The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently issued a policy brief on Social Impact Measurement for Social Enterprises to better asses the social value and impact produced by their activities.

Social enterprises may be requested to measure their social impact, especially during the process of raising funds. The OECD identified the following key issues and recommendations related to this task:

1. While private service providers – including social enterprises – need to better identify their social impact in order to attract
   private investors, social impact measurement should not be primarily driven by their needs. Rather, it should be an ongoing
   process of dialogue among the different stakeholders involved in the measuring process and interested in its results.
2. Social impact measurement is not currently widespread, even though it is gaining traction. One reason is that social
   enterprises have limited human and financial resources to conduct and use this mechanism.
3. Encouraging experimentation and further analysing developments in social impact measurement and social enterprises
   might contribute to fostering a social impact measurement culture among stakeholders.
4. Proportional measurement is an important concept. Only measure if it contributes to decision-making and if the cost of
   measurement does not outweigh the importance of the decision.

Key author of the policy brief Antonella Noya, Senior Policy Analyst at the local economic and employment development pro-gramme (LEED) of the OECD and TSI Advisory Board member, will present the policy brief at the forthcoming TSI Midterm Seminar in Brussles, 13 October 2015.