non-financial impact outcomes in financial terms. There are also five models for pricing social impacts. International Foundation for Valuing Impacts 115 The International Foundation for Valuing Impacts grew out of the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project (IWA) at Harvard Business School, which was founded in 2019 to prove that impact accounting was both feasible and valuable. The aim is to standardise the monetary valuation of corporate impacts on well-being, integrating these assessments into financial accounting. Their methodology involves measuring changes in social well-being resulting from a company's activities and translating these changes into monetary terms to reflect their value to affected stakeholders. Central to this is a Global Value Factor Database that includes over 100,000 value factors that monetise social and environmental outcomes.
Social Value International 116
In 1997, the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund developed the Social Return on Investment (SROI) to monetise the impacts of its philanthropic programmes to compare to the costs of their implementation to calculate a social ROI. This enables a ratio of benefits to costs to be calculated. Generally, impact data is monetised as either a factor of individual change (new employment, improved health, improved wellbeing) or of public sector savings (reduced welfare, health, or criminal justice costs) or increased revenue (larger tax take and faster economic growth). Following REDF’s work, SVI defines social value as ‘the importance individuals place on changes they experience in their well-being’. In this context, SVI developed a set of nine principles of social value 117 and a SROI Value Map of proxy values to operationalise these principles. 118
Valuing Impact 119
Valuing Impact focuses on developing integrated accounting models strategically to drive decision- making and amplify impact. This work includes modelling due diligence screening processes for impact valuation, providing factor-based data on natural capital, and developing methodological guidelines such as the WASH and the eQALY model 120 . These tools assist organisations in assessing and enhancing their social and environmental contributions.
Impact Genome Registry 121
In addition to the valuing impact approaches, a global database of impact outcome prices has been developed. In 2018, the Impact Genome Registry was established as the world’s first impact registry and verification service to provide insights, benchmarking, and forecasting to support evidence-based decision-making in a more consistent and cost-effective manner than social impact reporting based on individual evaluations for every program. By 2024, the Registry was the world’s largest repository for standardised impact data, covering more than 2.2 million global nonprofits 115 See https://ifvi.org. 116 See https://www.socialvalueint.org. 117 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60dc51e3c58aef413ae5c975/t/6127b55936e97e03e86297ea/1629992289441/Pr inciples+of+Social+Value+.pdf 118 https://www.socialvalueint.org/sroi-value-map 119 See https://www.valuingimpact.com. 120 WASH refers to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene services critical for preventing disease and promoting health. eQALY (equity-Adjusted Quality-Adjusted Life Year) is a health outcome measure that modifies the traditional QALY to account for equity concerns, giving extra weight to health gains in disadvantaged or vulnerable populations. 121 https://www.impactgenome.com
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