What is Social Impact Measurement? A Definition

Social impact measurement is a process and framework for measuring and attributing positive social change to an organization’s direct actions. For example, a non-profit community garden and food pantry might measure impact metrics like:

1. Number of meals served
2. How many community members it gives care and shelter to
3. Individual and community well-being from its programs — which could include indicators like health and wellness indicators, housing stability, and job placement, as well as broader trends in local rates of poverty, homelessness, and economic development

There’s a clear relationship between an impact organization’s operations (growing food, collecting and distributing food, existing within and engaging its local community), measurement (# of meals served), and positive social benefit (ex: better health and housing outcomes), defined around a problem statement or theory of change strategy. Social impact measurement understands this relationship between actions, impact, and outcomes through data.

In this sense, social impact measurement is a process or cycle defined by seven steps:

Where's the best place to start?

In our experience, in order to start measuring impact, make sure you understand and map out your organization's goals, as well as the process you'll follow to achieve your desired impact.

The Foundations of Social Impact Measurement

A social impact model uses inputs, resources, and activities to achieve positive impacts and outcomes. Your organization should develop a theory of change or logic model that identifies how you'll create short and long-term positive outcomes for the community or communities your organization serves.

Measuring social impact requires designing an analytics approach where material metrics or KPIs as assigned and tracked at each step in your model. This should include:

The methodology and system you use should be based on your organizational needs, work, and context. But, you have have to design a system from square one. There are established impact measurement frameworks (and systems, like Brightest) that can help you establish the right foundation.

But in a space with many overlapping frameworks, social impact measurement can also feel like acronym soup. There's IRIS, SASB, GRI, UN SDGs, Guidestar, as well as B Lab's B-Corporation framework.

Below we compare each different impact measurement framework, as well as offer some measurement guidelines and recommendations.

Social Impact Measurement Frameworks - A Comparison

For organizations that are newer to social impact, corporate social responsibility (CSR), or environmental social governance (ESG), existing measurement frameworks can be a helpful way to establish program guidelines, measurement strategy, and focus data collection. In most cases, it's best to start with an existing framework that fits your organizations work, goals, and measurement capacity.

B Corporation

The B Corp certification (and measurement framework) is designed for companies looking to make balanced business decisions and investments that weight the impact on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. B Corp's impact framework measures five categories:

1. Governance - corporate structure, control, shareholder rights, shareholder diversity and inclusion (D & I), and distribution of shareholder value to employees
2. Workers - fair and just labor practices, compensation, workplace diversity, employee volunteering, and culture indicators
3. Community - the B Corp's interactions and impact on the broader community
4. Environment - the company's sustainability practices, measurement, and environmental impact and footprint
5. Customers - how customer-centric the company is, how it measures customer success and satisfication, and who the company serves and works with

While there are some larger B Corps like Danone North America, Eileen Fisher, and Patagonia, generally the B Corp framework is a better fit for mission-driven startups and mid-sized companies who care about balancing profit and purpose, yet don't have large, complex ESG reporting infrastructure. Most B Corps typically staff one to three full-time employees in their social impact team or department, which then interfaces cross-organizational with other leaders and stakeholders to implement programs, gather reporting data, and measure impact. At present, B Corp certification and reporting is primarily survey-based.

[Disclaimer: Brightest is in the process of certifying as a B Corp, and also designs and develops software used by other B Corps for social impact operations and measurement. To learn more about the B Corporation Framework, go here.]

IRIS (Impact Reporting and Investment Standards)

IRIS describes itself as a "generally accepted system for measuring, managing, and optimizing impact," primarily based on the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) impact measurement framework.

IRIS+ provides a robust, open-source list of social impact metrics mapped to the UN SDG's, making it a helpful starter resource for non-profits and social enterprises, particularly those engaged in large-scale or international impact work. If you're new to measurement frameworks or looking to adopt a more standards-based approach to measurement, we highly recommend spending some time reading through the IRIS+ resource library and metrics list.

Source: IRIS+

However, one practical challenge with IRIS's measurement and metrics ecosystem is its size and complexity. As of 2019, IRIS suggests 594 different potential social impact metrics in its reference set. In most cases, only a few will apply to your organization, and - just as importantly - it's critically important to start with a manageable set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and build out measurement capacity over time. Start with three to five IRIS metrics as your core impact measurement criteria, then grow and assess from there.

SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board)

SASB has similarities to IRIS and the B Corp Framework, but with more integrated design of financial accounting standards. As a result, SASB applies what some view as a higher level of "rigor" or precision to social impact and sustainability measurement.

Whereas IRIS+ is sector-specific (Climate, Diversity & Inclusion, Health, Water), SASB segments by industry vertical (Consumer Goods, Food & Beverage, Healthcare, etc.), using 77 different standards. And by comparison to B Corp, SASB is more of a large enterprise framework used for corporate governance, shareholder and ESG reporting, and socially responsible investing (SRI) analysis.

If you work at a large corporation, find, download, and familiarize yourself with the SASB standards for your industry - then work with internal and external partners and experts to establish the right measurement and reporting system.

GRI (Global Reporting Initiative)

GRI is based in Amsterdam, and its measurement system, the GRI Standards, is a framework for international sustainability reporting. Similar to SASB, GRI Standards are designed for large global organizations. GRI Standards specifically aim to help support a global common language for non-financial sustainability reporting and disclosures, versus SASB's embrace of more finance-centric social impact reporting.

GRI segments its standards into four categories:

1. Universal

101: Reporting Principles ["Materiality"]

102: General Disclosures

103: Management Approach)

2. Economic

3. Environmental

4. Social

Within GRI's three (3) Universal Standards, GRI asks organizations using its reporting framework to define (and disclose) several foundation aspect of the organization's mission and impact as part of its General Disclosures:

1. Organizational profile - an overview of the organization’s size, geographic location, and activities

2. Impact Strategy - an overview of the organization’s strategy with respect to sustainability and social impact

3. Ethics and Integrity - the organization's defined alues, principles, standards, and norms of behavior

4. Governance - the organization's structure and composition, as well as environmental risk management and policies for evaluating economic, environmental and social performance and decision-making.

5. Stakeholder engagement - the organization’s approach to stakeholder alignment and engagement

6. Reporting practice - the organization’s approach to sustainability reporting and measurement

GRI further segments its reporting system into three categories: (a) Mandatory requriements that an organization must comply with to meet GRI's standards, (b) Recommendations that are encouraged but not required to be GRI compliant, and (c) Guidance, which serve as market context to organizations using GRI Standards to prepare a GRI-compliant sustainability report or benchmark social impact measurement against a specific set of standards.

An example GRI water reporting standard. Source: GRI and GSSB

GRESB

For most non-profits and social impact organizations, GRESB won't be relevant, but can be a helpful sub-measurement framework within larger corporate impact measurement in cases where the company owns, makes, and/or controls meaningful real estate and infrastructure investments.

Choosing the Right Social Impact Framework and Metrics for Your Organization

In almost every case, we recommend starting small (three to five core impact metrics) and identifying the most relevant, existing impact measurement framework to serve as reference inspiration (and benchmarking standards) for your social impact work, ESG, or CSR program. If you're a startup, start with B Corp. If you're a non-profit, start with IRIS+, GRI, or Guidestar. And generally, only turn to custom impact metrics when (a) existing measurement systems clearly don't fit your work and (b) you have high confidence in your data and measurement capacity.

For next steps, you'll need to come up with a plan (and system) for how to collect your social impact data. You're welcome to read our Social Impact Data Collection 101 Guide to help get you started. Once you have a measurement plan, social impact measurement software like Brightest can make your data collection and impact survey process much simpler.

Wherever you are in your social impact measurement journey, we wish you all the best as you continue making (and measuring) your impact. If we can be helpful at all (at any step in your process), please get in touch. A central part of our mission here at Brightest is enabling better data-driven decision-making (and actions) for good.