being developed.

These include: • the particular requirements of a specific funder; central

or local government, foundation or investor. • accreditation frameworks developed by national

federal organisations • addressing a particular need such as community

buildings, volunteering.


What are the options 3/4?• In the absence of a comprehensive list the

following seem relevant sources of information. What are these people doing about this issue? What processes are they using or recommending?

• Peers; personally and organisationally, your partners, collaborators and competitors.

• Funders ; past, current and potential. • Intermediary organisations ; local, regional and national

infrastructure and development organisations in the VCS, public and private sectors.

28Back to What tools? Back to Intro ResourcesNext Slide in Section

What are the options 4/4?

• These starting points may also help in a world of imperfect knowledge:

• [DN link to resources ++ Content a function of on/offline versions; and nef]

29Back to What tools? Back to Intro ResourcesInitial slide in Section

Thinking about costs and benefits • Core questions that need to be answered:

– Will this tool do the job? [DN click thru to S1 slide]– How much will it cost? – What are the benefits?

• Please note we are not suggesting a formal ‘cost/benefit analysis’ rather that thinking about the costs and benefits will help to decide if the work is worth doing and to identify the resources needed.


• There are some costs involved in doing any of this work. Perhaps most significantly, people’s time including:– Getting agreement and buy-in, across the organisation. – Gathering or generating relevant information/data.

• Evidence from case studies suggest that the on-going demands on time were less about using the tools (which reduces as people become more familiar with them) and more about using the information and learning from the tools to help the organisation develop.

Thinking about costs 1/2


• There are some costs that are specific to a particular tool. These might include:

• Securing permission to use the tool • Some tools require specific capabilities

and/or competencies• External validation.

• Some of these costs are ‘one-offs’ : some are ongoing.

Thinking about costs 2/2

Back to What tools? Back to Intro ResourcesInitial Slide in Section 32

Thinking about benefits 1/2• What are the benefits you anticipate?

• Your priority and additional reasons for doing this work [DN- link?]

• The benefits that others – the developers, owners and those who have used the tool - identify.

• Other organisational needs that could be addressed by using this particular approach.

• Opportunities for establishing and developing relationships through using this particular approach.

33Back to What tools? Back to Intro ResourcesNext Slide in Section

Thinking about benefits 2/2

• For each anticipated benefits, the following questions may be useful:• Is there a good basis for concluding that this

benefit can be delivered by this tool? • What might get in the way of realising this benefit:

and how can that be addressed?• How would you know if this benefit is realised?

Back to What tools? Back to Intro ResourcesInitial Slide in Section 34

Section 2 in summary

• Its useful to be clear about:– What you know, and don’t know, about the

different tools– Whether the work is worth doing:

• The costs of using the approach and responding to the conclusions

• The benefits of doing so.

35Back to What tools? Back to Intro ResourcesOnto Which Tools

Which tools? Section 3

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Which tool(s) will be best for your purposes?

• This section suggests an approach to making and testing your decision and preparing for the next steps. – Making a decision– Testing your decision– A checklist


Making a Decision 1/2• Having worked through sections 1 and 2 the

‘fit’ between the tools that are available and, your needs and priorities will be clear.

• However it may be that :– There is nothing available that starts to do the

job(s) you have. If so, you may need to develop your own approach [DN link to PCP case study/P&I]

Back to Which Tool? Back to Intro ResourcesNext Slide in Section 38

– There are two (or more) tools that partially address your priorities. Several case studies [link] illustrate how different tools can interrelate.

• If this is not the case, please contact us [click thru to feedback] as we would like to include your experience in a future version of this decision support tool.

Making a Decision 2/2

Back to Which Tool? Back to Intro ResourcesInitial Slide in Section 39

Testing your decision 1/2• Three approaches, which individually or together, can

increase your confidence in your decision: – Revisit

• why you want to do this work [DN Section 1 Summary] • what not to do [DN click thru] • Ask yourself: what happens if we don’t do this?

– Use a critical friend. Ask someone who understands your organisation and its context to listen to an explanation of why this work should be done and ask the most awkward questions they can think of.

Back to Which Tool? Back to Intro ResourcesNext Slide in Section 40

Testing your Decision 2/2

– Do a SWOT analysis Strengths; what are the internal reasons for doing this work

Weaknesses; what are the internal reasons for not doing this work?

Opportunities; are there opportunities beyond the organisation that this work allows or supports?

Threats; are there threats from outside the organisation that this work risks?

Back to Which Tool? Back to Intro ResourcesInitial Slide in Section 41

Next steps - a checklist• Have you got...

– A plan; who will do what by when?– Resources; people with the skills and the time to see the work

through; and a commitment to consider the learning available from the process?

– Support ; understanding and engagement across the organisation and with other significant stakeholders?

• Could you ...– Work smarter rather than harder? For example, use resources

to do two jobs.– Work with others to share resources and develop

relationships?

Back to Which Tool? Back to Intro Resources42

Resources

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Resources

• Case studies• Scenarios• Prove and Improve • Individual tools • Further resources

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Case studies

PQASSO VodaVODA

Excellence model Groundwork NE

ISO 9000 NECA

SROI Crisis

IiP Chester-le-Street Mind

LM3 tbc

SAA Community Campus

Balanced scorecard Ousburn Trust

Impact framework PCP

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DN - on case studies

• Additional materials available for some cases.• CESPI [JB?]• ‘Prove & Improve’ includes a process for developing your own

impact map. One of the case studies is from PCP, an organisation that took this approach. [http://www.proveandimprove.org/new/myimp/index.php]

• We could not identify any use of the IVR’s ‘Volunteer Impact Assessment Toolkit’ within the North East. Voluntarism is however a central feature of the sector. IiV has therefore been included although it is not in ‘Prove & Improve’. [comment re relationship btwn IiV and IiP]

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Scenarios

• Responding to a Request for Quotation• Informing the management committee• Devising a strategic plan• Producing an annual report

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Prove and Improve

• [DN content function of final agreement (+ keeping file size managable). Ideally include, rather than signpost:– Table and dart board decision makers– Summary doc on click thru?]

• www.proveandimprove.org• Acknowledgement to NEF • Click thru to Creative Commons

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Individual tools

• Links to sites for individual tools• [DN only those in P&I? All in P&I or only case

studies? And/or other tools eg social capital. In which case, how to demarcate?]

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Further resources

• Annotated bibliograpy focusing on: – NE and – grey literature.

• Regional contacts and networks:– SROI, SAA, Northern Excellence, Social Capital

• VSV Project documents– Partner information – Project report– Creative commons copyright

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valuing social value toolkit a decision support tool for organisations thinking about social...

Documents

slide numbers

checklist slide

slide matching headings

resources section

vsv partners

valuing social values

decision support tool

powerpoint resources