A new Working Paper by the TSI team at Business University of Vienna in Austria explores how existing SROI (Social Return on Investment) analyses can be applied to the assessment of impact indicators proposed by the TSI Impact group. This five dimensions are (1) well-being and quality of life, (2) innovation, (3) civic engagement, empowerment, advocacy and community building and (4) economic as well as (5) human resource impacts.

The paper analyses if these dimensions and related fields of indicators can be found in SROI-analysis and inform about concrete indicators and proxies used.  14 selected SROIs will be presented in order to inform about their aims, field of interest and evaluation results. The analysis documents results regarding indicators and proxies used that fit the TSI consensus-indicators agreed on by the TSI impact group, taking into account stakeholder feedback on these indicator in all TSI countries.

Using SROI may be helpful to get closer to the testing of indicators and serve as a basis for further recommendations aiming at improving practices of impact measurement by showing blind spots. The paper makes some recommendations for the improvement of indicators to better grasp multi-facetted aspects of impact

The Methodological Guideline for Impact Assessment introduced the state of the art of impact measurement. This framework will serve as a basis for further improvement of the use of indicators by SROI studies.

If you have questions or comments you can share them on our consultation pages or contact Ruth Simsa at Ruth.Simsa@wu.ac.at.