The Usefulness of Sharing Social Impact Data. Early Findings from an International Benchmarking on SROI Assessments

This paper aims at investigating a perspective for the social impact measurability by collecting and analysing open data at the international level. Our goal is to shed light on the unlocked potential of the knowledge produced by a global community of scholars and practitioners engaged in social impact measurement processes. Global open data on social impact assessment (SIA) have been mapped and collected in a database using the impact chain as a reference point for choosing the variables. In this paper, we focus on the potential use of these data to enable forecasting analysis about the expected social value and to inform decision-making processes aimed at responding to complex social challenges. The early findings suggest the opportunity of a wider action-research initiative, by engaging different typologies of stakeholders and organizations aimed at incorporating social impact as a key strategic driver.