Guidelines for Social Return on Investment

California Management Review

Volumn 46, Issue 3, 2004, Pages 116-135

  Lingane, Alison ^a,b   Olsen, Sara ^a,b  

^a The Benetech Initiative   (United States)

^b Social Venture Technol and Consult ^*

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 2942604206     PISSN: 00081256     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/41166224     Document Type: Review

References (15)

1. The nonprofit sector's concurrent increased focus on quantified outcomes measurement has contributed to the development of Social Return on Investment analysis. However, even the nonprofit sector still lacks a standardized framework for outcomes measurement or social accounting despite the fact that its existence is defined by its social value.
2. Jed Emerson, "The Nature of Returns: A Social Capital Markets Inquiry into Elements of Investment and the Blended Value Proposition," Social Enterprise Series, No. 17, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, 2000. Similar arguments, particularly about the financial rewards of environmental sustainability, have been made by others such as Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1999); Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce: Doing Good Business (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993).
3. Jed Emerson, "The Nature of Returns: A Social Capital Markets Inquiry into Elements of Investment and the Blended Value Proposition," Social Enterprise Series, No. 17, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, 2000. Similar arguments, particularly about the financial rewards of environmental sustainability, have been made by others such as Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1999); Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce: Doing Good Business (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993).
4. Jed Emerson, "The Nature of Returns: A Social Capital Markets Inquiry into Elements of Investment and the Blended Value Proposition," Social Enterprise Series, No. 17, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, 2000. Similar arguments, particularly about the financial rewards of environmental sustainability, have been made by others such as Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1999); Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce: Doing Good Business (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993).
5. See 〈www.socialvc.net〉.
6. We use this term generally to refer to the SROI analyses developed by the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (〈www.redf.org〉) unless otherwise noted.
7. The concept of SROI as applied to nonprofits has been articulated in "SROI Collection," Roberts Enterprise Development Fund, 2001, 〈www.redf.org/pub_sroi.htm〉. Guidelines for the concept's application to for-profit startups have been published on the Global Social Venture Competition web site, 〈www.socialvc.net〉.
8. The concept of SROI as applied to nonprofits has been articulated in "SROI Collection," Roberts Enterprise Development Fund, 2001, 〈www.redf.org/pub_sroi.htm〉. Guidelines for the concept's application to for-profit startups have been published on the Global Social Venture Competition web site, 〈www.socialvc.net〉.
9. Henry M. Levin, Cost Effectiveness: A Primer (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1983).
10. For assistance in prioritizing the most effective environmental practices, see Michael Brower and Warren Leon, eds., The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists (New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 1999).
11. A topic worthy of further exploration is the relationship between social return on investment and the analytical models and tables that enable actuaries to assign prices to such things as snowfall, lives, and body parts.
12. Clyde P. Stickney and Roman L. Weil, Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods, and Uses, 8th Edition (Forth Worth, TX: Dryden Press, 1997).
13. Katherine Kim, "Cask Solutions, Inc. Business Plan," 2002.
14. Much of this discussion is adapted from Jessica Lindl, Alison Lingane, and Liz Walters, "Social Return on Investment: A Practitioner's Perspective," unpublished paper, 2000. These issues have also been discussed in the REDF SROI Collection, including Cynthia Gair, "A Report from the Good Ship SROI," 2002, 〈www.redf.org/pub_sroi. htm#overview〉.
15. Much of this discussion is adapted from Jessica Lindl, Alison Lingane, and Liz Walters, "Social Return on Investment: A Practitioner's Perspective," unpublished paper, 2000. These issues have also been discussed in the REDF SROI Collection, including Cynthia Gair, "A Report from the Good Ship SROI," 2002, 〈www.redf.org/pub_sroi. htm#overview〉.