What are the key principles and standards for applying SROI methodology?

At Share At Door Step, measuring SROI starts with stakeholder insights. Our charity partners often track lives touched, beneficiaries supported, and the environmental impact of reused donations. Importantly, some NGOs share how donations save them money, which they can reinvest into essential needs. For example, through NUS students, we delivered books to a library in Cambodia, meeting a critical need without burdening their budget. This allowed the charity to allocate funds elsewhere, maximizing their impact. Stakeholder feedback helps us understand these broader impacts, refining our approach to creating real social value.

Engage with stakeholders—those affected by or involved in the activity—to understand their perspectives and ensure their voices are reflected in the outcomes. Their input will inform which outcomes matter most, fostering inclusive decision-making.

Identify how activities lead to changes for stakeholders. This involves mapping out the cause-and-effect relationships between activities and outcomes, ensuring a clear understanding of the change being driven and its long-term significance.

I have worked with and though about impact for years. From a variety of perspectives too; Director, volunteer, supporter, customer, etc. What I have learned is this. Impact is in the eye of the beholder. Impact value is subjective. Even when objectivity is possible and is applied there is always a level of subjectivity. Thus, impact is in the eye of the beholder. What the person with the money decides is what one should and must work with. These people (and it is individuals, rather than the institutions) may be influenced by supplier impact models, ToC models, etc. But they decide. How do we get the commissioners and others to make a list of the things they want with cash values attached? How do we help to support this process?

Use relevant and well-known standards by sector so that your quantitative ratios are still qualitatively understandable to your audiences. Numbers or not enough on their own, even for investors.

Assign value to outcomes that do not have a market price by using financial proxies. This step helps quantify social and environmental outcomes in monetary terms to better understand the true impact, enabling more informed resource allocation.

Focus on outcomes that are relevant and significant to stakeholders and decision-making. Exclude any information that is irrelevant to the analysis to ensure the results are credible and useful, while maintaining focus on the most impactful factors.

Ensure that the impact being reported can be attributed to your organization or activity. Be careful not to overstate your role in the changes that occurred by considering other contributing factors and acknowledging shared responsibility.

Disclose all assumptions, data sources, calculations, and the rationale behind your analysis. Transparency ensures that the methodology and results can be understood, challenged, and validated, promoting trust and accountability.

SROI is a great tool for quantitatively measuring social impact but it can be complex in its implementation - use it in your business as early as possible. Focus on the social impact(s) most important to you and your stakeholders and verify it with them for credibility and accuracy.

Engage independent reviewers or seek external assurance to confirm the reliability and accuracy of your SROI analysis, ensuring the credibility of your findings for stakeholders and investors. Would you like to add any personal experience or insight into this?