2 Glossary
Attribution An assessment of how much of the outcome was caused by
the contribution of other organisations or people.
Cost allocation The allocation of costs or expenditure to activities related to a
given programme, product or business.
Deadweight A measure of the amount of outcome that would have
happened even if the activity had not taken place.
Discounting The process by which future financial costs and benefits are
recalculated to present-day values.
Discount rate The interest rate used to discount future costs and benefits to
a present value.
Displacement An assessment of how much of the outcome has displaced
other outcomes.
Distance travelled The progress that a beneficiary makes towards an outcome
(also called ‘intermediate outcomes’).
Drop-off The deterioration of an outcome over time.
Duration How long (usually in years) an outcome lasts after the
intervention, such as length of time a participant remains in a
new job.
Financial value The financial surplus generated by an organisation in the
course of its activities.
Financial model A set of relationships between financial variables that allow
the effect of changes to variables to be tested.
Impact The difference between the outcome for participants, taking
into account what would have happened anyway, the
contribution of others and the length of time the
outcomes last.
Impact Map A table that captures how an activity makes a difference: that
is, how it uses its resources to provide activities that then lead
to particular outcomes for different stakeholders.
Resour
Income An organisation’s financial income from sales, donations,
Resour
contracts or grants.
ces ces
 A guide to Social Return on Investment
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