As an organization, the social impact you create is equally significant as any other aspect of your business. As the one heading the business, you should be confident of your impact on the various beneficiaries. Just knowing that doesn’t help. You also need to collect real-time data that will help you assess and measure what your CSR project is doing.
How does Measuring Social Impact Help?
First of all, it helps showcase your work for more effective marketing, as recommended by experts in most social impact consulting firms in India.
Measuring social impact can help you attract funding by aligning your measurements with your organization's strategies.
Assessing and measuring social impact can help you understand your constantly changing audience. This can also show you where you can make changes or adjustments to show that you can create a stronger result for your beneficiaries.
Who to Involve in Measurement and Assessment?
Always begin by involving internal stakeholders while conducting an impact assessment of CSR projects. Once you have addressed all the evidence you require to show exactly how much you’re impacting positively, you may engage external stakeholders. The external stakeholders could be partners, funders, beneficiaries, etc., who can challenge your thinking and help you refine it.
Cost Assessment
Assessing and measuring the social impact that your CSR project creates doesn’t necessarily have to be too expensive. Instead, most of the time, it is practically free. Some guides may help get you started taking up the work internally. Of course, in case you’re planning to apply for grants and contract tenders, you may have to think about the cost of evaluation when you’re working on your project budget. If the funds you’re applying for are significant, your funders will want you to explain what the funds will be used for. This also needs to be backed up by enough documentation on the difference you’ve already created.
What to Measure?
As per specialists in various leading social impact consulting firms in India, it is imperative to decide what outcomes are significant for the outside world, funders, and you. You may wish to produce a theory of change at this point. It tells a story of how you utilize the resources available to you to make meaningful things and changes for people, society, and the environment.
How to Measure?
You can collect the evidence and improve it in various ways. In most cases, involving multiple ways can give your CSR project the best possible picture. Make sure that you have been able to distinguish the situation pre and post the implementation of the project. This will help you to be sure how much better it has been.
Ending Note
After all of the above, the most important thing is to conduct an effective impact assessment of CSR projects and treat it more as communication projects. Always be sure about who you need to share your results with and the exact impact you wish to create on them. There isn’t any hard and fast rule out here. So you’ll have to be innovative and do a little research before actually presenting your CSR project findings and the social impact it does mean.
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