Common Currency Project

nef consulting is working on a project to create a consistent approach to valuation for use within the Social Return on Investment methodological framework.

In recent years, some organisations, social investors, and government bodies have  expressed concern about consistency in financial proxies employed in SROI analysis, used to value social and environmental outcomes.

nef consulting has developed a wealth of experience in conducting and supporting Social Return on Investment analyses in a range of contexts, with dozens of public, private and third sector organisations. Feedback from fellow practitioners is that identifying, selecting and justifying financial proxies is a challenging aspect of undertaking SROI analysis.

Our project is a product of our accumulated experience. Our approach will be to value well-being with a consistent proxy, based on peer-reviewed evidence, and create a model which is able to calculate the relative weighting for each of the components that are empirically shown to drive overall well-being. In this project, we benefit from in-house expertise at nef's Centre for Well-being, which since 2006 has been a leading influence in defining accurate measurement of personal and social well-being.

By connecting measurement of "what matters" with a new consistent approach to valuation, we open up the methodology to a wider audience. We think this new valuation approach adheres to the standards for appraisal being advocated by Treasury .

We are confident that creating a "common currency" in which to value outcomes will represent a key advancement in the SROI methodology.

Preliminary outputs from the project will be shared at our Masterclass in February, and through this web page. For further discussion of proxies, have a look at our library of existing published SROI reports, and discussions hosted through the SROI Community of Practice.