SROI: Quantifying Value Without Lying to Yourself
SROI is useful if you treat it as a learning tool—not as a marketing number.
Apply a simplified SROI process and produce a transparent range estimate with clear assumptions.
Core Teachings
Key concepts with source texts
Use stakeholder-informed outcomes, conservative proxies, and explicit deadweight/attribution assumptions.
From the Source Texts
"Only claim the value that activities are responsible for creating."
Commentary
This is the anti-greenwashing principle. If you ignore it, your SROI is basically fiction.
Create a table: outcome → evidence → proxy → deadweight → attribution → value (range).
Study Materials
Primary sources with guided reading
Social Value International: The Guide to SROI
Authoritative guide (updated history). Use it as reference for method and principles.
Principles of Social Value
The principles behind credible social value accounting (esp. ‘do not overclaim’).
Bridge notes help connect the resources and show how they relate to the learning outcome.
AI-generated notes synthesize the lesson outcome and resource summaries. Human-reviewed before publishing.
What’s ‘deadweight’ in SROI?