2024 was another exciting year for SIMNA!

This year we piloted offering the two-day accredited practitioner training in Social Value and SROI in partnership with SVA Consulting. We have been thrilled with the response, training over 50 people this year at our in-person trainings in Sydney and Melbourne.

20 members have successfully completed the SVI Level 1 Social Value and Impact Management Exam this year, gaining an internationally recognised qualification. Congratulations to everyone who has achieved Level 1 Associate status.

In September, we launched our Resource Hub, which brings together some of the best resources on social impact measurement from Australia and around the globe including comprehensive guides and frameworks, insightful case studies and practical tools and reports. We believe that the SIMNA Resource Hub has something for everyone passionate about measuring and understanding social impact.

This year also saw a total of 35 fantastic events and roundtables take place online and in person in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Topics covered included measuring wellbeing for inclusive prosperity, the role of management accountants in measuring and evaluating impact, impact measurement platforms and tools and rolling out an impact strategy.

We attended the AES Conference in Melbourne in September and held a panel session on the similarities and differences between evaluation and social impact measurement, hosted a lunchtime networking session and had a SIMNA booth. We were also delighted to return to the Social Impact Summit in Sydney in July and speak on a panel on measuring what matters.

We closed the year by celebrating the fantastic work being done across the country in social impact measurement via the SIMNA Awards. The winners and runners up were announced at a virtual ceremony at the end of November, which also included a thought-provoking panel conversation and video address from Dr Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment.

None of this would have been possible without our amazing volunteers – our Organising Committee Members in Queensland, Sydney, Western Australia, Western Sydney and Victoria as well as our ACT volunteers, our Awards Judges, our Board Members, the Senior Impact Leaders Roundtable Enablers and event speakers. A huge thank you to you all!

An equally huge thank you to our partners – Clear Horizon, Our Community, SVA Consulting and Urbis’ Social and Economic Advisory Unit – as well as our Awards Platinum Sponsor the Australian Government Department of Social Services, for their support throughout the year.

And finally, thank you to all our members and the wider network for being part of SIMNA this year. We’re looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together in 2025!