The Happiness Foundation’s understanding is that the tool itself is not the most important aspect of IA. It is cognizant that SROI has certain drawbacks but what matters is the idea of quantifying impact into measurement so both the investor and investee can talk about how to improve and how much progress to make.
DIMENSIONS
The Happiness Foundation’s motivation for IA comes from the need for performance management of investees. To define indicators, the foundation first examines potential investees’ social mission by checking addressed social problems and the intervention. Then, the foundation evaluates SPO’s social outcomes for the past three years and forecasts for the next three years. After the investment is carried out, the foundation tracks investees’ performance. The foundation focuses largely on measuring the contribution of investees. Although the foundation does not consider additionality in the process of measuring social outcomes, the foundation tries to screen-out enterprises with negative outcomes in the DD process. The foundation’s impact is the sum of the investees’ contribution. It compares the amount of social value each company creates in a time series manner but not across companies because each company’s social value is incomparable across different sectors and business models.
FRAMEWORKS
The foundation uses an SROI-like evaluation framework to value portfolio company’s social value. It applies the general framework of SROI but does not count for additionality.
IMPLEMENTATION
As SPOs have social missions to accomplish, they are already keen on understanding their social impact. The foundation advise SPOs how to improve and maximize. To motivate improvement and measurement, the foundation gives incentives, such as deducting an interest on convertible bonds or dividends on common/preferred
stocks, for social impact. Investment managers are responsible for impact assessment and are the point of contact between the foundation and the SPOs.
PRESENTATION
Publish annual reports with impact data > sk.com/contribution/foundation