Over the last few months since SVI and SIAA have merged, at the Board of Directors we have been discussing where Social Value Canada can best contribute to the field of social impact assessments, evaluation, and measurement methodologies overall. We decided to put out a survey to our networks and existing membership, to better understand the needs in the sector and how we could support it as a newly formed organization.
Over the course of a couple of weeks, we received 112 responses from a wide range of people across Canada who conduct, commission, or utilize impact measurement in a variety of settings ranging from government, not-for-profit and private firms. We heard from people all the way from Halifax to Vancouver, and beyond!
We were positively surprised to see that practitioners are using a wide range of impact measurement tools and methodologies, namely:
- 53% conducting SROI
- 48% SROI inspired methodologies
- 42% Social impact assessments
Also, 75% of survey respondents indicated that the demand for social impact assessments has increased over the last three years – this tells us at SVC that there is a growing need for access to expert skills, knowledge and training on these methodologies.
We also wanted to find out how SVC can best contribute to the field. The survey responses indicated that there is most interest in SVC acting as a hub for practitioners and users through national workshops, conferences, webinars and other knowledge sharing and training opportunities. There is also interest in SVC to act as a convener that supports practitioners and strengthens their ability to leverage tools and resources Finally, we also heard interest in accessing a database of indicators and financial proxies.
What’s next for SVC?
The survey results were incredibly helpful – thank you to everyone who participated and gave their time inform our thinking!
As next steps, we want to keep the ball rolling and hear more from you. Soon, we will be scheduling a webinar to further discuss the opportunity to set up a hub for knowledge, resources and networking that SVC could coordinate and to hear directly from you.
We are also in the process of relaunching our website so that it can better serve our membership and other broader audiences.
What did you think of the survey results? What surprised you?
