Taken from a workshop, this slideshow show why it is vital that businesses, charities and social enterprises have a robust way of measuring their local impact. Local authorities want not just value for money but for their spend to help them achieve their wider goals. It might be, for example, taking on apprenticeships. But why not be ahead of the game and shout a bit louder. Enter... The Local Impact Measurement Tool! If you want a simple tool to help you, why not look at www.limtool.com. It easy to use. Quick. And affordable.

1. The Local Impact Measurement Tool

2. Knowing the difference
you make
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Understanding impact and why it‟s important to
measure it
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Understanding the Triple Bottom Line
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Understanding what to measure, when and
how

3. The Triple Bottom Line
Responsible business
• Financially
• Socially
• Environmentally
Social
Outputs
Environmental
Outputs
Financial
outputs
Social
enterprise

4. What might this include?
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Ethical purchasing
Impact throughout the supply chain
Impact in the local community
Employing local people
Minimising waste
Recycling
Transport policies
Being energy efficient
Family friendly employers
Accountability to the community/customer base

5. Why Measure Impact?
Nowadays, every organisation can (and should) measure
their social impact.
• Knowing the difference you make
• Good employers
• Access to Grants
• Access to Contracts
• Payment by results
• Competitive advantage

6. Telling the whole story
If its not just the numbers....
Then we have an incredibly powerful tool that will:
• improve our credibility and encourage people to believe what we
say,
• inspire our staff and volunteers,
• encourage us to continuously improve our services,
• communicate to other stakeholders how good we are,
• form the basis of powerful publicity materials and funding
applications,
• help us to make an even greater difference.

7. Defining Social Impact
IMPACT...
„The effect or impression of one thing on another‟
SOCIAL...
‘Of or relating to human society and its modes of
organization‟
So....
Its the change we bring to the lives of the people and
organisations we work with.

8. Social Impact......
tells the story of the
change we bring to
people’s lives

9. Values
Values should embrace your whole organisation. Whatever you do will
be guided by your values. They act as an internal guidance system.
E.g.
- how you manage staff and volunteers,
- treat clients and stakeholders
- the quality of the service provided
Typical organisational values might be:
• providing „value for money‟,
• - caring for customers,
• - being trustworthy,
• - being profitable,
• - striving for the highest quality.

10. Values
Values that relate to our social aims - those that drive the
work we do might include
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- caring for local community,
- concern for the environment,
- creating opportunities for disadvantaged people,
- being a supportive employer,
- re-investing profits back into meeting social aims.

11. Vision
Your VISION defines your long-term dream.
It should not be achievable - your vision to
always be just slightly out of your reach.
It's what you constantly strive to attain,
and it becomes your reason for being.
‘We want a society where’....

12. Mission
Your MISSION is what you intend to become or
accomplish. It should be challenging but
achievable.
It should answer the following four questions:
• - who are you?
• - what do you do
• - who do you do it for?
• - where does it happen?

13. Aims
• Aims describe what an organisation will do
in order to meet its vision and mission.
• The aims go into more detail and start to
specify the changes that the service or
product will bring to the lives of the people
or organisations they work with.

17. Measuring the changes
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Step 1 - What is the change?
Step 2 - Who will you ask?
Step 3 - What questions will you ask?
Step 4 - Measuring the „Distance
Travelled‟

18. Step 1 - What is the change?
• Imagine your clients, before they have any
engagement with you. Then imagine them
afterwards, how would they be different? What
would the change be?

19. Step 2 - Who will you ask?
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The individual
Those associated with them
Professionals
Broader community

20. Step 3 - What questions will you ask?
• The next step is to decide the best questions to
identify this change. These are the „indicators‟ the things that show the change we want.

21. Step 4 - Measuring the ‘Distance Travelled’
• devise a scale on which we can measure this change
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ask the questions we have chosen more than once so
that we can measure the distance travelled along the
scale.

22. Outcomes and Outputs
• Outcomes are the changes, benefits, learning or other
effects that happen as a result of your work. They can be
wanted or unwanted, expected or unexpected. They are
often hard to count or prove, and normally rely on an
understanding of the initial situation or problem for
comparison.
• Outputs are the tangible products, services or facilities
created by your work, and are usually quantifiable. They
don‟t rely on any knowledge of your „starting point‟ and
instead focus on what happens once you have finished
your work

24. Employment
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Employing local people - if we live and work locally we spend 66% of our net salary
locally. This is reduced to 33% if we live away from work.
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Local governance -Knowing where your Board/Trustees live can give commissioners
a sense of your organization's commitment to the local community. Increasingly
public sector organisations will want to deal with locally led organisations.
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Diversity -The diversity of your workforce should reflect the community you work in or
serve.?. Diversity Return on Investment is a growing trend in the HR sector
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Investing in staff - Investors in People or PQASSO (for the voluntary sector)
demonstrates your commitment to providing a supportive environment for your staff.
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The Skills Pledge is a scheme, currently hosted by Business Link, for Employers to
commit themselves to getting their workforce trained with at least Level 2
qualifications.

25. Economy
• How much money your organisation brings into the local
economy
• What percentage of your business is currently in the
area under consideration.
• How much money you retain in the local economy. Every
time the same pound is used in the local area it adds to
the value of that original pound.
• Supply chain policies

26. Community
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Locality of offices
Use of volunteers equating it to £
Internships
Work Experience Placements
Volunteering by your Employees
Contributions and donations
Membership of Networks & Groups
Other CSR

27. Health and Wellbeing
• Health and Wellbeing Resources
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Employee support scheme
Alcohol use
Substance use
Sexual health
Smoking
Physical activity
Travel health
Oral/Dental health
Stress
Mental health and well being
Absenteeism rates
Accident rates
Turnover rates

28. Family friendly
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Flexible working
Childcare
Positive support for certain communities NEETS
Clubs and family fun days

29. Environment
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Energy use
Carbon footprint
Waste systems
Recycling
Environmental policy

30. Measuring Internal and local
impact
It’s easy with The Local Impact Measurement Tool
www.limtool.com

31. LIM Input Sheets

32. Loud and Proud

33. A considered opinion……
“As someone who‟s been involved in impact reporting for over a
decade, I know the various benefits that organisations gain from
doing it, but also the barriers that they face – this tool seems an
ideal solution to allowing you to undertake an easy, cheap and
quick impact assessment to reveal just how great you really are
and the contributions you‟re making to your community: both
socially and economically. It‟s not a magic bullet that will reveal
everything about what everyone thinks about you and how
they‟ve been changed for the better, but its a great starting point
– as a benchmarking tool, a way to better prove your worth to
customers and commissioning bodies, and as a starting point to
develop your reporting in the future.”
Adrian Ashton