Speaker 1: Social impact is the long-term difference your organisation makes to the people or places you work in and with.

Speaker 2: Every organisation can have a social impact, but for social enterprises and charities, the impact they create is intentional and fundamental to their governance. They have social impact at their core, their driving force is to create positive change in order to create a better, fairer world.

Speaker 1: Why is it important to manage and measure your social impact?

Speaker 2: Firstly, your service users, supporters, funders and stakeholders will want to know how you're helping improve lives, so it's not just a nice-to-do activity. Measuring impact for social investment is important as social investors consider both financial and social return. Social investors want to use their money to create impact, so they want to know how their money will make a difference. They want to know your social impact.

Speaker 1: Many social investors are even social businesses themselves, so their money may also come from organisations and individuals motivated by social change. Not only is measuring impact important for social investment, but it's also an essential process to help you to gain focus, clarity and direction. It's not just about managing and measuring your impact, it's about what you do with that information. How will you put the impact you want to create into action?

Speaker 2: How do you actually measure social impact when there are so many tools, metrics and techniques?

Speaker 1: A simple framework is plan, do, assess, review. By really pinning down the change you want to make, plan how to create this desired impact. Use a theory of change to help map this out.

Speaker 2: Do your impact measurement around your theory of change. Collect the right data with surveys, interviews and more. Then, assess this data against your key goals. Did your data prove you've done what you wanted to do?

Speaker 1: Lastly, review your work. What more do you need to do? What needs to change? And how can you share your results effectively to the right audiences?

Speaker 2: Focus on your goals. Only measure what you and your stakeholders really value. Measure what's central to your mission.

Speaker 1: There are no numbers without stories, nor stories without numbers. Being able to give real examples alongside numerical data will really help to bring your impact story to life. Remember, managing and measuring social impact isn't just important for social investment. It also helps you look at your whole organisation and continue to improve on your mission. For more information, visit goodfinance.org.uk