What is Social Impact? Exactly.

Working in social impact evaluation, the most common question we get asked is; ‘what is social impact?’ or ‘so you measure carbon emissions?’ People have no issue understanding what impact means; it is the effect of an action on something else. 

Impact exists everywhere from physics to economic policy. Loud sounds impact your hearing, injury impacts your team’s chances of winning Sunday’s game, US farming yields impact the stock market value of tech companies. 

If people have no problem understanding impact by itself, the realisation that follows is a bit disheartening: people have forgotten what it means to be social. 

The Word Social and Its Many Meanings 

To be honest, I can’t blame them. A quick Chat-GPT prompt inquiring into popular uses of the word social returns: social media, social network, social interaction, social skills, social issues, social behaviour, social science, social services, social capital, social club, social justice, and yes, social impact. 

Not to mention the reference in corporate acronyms like CSR and ESG, both front lining ‘social’ but not really explaining what they are. 

Even the international standardisation organisation (ISO) does not really know what to do with social responsibility. Whereas everything from brand valuation (ISO 10668:2010) to general methods of testing paints and varnishes (ISO 787-22:2015) has a certifiable standard, social responsibility gets a high-level ‘guidance’ on what organisations could maybe consider focusing on. Is it really that difficult to come up with a clear definition social impact? 

Defining Social Impact 

Not at all. In essence, Social Impact is the effect of your actions (impact) on your social environment. Social environment here can be seen as the collective of individuals or communities that interact with and are affected by (using your) product or service. Now, this definition presents a bit of a problem. It cannot be standardised. 

This is exactly the problem ISO runs into, as do ESG and CSR. A kilo of carbon dioxide weighs the same in Accra as it does in Hong Kong, as it does in London, as it does in Sao Paolo. As soon as everybody uses the same vocabulary, developing a standardised measurement system becomes comparatively straightforward.

The Challenges of Measuring Social Impact 

The issue with social environments is that there is no kilo of joy, no metre of mental health, no litre of social cohesion. Every community has, by virtue of being a collective of human interactions, defined their own joy, and mental health, and social cohesion. Let me explain why this matters with a silly example. 

The other day I saw a billboard promoting that a certain brand’s dog food was taste-tested by humans. Apart from seeming either sado-masochistic or degrading, why on earth would there be a relation between human and canine taste?

Luckily no humans are dogs, which means that measuring the different ways in which communities assess social value is not impossible, and not even dramatically difficult. It just requires a little bit of care. 

A Question Mark, Not a Full Stop. 

Social Impact is a question. It is inquisitive rather than prescriptive. Understanding it requires curiosity, not a rule book. The way you ask that question is informed by how others have asked similar questions in different contexts. 

For some, that might be an unsatisfactory conclusion. For me, and for the work we do at YOC, it is exciting. It means that every project and every intervention has the potential to be different and to make a difference.