November 2017

The co-ops What behind is the the best British way to brands...
prove your social impact?
Everyone wants to know that they are making a
difference. But that doesn’t mean that everyone should
spend their time measuring and reporting on it.
So what is the best way to prove your social impact?
It is a complex global company, but Shell plc
publishes a 70-page sustainability report alongside
a 228-page annual report. Along with that comes a
56-page strategic report. Taken together, that is more
than Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, published
new every year.
The Blockley Village Shop and Café in
Gloucestershire has a very short annual report with
financial figures for members. For most, if they want
to know how it is doing, they can see when they drop
by for their shopping or coffee. It was set up in 2008
when villagers learned that their last remaining shop
and Post Office was about to close. The difference that
it makes is visible – there is a local shop and facility and
it is actively used.
The difference between the two is not simply that of
scale, but it is also that of the needs of the audience. With
Shell, much of the information is down to regulatory
requirements, so that people who are distant to the
company, such as investors, can reach an informed
view. With Blockley Village Shop, the people who need
to know are members and users of the business, so they
have a more informed view to start with.
So the starting point for measuring social impact
is an understanding of what your audience needs.
Start with your members. A good co-op works on
a good flow of information, allowing members to
engage in the life of the business. What is it that they
need to know?
If there are funders or other investors, again, what is it
that they need to know? It turns out, by the way, that when
it comes to research that funders are among the least
critical of stakeholders in a social venture – they seem to
want to believe that their money has made a difference.
If the purpose of measuring is genuinely to learn, then
it is best to focus on where the organisation most needs
to learn in order to improve, rather than picking a
box that funders can be told they then can tick.
There are a number of tools that come in and out
of fashion when it comes to measuring social impact.
I was responsible in the late 1990s for bringing one
technique to the UK, Social Return on Investment
(SROI). A recent survey cited this as the best known
social impact tool and the strength of it is a rigorous
focus on specifying what impact you are trying to make.
But to be honest, it hasn’t developed in the way that
I had hoped. Rather than an easy to use approach, with
simple benchmarks to draw down for comparison,
it has become a tool sold by consultants with their
time a necessary expense in its completion and
results subject to what one commentator has called
‘SROI inflation’ over time.
The same survey suggested that only 2% of social
ventures find impact measurement easy. Turning
to consultants is understandable, but it is better to
keep it simple and do it in-house – using external
benchmarks where these can help to make sense
of the numbers you produce.
There can be also a benefit for larger enterprises
in having an external auditor, to keep a degree
of objectivity and act as a source of independent
assurance. But if there is a rigorous challenge and
stakeholder input in the process, that can do much
of the same. What difference does Shell make? Or
Blockley Village Shop?
There is an argument that village shops keep house
prices in a village higher because people want to live
there. That would be an impressive impact if true, but
I suspect there is little benefit in bringing in estate
agents to argue over the counterfactuals.
In a democratic enterprise, members, where they are
active and engaged, will tend to know what is true or
not and the real purpose of impact reporting is simple.
It is to help make that so.
SOCIAL IMPACT
BY ED MAYO
Secretary General of
Co-operatives UK
Read Ed’s five rules
of social impact
reporting in the
free guide:
thenews.coop/extra
44 | NOVEMBER 2017