The expected return weighs the anticipated social benefits of an investment against its costs, discounted to today’s value. This expected return can take various forms; examples include Social Return on Investment (SROI), the Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR), and the Economic Rate of Return (ERR). SROI is a principles-based method for reporting on the value relative to resources spent.
The seven SROI principles are:
Start your SROI strategy through the Theory of Change application.
From multiple data sources, our built-in survey or an external survey tool.
From your preferred sources, like IMPLAN and Social Value International.
Easily calculate the Social Return on Investment using our calculator.
Unlike other SROI software, the platform does not just rely on a survey. Impact Cloud's SROI calculator provides integrated - survey and data-collection from different sources, integrated analytics, and reporting.
SROI Impact Cloud can be evaluated in four steps
SROI uses
Remove bias by providing hard figures for comparison. At a more macro level, SROI methodology can help get at how meaningful the work of a particular investor, fund, or enterprise is by examining its economic and other impacts on society.
Word Of Caution
A number of assumptions that go into the calculation of value introduce uncertainty that makes SROI potentially problematic. Some organization feel that SROI is a useful tool to inform priorities and decisions internally but not for external communication about the impact
Ref: The Pulse of Impact Management