Alliance Social Enterprises has won the Change Maker in Social Impact Measurement Award at the recent SIMNA Awards 2017 with the development of the Australian Social Value Bank (ASVB).
Australian Social Value Bank
The ASVB is an online measurement and impact calculation tool which is prepopulated with 62 different social values relating to all aspects of Australian life. It allows users to allocate a well-researched economic value on the social outcomes achieved by services and programs delivered.
It is based on the UK Social Value Bank and aims to simplify the process of valuing social impact services and programs, allowing government, businesses, philanthropic and not-for-profit organisations to demonstrate the value of their social impact.
“Because the Wellbeing Valuation method has been used to value all of the outcomes in the ASVB, you are able to compare the social impact created by different programs like never before” Min Seto, ASVB Project Manager said. “This can really support decision making when it comes to things like funding allocation.”
The Journey
The Housing Alliance considered investing in a traditional SROI analysis, but realising the relatively high cost for a point in time snapshot, decided to use their partnership to collectively invest in a long-term solution.
It was then that the Housing Alliance began to consider pursuing the development of a model that the CEOs had become aware of during a study tour of the UK in 2014.
The UK Social Value Bank had been developed by HACT (Housing Associations Charitable Trust) in partnership with Daniel Fujiwara, Director of Simetrica as a robust evidence-based way for housing providers to report their social impact back to Government, as they are legislatively required to do in the UK.
The First 60 Values
The first step in the development of the Australian Social Value Bank was creating a joint venture not for profit organisation called Alliance Social Enterprises, under which they could develop the first 62 social values within ASVB and the online Value Calculator.
Alliance Social Enterprises has already extended the social value bank to include values that are applicable beyond the CommunityHousing sector. “Our plan is to keep adding values to the Bank so that it useful across a large number of sectors.,” Min Seto said. “So far we have had requests to include environmental impacts, and values specific to young people, Indigenous Australians and the disability sector.”
Next Steps for the ASVB
Alliance Social Enterprises has an exciting and ambitious vision for the ASVB, planning for it to become a widely used benchmark for social impact measurement in Australia; allowing easy comparison between programmes and ensuring investment is appropriately allocated where it can do the greatest good.
Daniel Fujiwara, has also completed a recent trip to Australia, where he conducted a number of social impact measurement workshops, including modules on the rigour and methodology that sits behind the ASVB and how to access and use the ASVB Value Calculator.
The ASVB will launch in late July and promotion will start soon after. Min Seto, Project Manager for the ASVB, said the focus will be on “showing people how simply they, themselves, can value the social impact they create in a robust way, by using the ASVB.”