HOW ARE YOU MAKING A MARK?

This document provides guidance on what is required in responding to how your organisation meets Criterion F of the Social Enterprise Mark:

The questions below are designed to help you to think about the social impact that you create, and to articulate this clearly and succinctly. Your responses will be published in the online directory and can also be useful for your own reporting and promotional purposes.

Assessing and Reporting on Your Social Impact

How do you measure and report on the social impact arising from your activities?

Please select one box from the first part of the table below (points 1 – 4) and as many that apply from the second part (points 5 – 9).

  1. We rarely reflect upon our social impact.

  1. We occasionally reflect upon our social impact.

  1. We regularly but mostly informally reflect upon our social impact.

  1. We use internal and/or external, systematic methods of assessing our social impact.

If you have selected option 4 above, please also answer the questions that follow:

  1. We use external agencies and methods when assessing and reporting our social impact and can provide evidence of this on request.

  1. We use a range of key performance indicators that help us measure our social impact and can provide evidence of these on request.

  1. We quantify the financial social value we create (and/or the value of our investment in purely social purposes) and can provide evidence of this on request.

  1. We produce detailed reports on our social impact and can provide evidence of these on request.

  1. We publicise our social impact through sharing reports, PR materials, case-studies and other such material.

  • If you have selected any options from 5 – 9, please use the comments box below to summarise the methods and agencies you employ in assessing and reporting your social impact
  • Is there any person or group in your organisation that has responsibility for reviewing your social impact? If so, please also record who in the box below.
NB: we are asking here for the methods of reviewing and reporting your social impact, not for details on findings/results

Your Social Purpose and Outcomes

In this section, you are asked to describe how you have strived to achieve your social purpose.

  • In doing so you must answer all the questions under Part A below
  • You are also invited to answer the supplementary questions under Part B (this is not mandatory)
  • If you have reports or other material that helps illustrate your social outcomes, you are invited to attach copies of these, but these must not be older than 18 months
  1. Main social purpose and outcomes

You must answer all four questions in bold that follow in the section below.

Each is followed by a list of supporting questions by way of guidance only (answering each of these is not mandatory).

  1. What social differences and changes have you aimed to create (or supported)?

Consider the following:
  • What social interests, issues or needs have you been trying to address?
  • What social improvements have you aimed to promote?
  • What social benefits have you wanted to deliver?
  • What lasting differences/big changes have you strived to influence?

  1. What actions have you taken to address the above social aims?

Consider the following:
  • What services have you provided?
  • What other specific actions have you taken?

  1. What has changed and what benefits have been realised as a result of your actions?

Consider the following:
  • How/in what ways have individuals benefitted?
  • How/in what ways has the community you work in benefitted?
  • How/in what ways have other stakeholders you work with benefitted i.e. people you affect or those that may influence your activities (e.g. other organisations, the public sector)?

  1. How do you and other people know your aims are being achieved? Or how will you know?

Consider the following:
  • Looking back, how do you know you what changes, improvements and benefits have arisen from your activities (e.g. the use of surveys; evaluation activities; other feedback from stakeholders)?
  • Looking forward, how will you know when change has happened and benefits have been realised?
  • In what ways do you or will you report upon the differences you have made (internally and externally)?

  1. Supplementary Details
  • You are not required to but are encouraged to answer as many of the questions that follow.
  • Answering these questions may help you provide a fuller account of your social outcomes and the social value you create – i.e. what differentiates you as a social enterprise.

  1. How many people have benefitted from your actions?

Consider the following:
  • The number of people who have directly accessed a service or activity.
  • The number of people that have gone onto experience or report other specific benefits as a result of your interventions/support (e.g. gone into employment; improved sense of well-being or health benefits).
  • The number of locations and communities you work in.
  • Groups of people that indirectly benefit from your inputs (e.g. families).
  • NB: remember to be clear about the nature of the changes, improvements or benefits that different numbers of people are experiencing.

  1. What examples can you provide of a typical service user experience, that help illustrate the benefits they have experienced as a result of your actions?

  • Please provide up to three examples/case studies of how you have helped people (groups or individuals).
  • NB: Remember to describe the actions you took to support them as well as the benefits they have gone on to realise as a result.

  1. What additional social benefits have you been able to deliver within your core services that distinguish you from other “for shareholder profit” providers?

Consider the following:
  • What additional service outputs do you provide that are unpaid for i.e. they are not covered by contracts or other fees received, and there is no expectation for you to provide them (e.g. additional service user outputs; free or subsidised support actions)?
  • What other unpaid extras to these main services have you provided (e.g. actions that enhance the quality of the service user experience)?
  • What was your actual financial investment in delivering these extras?
  • What other factors can you describe that differentiate your service delivery ethos from that of a “for shareholder profit” provider?

  1. What other social benefits have you contributed that go beyond your core delivery activities (ones that are completely unrelated to your main services)?

Consider the following:
  • Actions such as staff volunteering in the community during their normal paid hours?
  • What other resources have been made freely available for use by the community?
  • Any charitable donations or other community investments/.
  • NB: Remember to note your financial investment in these additional activities.
  • NB: Remember to make a note of what changed and what benefits were realised for individuals, the community, and other stakeholders, as a result of the actions you describe.

  1. What social and environmental benefits have you created from internal operational policies and actions?

Consider the following:
  • Recycling and environmental benefits, energy/carbon reduction usage.
  • Employee benefits (ones that clearly go beyond typical good employment practice).
  • What is your financial investment in these operational policies?