Point Sopact Sense at your dataset and it proposes one or two financial proxies per outcome — each with a named source, a rationale, and a conservatism note — so no value in your SROI is invented.
In short: A financial proxy is the money value you use to represent an outcome that isn't traded — like the wage gain that stands in for “got a job.” SROI loses credibility the moment a proxy is invented, so each one needs a named source, a rationale, and a conservatism note. Point Sopact Sense at your dataset and ask for one or two proxy options per outcome; it grades each by evidence — green where it's sourced, amber where it's a borrowed benchmark, red where there's no source at all.
A proxy is only as good as the source behind it. Work from your dataset and load your Decision Brief so Sense knows the outcomes and the evidence standard:
You are the Sopact Sense Assistant working over the [DEMO] dataset (clean data + persistent contact IDs). Load my Decision Brief (decision, audience, outcomes, indicators, evidence standard) first, then wait for my task.
Ask for options, not a single number — each with where the value comes from and how conservative it is:
For outcome [OUTCOME] affecting [STAKEHOLDER], propose 1-2 financial proxies (value, named source, rationale, conservatism note). Grade green / amber / red.
Five elements make it defensible: the dataset (real outcomes, not assumptions); proxy options (one or two, so you can choose); a named source and a conservatism note (every value traceable and deliberately cautious); no invented values (anything unsourced is flagged); and the grade (green / amber / red at a glance).
Sense returns proxy options per outcome, each graded by the strength of its source. The demo runs on the SROI Investee dataset, engineered to grade one green, one amber, one red:
Run on the SROI Investee dataset (DEMO 07) already loaded in Sopact Sense.
GRADE: green | Wage gain | proxy from a named labour-market source; amber | Wellbeing | borrowed from a national benchmark, not local; red | Debt reduction | a value with no named source
The green proxy is drawn from a named source, the amber proxy is a benchmark borrowed from elsewhere and applied with a caution, and the red proxy is a number with no source — exactly what gets an SROI rejected.
The proxy set is worth most when you source the weakest one. Take the lowest-graded proxy and fix it with one realistic change:
Take the lowest-graded element above and fix it using only what the program could realistically measure. Show the before → after grade and the single indicator/edit that moves it to green.
For the investee, that's replacing the unsourced debt proxy with a published financial-stress cost figure, cited and applied conservatively — turning red to green.
Generate a decision-first report in your own brand, then a shareable link:
Create a 'missing & incomplete' report from this analysis in Sopact branding [or paste your website URL / brand guideline to apply your own]. List every element graded amber or red, what is missing, and the one input that fixes each. Lead with the decision this report informs.
Create a shareable link for this report and open it in a new tab.
Every proxy needs a source you could cite. If you couldn't point a skeptic to where a value came from, it's not ready. Ask Sense to flag any proxy without a named, checkable source.
When in doubt, go lower. A conservative proxy protects credibility more than a generous one wins attention. Ask Sense to note, for each proxy, why the chosen value is cautious rather than optimistic.
Prefer local over borrowed. A benchmark from another country or sector is better than nothing but weaker than a local figure. Ask Sense which proxies are borrowed and what a closer source would be.
Tighten the set while you're here. Ask Sense which proxy a reviewer is most likely to challenge, and how to firm it up:
Which proxy in this set is a reviewer most likely to challenge, and what named source or conservatism note would make it defensible?
Start from the outcome and ask what money value reasonably represents it, then find a named, published source for that value — government statistics, valuation studies, or established databases. Choose conservatively, note why the value is cautious, and prefer a local source over a borrowed benchmark. The test is whether you could defend each proxy's source to a skeptic.
A financial proxy is a monetary value assigned to an outcome that isn't bought or sold — for example, using the cost of treatment avoided to value improved health, or a wage gain to value employment. It lets non-financial outcomes enter the SROI calculation, but only credibly when the value comes from a named source and is applied conservatively.
Credible proxies come from published, citable sources: official statistics, peer-reviewed valuation studies, established proxy databases (such as the Global Value Exchange), and sector benchmarks. The key is traceability — a proxy you can attribute to a source and defend is sound; a number you estimated yourself with no basis is what undermines an SROI.
Open Sopact Sense, paste your program description, and put it to work.
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