What gets measured, gets valued...

I read this interesting article online by the London Business School on how small business could measure their impact on the environment, community etc. There were a few practical and helpful things we could do

And the first among these things is to ask yourself the right questions:

Who are the people that matter to my business?

Children, their families and communities they live in matter to my business in being able to be catalysts of change. The other stake holders will be schools, corporates who sponsor these activities and individual donors who like to pledge money for the environment.

How should I prioritise my stake holders?

Prioritising stake holders depends on whose objective is closest to the objective of the business. In this case I would say we are trying to motivate children to develop the same passion and love for the environment as our Organisation has. They will be the primary stake holders in this process.

What output indicators will illustrate how well I achieve my objective?

Output indicators

1. No of schools that have implemented our project
2. No of students participating in the project
3. Quantity of produce per week from the garden.
4. Amount of resources that are successfully recycled and renewed per term in the school.

• Can I measure the social return that results from our impact?

To measure social value creation four important elements need to be measured : input, output, outcomes and impacts.

Input : Time, Seeds, water, manure, gardening equipment , volunteer time

Output: No of plants planted, no of children participating in the schools, No of volunteers recruited

Outcome: Creation of a school garden, children become more aware of environment, children develop business skills, start caring more for the environment

Impact : Spread in awareness of environment sustainability amongst children, Increase in awareness of reducing, recycling and reusing principle

For social entrepreneurs we have to find external stake holders who might be interested in the output our projects deliver and be able to match the stake holders to the output. In this way we are at least sure we are delivering the intended result for our various stake holders. At this point in my venture I could only identify what the outputs and impact of my project would be since I am not sure of who could be potential stake holders.

Here is the link to the file on measuring social impact: http://sroi.london.edu/Measuring-Social-Impact.pdf

Can satisfying all stake holders mean we are delivering the best value we can ? How can we identify or understand that we can do more with our resources?