Measuring Social Value

As well as being able to demonstrate your social value to funders or potential investors, measuring social value will enable you to measure the effectiveness of your organisation and see not just the difference you make, but HOW MUCH difference and allow you to see where improvements can be made.

This short course is a brief introduction to measuring social value including:

• Valuing changes to individual wellbeing and people’s lived experience from their perspective; and
• Valuing the knock-on effect of these changes in someone’s life to see how this can create savings for the state

We will quickly cover both these areas with examples and exercises, understand the difference between them, and consider how to use them as a powerful combination that tells more of a complete story of your impact and the value you create.

We will show you some short cuts, tips and simple ways to start to calculate the monetary value of outcomes you create.  We also consider the risks of simpler approaches and see what is involved when more credibility is required.

What you’ll learn from this course

• What is social value
• How to engage with stakeholders when measuring social value
• Free sources of valuations
• Basics of Cost Benefit Analysis and Social Return on Investment (SROI)
• Low, Medium and High levels of rigour in measuring social value
• Resources to help you measure social value

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• Calculate the value of a change in an individual’s wellbeing from their perspective; and
• Calculate the potential savings to the state that this may also create
• Do both of these simply, but also understand what is involved if a more in-depth analysis is required
• Have a go with some of your outcomes, exploring sources of valuation
• Identify the appropriate depth of valuation for your project.
• Select the most practical, but rigorous sources of data.

The course has been developed by Tim Goodspeed – founder member of Social Value UK and Social Value International, and one of the authors of the Guide to Social Return on Investment (originally sponsored by the Cabinet Office in the UK).

 What is a social value? 

“Social Value is a broader understanding of value. It moves beyond using money as the main indicator of value, instead putting the emphasis on engaging people to understand the impact of decisions on their lives. The people’s perspective is critical.

Organisations will always create good and bad experiences, but on balance should aim to create a net positive impact in the present and for a sustainable future. They should measure their impacts and use this understanding to make better decisions for people.”

– Social Value UK

Social Impact or Social Value?

The two workshops we run, Measuring Social Impact and Measuring Social Value, follow a generic process we have distilled from some of the most popular methods like Social Cost Benefit Analysis, Social Return on Investment (SROI) and the SDG Impact Standards.

The process includes understanding:

1. Inputs
2. Outputs
3. Outcomes
4. Quantity of outcomes
5. Duration of outcomes
6. Causality of outcomes; and
7. Value of outcomes

2-6 are coved by Measuring Social Impact.  1 and 7 are covered in Measuring Social Value.  Both courses together enable all the stages of an SROI to be completed.  For a quick introduction to valuing outcomes, this course can be taken as a stand-alone.  To understand everything involved in an SROI, we recommend both courses are taken together.

Who should attend

Anyone keen to learn how to measure social value!  No prior knowledge is required.

 Location and price 

All our learning will be taking place in live online sessions until further notice. Joining details will be emailed to you in the run up to the workshop.

• Organisations with a turnover up to £1m – £325
• Organisations with a turnover over £1m – £400

Discounts are available for multiple bookings (see booking form for details).

 Course timings 

The course takes place over two mornings from 9.30am – 12.30pm on both days - November 7th & 8th.