New Research Working Group Report Addresses Social Impact Measurement
By Cori Cunningham, Program Director, The Conference Board
The Conference Board this month published Measuring the Impact of Corporate Social Investments, the report of a 14-company research working group that examined challenges related to impact measurement. Authored by Cori Cunningham, the complete report is available free, and can be downloaded here.
With funders and stakeholders demanding real and measurable value from social investing programs instead of settling for arbitrary effectiveness measures or anecdotal success stories, the challenge is to deliver real (and measurable) change in outcomes at a reasonable cost. Ultimately, corporate social investors must remain flexible and open to change as the practice of impact measurement continues to evolve. Rather than being seen as an end, measurement is more appropriately viewed as an ongoing learning process that will change as new information, strategies, and approaches emerge.
Social impact as a motivator
Social impact—or the demonstration of positive long-term social outcomes—is one of the leading motivations for companies involved in The Conference Board Research Working Group on Measuring the Impact of Corporate Social Investments. Of nearly equal importance is the ability to demonstrate to senior management, as well as other stakeholders, that the company resources being invested are, in fact, creating the desired social outcomes. Social impact must be linked to business impact. The two cannot (and should not) be treated as mutually exclusive.
Among the research working group’s conclusions:
- Social change is inherently difficult to assess In addition, attributing specific social change to a particular corporate social investment adds another layer of difficulty.
- There is a lack of widespread standardization around impact measurement There is no uniform consistency around the definitions of all measurement-related terms, no single shared approach or methodology of measurement that fits all program types, nor are there common outcomes and metrics that have been adopted as universally accepted standards to use in measuring social change.
- Nonprofit organizations have varying expertise in, and capacity for, measurement While accountability and a focus on results have been increasing in the social sector, many nonprofit organizations do not have the level of skills and/or resources to invest in the type of robust measurement that a corporate social investor requires.
- Corporations may have insufficient resources to invest in measurement They may lack the staff skills and/or budget to fully invest in a measurement process that will provide the quality and quantity of results they are looking to collect and communicate.
Click here to download the free report.
About the Research Working Group
The 14 companies taking part in this research working group were: Aetna, Inc., Duke Energy Corporation, Entergy Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Intel Corporation, KPMG LLP, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Procter & Gamble, Public Service Electric & Gas Co. (PSE&G), Southern California Edison Company, Target Corporation, UnitedHealth Group, Verizon Wireless, and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
About the author:
Cori Cunningham
Program Director
The Conference Board
Cori Cunningham is the founder of C. Cunningham Advising and an accomplished consultant and solutions-oriented leader with more than a decade of experience advising corporations and social sector organizations on strategies designed to drive positive change. She specializes in uniting teams and stakeholders around common missions, and is a highly skilled strategic planner, analyst and facilitator. Cori works with clients to align community engagement strategies with business goals in the corporate sector, and create thorough and thoughtful plans for identifying and securing corporate relationships in the social sector.
