Measuring Social Good - What WE Get For YOUR Money
Once upon a time we could give money to a program because of the social good it did. We knew that it was "obviously better" to ask service users what they experienced, so within reason, it didn't matter how much it cost to do this.Times have changed.
Money is a lot tighter - we're in an Age of Austerity (I won't say Era of Austerity because I hope it will be over soon). Before you give money, you probably want to know "what will society see to the good?". Before a charity gives money or a public authority spends money, they want to know "what will society get back?". 
Suddenly it's very important to measure and report what society will get, for your money.
There are lots of different ways to measure this. Some can be done by the organization that provides the service, so you have to ask "are they realistic, truthful, authentic?". Some require an external verification. Some tell a story, some describe the benefits, and some even put a value on the benefits. Some report on the whole organization, and some report on a single program or service provided by the organization.
Which is best? and how do you choose, either as the organization promoting your service, or as the funder deciding where to give your money?
A good place to start is to look at an article that compares most of the different methods currently recognized. And you may not have any choice in what you use - if, for example, you need to know what the environmental impact will be (say you are requesting money from the European Union funds) then you need to get a report in the official format e.g. Environmental Impact Assessment - EIA).
Other times, you want to say what will happen to the money you invest (yes you know it will go to the project, but what will happen to it then? so you can use Local Multiplier 3 - LM3. You might want to know how socially active an organization is, and a useful tool is the Social Auditing e.g. SAN. Or you might want to know specifically what the return on investment is of one program, and really focus on what you get back for your money - how much doesn't have to be spent somewhere completely different (on hospitals, or policing for example) because this program changes people's lives - a suitable method is Social Return on Investment – SROI.
Continued on the next page
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