A Social Return On Investment (SROI) is essentially a tool for measuring, and
accounting for, the full value of your mahi (work). Where a traditional Return On
Investment (ROI) focuses on profits, SROI can help you understand and report on the
social and environmental value of your work. As growing inequality and environmental
devastation present increasingly urgent challenges to communities it’s more important
than ever to ask ourselves: At what cost was this produced? And does this make the
world a better place? The problem is that the kind of work that seeks to make the world
a better place to live in, often has no direct way of measuring how valuable it truly is and
identifying where the value is being created. An SROI helps to demonstrate that the
financial investment made in a project is delivering a genuine return and adding real
value to people’s lives.

The Social Value movement was born out of a global cultural shift towards putting
people and Papatūānuku (Earth) at the heart of decision making. This kind of thinking is
revolutionary as it challenges the way we perceive value and acknowledges the
complex economic social fabric we live in. An SROI is an essential part of the Social
Value framework. Emerging first as a tool for Philanthropic Foundations to discern
where investments were making the most impact. It then became a catalyst for
establishing the Wellbeing Economy Governments Partnership, founded in the U.K. by
Former First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, with both Iceland and New Zealand
governments being founding members. The wellbeing economy is all about carving out
a new way forward, to a future beyond capitalism, where the ultimate measure of a
country’s success is how happy and healthy a population is.

In Aotearoa this kind of thinking is already embedded in so much of what we do,
especially from an indigenous lens understanding wellbeing as holistic and
multidimensional. Measuring wellbeing is no easy task, we know! So if you’re thinking
why should I SROI? We have a classic kiwi saying that sums it up perfectly: do the mahi
get the treats.

Firstly it helps funders/investors see beyond the spreadsheets, shining a light on what
makes a real difference in people’s lives, helping them to understand that doing good
means a stronger return in the long run.

It’s also a chance to dive deep and explore where the change is happening, what good
you are generating and where you could spend more time and energy.
But the most compelling of all reasons ‘why you should SROI’ is the story you capture in
the process. The knowledge you gain is so valuable for improving and understanding

the work you do and for being able to share that with your community. It tells the story of
change. Because change happens slowly and is often imperceptible until suddenly one
day you look around and notice everything is different. So being able to capture that
story of change means we can maximise on where the good mahi is happening.
In the world we live in today accounting with a heart just makes sense.