Sinzer Blog

The connection between business and society is a popular topic. The social and environmental issues we face on a global level are becoming so significant that there are plenty of business opportunities in contributing to solving them. This is not only interesting from a risk and reputation management perspective. Sustainability can be a platform for profitable growth while solving wicked social issues.

A business creates value through a combination of strategy, governance, performance and prospects in an external environment. A framework that enables a businesses to bring these elements together – and to communicate the value creation story through the ‘connectivity of information’ - is called Integrated Thinking & Reporting, in short <IR>. At the heart of <IR> is an integrated model, which demonstrates how six capitals – financial, manufactured, human, social and relationship, intellectual and natural – represent all the resources organizations utilize to create value (over time).

In the philanthropic sector, measuring social impact is still perceived as a challenge. The number of projects a social investors funds, combined with their diversity often result in large time and resource investments for both the investor and the investee (or grantee). Many social investors therefore feel they do not have the means to measure more than a few outputs, like the number of participants or workshops, or the total amount of volunteer work. Although this is a good starting point, it only scratches the surface of what the project or program has established, and tells you nothing about the true impact (and value) it has created. Has the target audience really been reached? Have their circumstances been changed? Only by giving a voice to the beneficiaries will you be able to decide if the right investment choices have been made.

Although many organizations are trying to capture social value behind their desk, we believe that “value is in the eye of the stakeholder, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This statement underlines the importance of involving your stakeholders before and during your social impact measurement.

 The full concept of value is not captured when we talk about financial capital alone. Value is a much broader concept including human, intellectual and natural capital.

Up until now, organizations have mostly been accountable for the financial capital they create or destroy. With the growing notion of a wider definition of value however, the “old” way of looking at value no longer suffices. Many organizations are currently working on a new vision of value: social value. At Sinzer we create solutions to measure, report and communicate about social value. And since our pay off is “Value what matters” we would like to share our vision of value with you.