What do I mean by social value?
I have a very particular way of looking at the world. When I do a social value analysis for myself, I want to know how a program impacts everyone involved, whether those people are intended targets of the program or not. Whether those people are geographically proximate to the program or not. All else equal, I generally do not differentiate between the impact on people nearby and those far away (in terms of space or even in terms of time). What I am looking for is the value of the program to the planet. I may also need to calculate the impact on non-human animals. See those elephants above? Yeah, they count for something. That sounds pretty lofty, I know.
Does that mean that a dollar benefit to our target popuation always has the same “value” as a dollar benefit to others who may have been affected by our program? Nope. But we better know who those others are and how they were affected before we claim that we’ve calculated program value.
You may or may not agree with my worldview. That’s OK. We can talk about your worldview (or that of your stakeholders) and determine the best approach for measuring social value for your organization. We’ll figure it out together.
I have a general method that I have developed in order to help you calculate the value of your program. But we’ll adjust my method to suit your needs. And I think you’ll enjoy the process.
And Who Cares?
- Your funders.
- Your program beneficiaries.
- Others who live in and around the neighborhoods where your program operates.
- Your board.
- Your employees.
- You. You’re doing this work because you want to make a difference. So yes, you really want to know if you’re making that difference.