Deciding which stakeholders are relevant
You can see from the example above that the SROI process would quickly
become unwieldy if you had to involve all possible stakeholders.
When deciding whether a stakeholder is relevant you need to think about what
Stag
the outcomes may be for them. Which stakeholders are experiencing significant
Stag
change as a result of your activities? In the next step you will be asking
e 1
stakeholders about this from their perspective and this may mean you have to
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change your initial decision about the outcomes. However, at this stage you need
an initial, broad understanding of stakeholder outcomes.
There is a tendency to focus on the positive outcomes that were intended (or expected)
by your stakeholders, particularly if you focus only on your organisational aims or
objectives, which do not usually identify unexpected or negative changes. However,
intended and unintended outcomes and positive and negative outcomes are all
relevant to SROI.
Some unintended outcomes can be positive. For example, a local economic
development initiative undertook an evaluative SROI analysis and found that there
had been a number of positive outcomes beyond getting a job. Those with children
said they were now able to be better parents because getting a job had improved their
general mental health and wellbeing. In some cases, unintended benefits can be more
important to stakeholders than those that were intended.
However, some unintended outcomes can be negative. For example, a London-based
charity flies young people from disadvantaged homes to Greece during the summer
holidays, to give those children an educational experience and a holiday. Alongside the
many positive outcomes for the young people, there is also an unintended negative
consequence of carbon emissions from the flights. Including the carbon emissions
simply makes the trade-off visible and might encourage ideas on how they achieve
their objectives in a less carbon-intensive way.
One type of unintended change happens when your activity displaces someone else’s
activity. For example, reducing crime in one area may displace criminal activity to
another area. In this case, the residents of the neighbouring area should be included as
stakeholders. This may mean you need to reconsider your scope.
Top Tip: Unintended consequences and forecasting
If you are forecasting your return it may be more difficult for you and your
stakeholders to assess possible unintended consequences. However, you may
be able to use other people’s previous experience of similar activities to identify
unintended outcomes.
22 A guide to Social Return on Investment
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