Social Value and Social Return on Investment

Social value incorporates economic, environmental, and social impact in public policy decision- making. Social Return on Investment (SROI) has emerged as a popular way to measure social value. SROI is a tool for nonprofit organizations and social enterprises to measure their impact and express it in a common economic unit. This study employed a systematic review approach to assess the quality of SROI reports in the advocacy and human rights sector. The goal of this study was to determine whether SROI can measure the broader social effects of a program. Findings indicate that SROI has been used primarily by health and social services and significantly less often by advocacy and human rights groups. As such, the methodology has not yet been robustly applied to study very broad social effects associated with advocacy and human rights interventions. The social outcomes are usually captured qualitatively and not often quantitatively. Further, the social outcomes are rarely monetized due to a lack of financial proxies. SROI would benefit from being applied to a robust advocacy or human rights program, specifically focusing on broad social effects