Size isn’t an excuse for not reporting your impact

Many enterprises and charities seem afraid to commit to identifying and reporting on their impacts (how they’re changing the world), as doing so often seems too complicated, expensive or time-consuming (as anyone who’s read ‘how to do SROI’ guidance will agree).

However, it doesn’t have to be so – you can start very simply with what you’re currently capturing to great effect: for example, as a freelancer, I’ve been publishing a social impact report on my services and activities every year for the last six years!

Doing so has helped me better identify, and further enhance, the ways in which my values inform my working practices and my impact on my local economy. It’s also attracted interest from other private companies who want to get better at ‘proving’ their value in their communities…

The landscape of services and expectations about how we evidence the value of what we do is changing – and it doesn’t have to be complicated to start to report on the contribution your organisation (however small) is having in making a dent in the universe.

(the full write up of my social impact report for this year can be found at: http://thirdsectorexpert.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/my-latest-social-accounts-more-impact.html)