Presenting new benchmarks for measuring valueImpact measurement/management Focus areas

Overview of activities

As an organization whose goal is to popularize impact investing and impact-oriented philanthropy in Japan, SIIF is engaged in the practice of, and development of knowledge and nurturing of practitioners for, the impact measurement and management initiatives that constitute the preconditions for such activities.

What is “Impact measurement/management”?

With global interest in building sustainable societies rising steadily, we have arrived at an era in which even companies are being measured not only by economic activity such as profitability, but by the degree of their contribution to society. In addition, there is also a movement among not-for-profit organizations such as NPOs to clarify the degree of their contribution to resolving social problems. The process of making visible the results and changes in society and the environment caused by the activities and services provided by companies and not-for-profit organizations is referred to as “impact measurement.” The process of using information related to social results to improve businesses and to make decisions with the intent of enhancing impacts is referred to as “impact management.”

Impact Measurement & Management

Representative methods for impact evaluation and management

A logic model is a repreentative tool used in impact evaluation and management.
The logic model visualizes the theoretical cause-and-effect relationships from business activities to outputs and outcomes.

Glossary

Impact:: social and environmental outcomes resulting from business or activity, including short- and long-term changes.
Outputs:: products, services, etc. resulting from the activities of an organization or business
Outcomes:: changes, benefits, learning, and other effects resulting from the outputs of an organization or business.

Impact Evaluation Process

Using a logic model, we regularly monitor the implementation status. The results are analyzed and used for management decision-making, explanation and reporting to stakeholders, and the PDCA cycle is implemented.

Five dimensions of Impact

Impact dimensions	Impact questions each dimension seeks to answer
What	What tells us what outcome the enterprise is contributing to, whether it is positive or negative, and how important the outcome is to stakeholders.
Who	Who tells us which stakeholders are experiencing the outcome and how underserved they are in relation to the outcome.
How much	How Much tells us how many stakeholders experienced the outcome, what degree of change they experienced, and how long they experienced the outcome for.
Contribution	Contribution tells us whether an enterprise’s and/or investor’s efforts resulted in outcomes that were likely better than what would have occurred otherwise.
Risk	Risk tells us the likelihood that impact will be different than expected.

Source: IMP, “What is impact?” <https://impactmanagementproject.com/impact-management/what-is-impact/>

SIIF collaborates with national and international organizations that promote impact investment and impact evaluation and management, disseminates the latest trends in Japan and overseas, and works to disseminate knowledge in Japan.

“Why Impact Evaluation” is Needed

As an international trend, there is a need for a mechanism to “optimize” the social value of projects and activities, to “verify” this value, and to link this to learning and improvement of one’s own organization and activities, and to accountability to funders and others.

1) Shift to outcome-orientation in solving social issues: Funders, investors, and local governments are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of not only evaluating the “activities” (what has been done), but also optimizing the long-term “outcomes” of the initiatives and utilizing them to improve the projects.
2) Share the vision of the society to be pursued: As stakeholders with diverse perspectives participate in solving social issues, it is necessary to have a common language for recognizing issues and the goals of the society to be pursued.
3) Measure diverse values: As values continue to diversify, there is a growing need for new “measuring rods” to measure social values other than economic values.”

Measurement process for this fund

Constituent elements of logic model following the flow of the project

Step 1. Set goals and identify beneficiary
Step 2. Set outcome
Step 3. Set output, activities and input
Step 4. Finalize the logic model

出典：SIMI

Case studies

Achievements / Case studies

Five strategic themes for accomplishing our mission