NEWS: Social Return on Investment done right: how we developed a SROI Calculator for carers services for infrastructure charity, Carers Trust
Founder Director, Natasha, presenting the Carers Trust Social Return on Investment Calculator, at the annual carers conference.
Summary
CSC has recently developed a Social Return on Investment Calculator for carers services, commissioned by Carers Trust.
First of its kind, all organisations supporting unpaid carers can use this innovative tool to get a valid and evidence-based SROI ratio, without the costs of doing a lengthy SROI study.
Other infrastructure charities or federation charities may find such a tool beneficial and labour-/cost-saving. Now that we have nailed the methodology, we have the blueprints for developing other SROI calculators in different contexts. And we’re eager to do so - taking everything we’ve learnt to do an even better job second time around. Are you an infrastructure or federation charity? Do the local and regional charities under your banner carry out many similar activities that produce similar outcomes? Consider working with us to develop a calculator that will enable them to capture and communicate their impact with SROI.
Northamptonshire Carers at a social
Charities are constantly having to prove their worth and fight for survival, despite the vital support they provide to vulnerable people and disadvantaged communities and the crucial role they play complementing public services.
Social Return on Investment (SROI) is a fantastic way to help charities convey the immense value of their work. Building on the traditional concept of ‘return on investment’, SROI enables charities to say ‘for every pound (£) invested in our organisation or activity, we generate £5, £10 or however many £s of social value’. This ‘SROI ratio’ captures their vast and multifaceted impact all in one numerical figure.
Carers services’ impact is vast and multifaceted: they generate positive outcomes for unpaid carers, the people they care for, and a local ecosystem of stakeholders who can do their jobs better thanks to the fact that carers services do such an excellent job of supporting unpaid carers. Carers services are therefore a prime example of the type of charity that has a lot to gain from knowing its SROI ratio. SROI ratios are easy to understand (you don’t need to be an expert on carers’ lived experiences to see that, say, 1:10 would be a great return on investment). Plus, expressing social value in monetary terms translates your work into a language that funders/commissioners can easily get on board with, and encourages funders to see the benefits of adding value, not just the benefits of cutting costs.
Whilst having an SROI ratio is a powerful tool for carers services, finding out your SROI runs the risk of being laborious and expensive. SROI studies entail:
consulting stakeholders to ascertain the outcomes they experience;
mapping these outcomes;
attributing monetary value to these outcomes;and
establishing how much of that value can be attributed to your support (vs. the other parties involved).
Only then can the overall impact be determined. The whole process needs a systematic approach, the last stages can get quite mathematical, and if not done thoroughly, many SROI studies do not come across as compelling anyway. Given what carers services - and indeed most charities working with vulnerable people and disadvantaged communities - are up against, the odds are often not stacked in favour of doing an SROI study. And fair enough!
Northamptonshire Carers at a social outing
Carers Trust is a national infrastructure organisation with a mission to support its network of 128 organisations supporting unpaid carers. So that these local and regional UK carers services can access the benefits of SROI without these costs, Carers Trust partnered with us (Civil Society Consulting CIC - a values-led, non-profit making consultancy) to develop a ‘universal’ SROI calculator.
First of its kind, this innovative tool enables all carers organisations supporting unpaid carers to get a valid SROI ratio, without the costs of doing a lengthy SROI study. Any carers services can get an accurate estimate of their SROI by plugging in basic data easily-accessible to them (i.e. how many of which profiles of carer they support, which services/activities they run, and their annual income, etc).
Carers services work in different socio-economic and geographical contexts, serving different demographics, working at different scales, following different organisational models and procedures and offering different services/support. Despite these differences, the calculator was developed so carers services get an equally valid estimate of their SROI. The calculator has built-in flexibility, the user simply needs to fill in their own data and indicate the activities/services their organisation delivers.
The calculator has now been released, alongside a corresponding colour-coded user-friendly manual so that each Carers Trust network partner can use the calculator effectively - and hopefully find the process of doing so rewarding and relatively effort-free. We have also produced a methodology report, which provides a thorough explanation of how the social value has been calculated (book a call and we can share the info). This report exists so that the onus is off the individual organisations to explain the ins-and-outs of how they got their ratio. Plus, their ratio benefits from the credibility of a national Carers Trust study.
From its reception among carers services, we have already started to see just how useful the SROI calculator will be to them. We hope their collective use of the calculator will demonstrate that carers services have a ‘winning model’ - and demonstrate the crucial role that civil society plays in propping up the health and social care system more generally.
Natasha supporting the Carers Trust team to launch the calculator to 62 of its 128 Network Partners, in January 2023.
This was an ambitious project. As far as we know, this is the first attempt at developing an SROI calculator with anything like this level of detail (the calculator incorporates over 180 outcomes!) Now that we have nailed the methodology, and have the blueprint, we’re eager to develop SROI calculators for other federations of charities - taking everything we’ve learnt to do an even better job second time around.
Are you a federation charity, like Mind, CAB, YMCA or Age UK? Or an infrastructure organisation, like Carers Trust? Do the local and regional charities in your network carry out many similar activities that produce similar outcomes? Consider working with us to develop a calculator that will enable them to capture and communicate their impact with SROI. We advocate for SROI calculators not because we love everything that SROI stands for, but because developing an SROI calculator is an investment: it reduces the burden for individual organisations to capture and communicate their social impact.
If you’re interested, book a call with one of our Founding Directors, Natasha. We can give you a demo of the calculator and discuss how we can develop one with you in a cost-effective way.
Watch our director, Natasha, presenting the calculator and our methodology at the Carers Trust annual conference.
