Trust, but verify. That short and sweet doctrine applies in a wide variety of cases. In the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR), it could mean that company owners and key stakeholders want confirmation that the resources they’ve allocated to a specific CSR endeavor are well spent. Picking the right metrics to show the impact of CSR initiatives is crucial, but how do you know which ones to highlight in your impact measurement reports? Below, we’ll take a look at some of the most used CSR metrics for social impact measurement.
The first order of business for your CSR team is to get on the same page about what “impact measurement” actually means for your company.
How do you measure impact? For instance, would your CEO be satisfied if you simply collected positive testimonials from internal and external stakeholders? As we’ll discuss below, testimonials can be important parts of impact measurement reports, but they may not be enough.
If you need to get hard data, everyone in the CSR ecosystem needs to know that. Without a clear picture of the metrics you’re gathering, you might miss your chance to get what you need when you’re collecting data. Impact measurement should include clearly defined processes for gathering and presenting data so everybody does their part.
When every cent must be accounted for, the last thing you want to be caught doing is using company money for arbitrary reasons or to accomplish ill-defined goals. If your company’s CSR initiative isn’t achieving its intended results, your CEO or manager will be less inclined to spend valuable capital on it next year.
Another benefit of social impact reporting is identifying areas of deficiencies. You can’t improve what you don’t measure. If you can show that, for example, your program improved upon baseline scores from
Making a deeper impact will only help your CSR endeavors in the long run by strengthening trust from the top down. The more data you have, the more credibility you’ll gain. The more credibility you gain, the more resources you might have the next time your boss asks you to craft a CSR initiative.
All of that starts with knowing how to measure the impacts of projects and programs.
You have a fair amount of choices when deciding which social impact metrics to highlight. The ones you choose should reflect your department’s goals and capabilities while also taking into account the nuances of the particular initiative you’re measuring.
If you’re starting a CSR program that’s open to everyone in your department or company, tracking the percentage of personnel who choose to take part will likely be one of your core metrics.
Your manager might set a goal of 20% participation, for instance, with 5% growth each year. A greater participation rate year-over-year means you’re probably doing something right!
The amount of donations your CSR endeavor raises is where the rubber meets the road. It can be intimidating to try to meet a monetary goal, as many companies might not have access to donors with resources to spare.
Few things are more impressive than showing executives that you met or exceeded donation goals, although measuring social impact for your CSR programs will likely require additional data.
Another important metric for many impact measurement reports is the total amount of time your fellow employees spend giving back.
Using this metric might be helpful if you have a small group of dedicated volunteers who will go the extra mile to see your CSR programs succeed. Don’t forget about burnout, though—volunteers are human beings, too.
Retrieving stories from people your CSR programs have positively affected can also be helpful. The importance of cold, hard data of impact measures cannot be overstated, but inspiring testimonials can really bring those numbers to life.
Putting human faces to the numbers in your reports is essential; what good are CSR initiatives if they don’t touch people’s lives?
Including testimonials can especially help if your other metrics maybe aren’t as convincing as you’d like them to be. If that’s the case, though, don’t get discouraged!
If you’d like those testimonials to go a little deeper or provide more comprehensive information, we suggest sending surveys to program participants.
While testimonials can be incredibly useful in your impact reports, surveys can give you a broader picture of how well the CSR programs are being received by the people who matter the most. Identifying patterns—good and bad—within the survey results can help you identify opportunities for improvement and growth.
Measuring the amount of grant funds your CSR initiative secures can be useful if you’re seeking external funding and not, say, employee volunteer hours or donations.
You can highlight the percentage of grant funds you received compared to the amount you requested or the rate at which potential donors responded to your requests.
Lastly, you can gather thoughts from your fellow employees who either donated money or time to the CSR program.
You may not need to include negative employee feedback in impact reports that go out to external stakeholders, but planning for next time should consider what went well (and what didn’t) for those who got in on the ground floor.
Choosing metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your company’s CSR endeavors is important, but not having the right tools to compile and analyze the data can result in missed opportunities.
Simply entering the impact data into spreadsheets may not be enough to fully illustrate the program’s effectiveness—you deserve purpose-built technology with the right capabilities.
Having the right technology can also save you and your team valuable time. Trying to learn clunky, dated CSR apps only takes time away from your core mission. The ability to capture data no matter where your location helps your CSR programs become more accessible to everyone else in your company.
Modern, agile CSR apps make it easier than ever to measure charitable initiatives against benchmarks, but choosing the right one can be overwhelming when you look at the price tags. Conversely, some of the more affordable apps might not have the capabilities you need.
With Groundswell, you don’t have to sacrifice affordability, ease of use, or efficiency. Our intuitive platform encourages employee participation while ensuring donations get sent to recipients as quickly as possible.
Groundswell’s easy-to-use platform lets you track and report on important data in real-time, whenever you need to. Plan and launch campaigns within minutes, monitor key metrics like employee participation rates, employee engagement, or donation amounts, and integrate with existing tech solutions to make reporting a breeze.
Say goodbye to the days of clunky, convoluted, and costly legacy CSR platforms; Groundswell is here to democratize philanthropy and ensure the power to make an impact is accessible to all.
Ready to learn more? Get in touch with our team to book a demo today.
