On page 61 of the book titled Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know it says: “social entrepreneurship is characterized by a rigorous focus on results…”.There are many things in life that cannot be quantified or counted with numbers. Some of these things are extremely important. There are some things that can be measured or counted, but they don’t really matter nearly as much as other things. On page 61 of that above-mentioned book it says: “Albert Einstein hung a sign in his office that said ‘Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts’.”

How do you evaluate social interaction or cooperation or getting along? How do you evaluate a reduction in disagreements of children in a playground? How do you measure the amount of prejudice in society? How do you measure attitudes? Many of these things change slowly over long periods of time and they are difficult to detect.

I asked Copilot the following question: “How do social entrepreneurs evaluate their impact?” It would seem to me that this evaluation is imprecise. For example, how do you put a number on “happiness” or “feeling better” when you are evaluating a social program?

Copilot said” “Social entrepreneurs use various methods to evaluate their impact. Here are some common approaches:” It returned ten things.

1. Theory of Change: This framework helps organizations map out the steps needed to achieve their desired outcomes. It involves identifying the inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and long-term impacts of their work.
2. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Social enterprises set specific, measurable goals to track their progress. These KPIs can include metrics like the number of people served, the amount of resources distributed, or the percentage of target outcomes achieved.
3. Surveys and Feedback: Collecting feedback from beneficiaries, stakeholders, and partners helps social enterprises understand the effectiveness of their programs. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups are common methods for gathering this information.
4. Social Return on Investment (SROI): This method quantifies the social, environmental, and economic value created by an organization. It involves calculating the ratio of the benefits generated to the resources invested.
5. Impact Reports: Social enterprises often publish annual or periodic impact reports that summarize their achievements, challenges, and lessons learned. These reports provide transparency and accountability to stakeholders.
6. Case Studies and Stories: Sharing success stories and case studies helps illustrate the real-world impact of an organization’s work. These narratives can be powerful tools for demonstrating value and engaging supporters.
7. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): This ongoing process involves regularly collecting and analyzing data to assess the effectiveness of programs. M&E helps organizations make data-driven decisions and improve their strategies over time.
8. Benchmarking: Comparing an organization’s performance against industry standards or similar organizations can provide valuable insights into their impact and areas for improvement.
9. External Evaluations: Engaging third-party evaluators to assess an organization’s impact can provide an unbiased perspective and validate their results.
10. Stakeholder Engagement: Involving stakeholders in the evaluation process ensures that their perspectives and needs are considered. This collaborative approach can lead to more meaningful and sustainable outcomes.

Learn from Web Pages

Here’s an article called How To Measure Your Social Impact as a Social Enterprise. Here’s an article called How to measure your social impact.

Learn from Books

The book Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know asks the question: “How do social entrepreneurs evaluate their impact?” on page 61. One way is to use the Balanced Scorecard of Kaplan.