Hello World! (from Social Value Ireland)
Quality Matters, The Wheel and Whitebarn Consulting are thrilled to be introducing Social Value Ireland – a network of individuals and organisations who are interested in changing the way Irish society accounts for value.
More and more, we are realising that our traditional ways of valuing, such as Gross Domestic Product, are no longer fit for purpose. We instinctively know certain things in life are more important than money, yet we struggle to articulate what this value is.
Charities, social enterprises and similar organisations tend to use standard output figures and glowing case studies as a way to demonstrate the worth that they deliver, but these simply are not enough. We need to know what, if anything, actually changed for the people we are working with, how that change came about and if the supports we provided were the right ones. In other words, we need to be talking about outcomes and impact and social return on investment. And this is not just a concern for the ‘not-for-profit’ sector: it is equally relevant to the state, to academia and to the world of business.
It is not easy, but it is a leap we must make if we truly care about community well-being and are to stem a growing tide of inequality and environmental degradation. We recognise that going at it alone can feel daunting. We are therefore building a network of social value practitioners. Social value practitioners are people who are grappling with these challenges on an ongoing basis and who want to support each other to get better at managing social value: planning for it, measuring it, reporting on it, and improving it.
If that sounds like you, we would be delighted if you could join Social Value Ireland. Members of Social Value Ireland will be invited to our first event on 27 January 2021. If you have any questions before then, please contact us.
