Social return on investment is a tool to measure creating value for communities
Not focusing solely on profit margins, companies are using a new tool called SROI, which stands for social return on investment, to measure their social impact.
Traditionally, companies reflect their success in financial statements, but when using the SROI method, values are measured from social, economic and environmental factors, identifying how effectively companies use their capital to create positive value for communities.
Sakulthip Kiratiphantawong, secretary general of the Thai Social Value Association, gave examples of the methods used for allocating information from a range of different stakeholders.
“We conduct surveys and focus groups, in-depth interviews for qualitative data and also quantitative data, so we need both subjective and objective data to review their experience and how projects affected them in a negative or positive way,” she said.
She said that by using SROI, companies can track numbers and demonstrate the true value of giving back, inspiring other enterprises to join the cause.
On Tuesday, Frasers Property Thailand along with the Thai Social Value Association held a roundtable revealing their social return on investment (SROI) from blood-donation projects at Samyan Mitrtown mall, pointing out that companies can benefit from giving back to society.
Starting in 2020, blood drives were held every three months, and after holding 15 of them, Frasers Property Thailand was able to donate a large quantity of blood to the Thai Red Cross Society.
Sarit Triroj, Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications and Branding of Frasers Property Thailand said that they were committed to making Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) more tangible, with targets including achieving Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions, implementing waste separation, and particularly emphasizing the blood donation campaign that has proven to be so successful that Frasers has expanded it to other office buildings in Bangkok such as Park Ventures and Sathorn Square.
Using the SROI method to evaluate the project, it was found that every 1 baht that was invested created a social value of 4.5 baht. Evaluations would be estimated by auditors of the Thai Social Value Association, weighing social impact against financial investments.
The social values that were used to evaluate social value gained from the blood drive consisted of five factors.
First, for blood donors, early detection of illness through pre-donation screening can attribute to long-term health care.
Second, volunteers were able to develop their people and management skills as well as participating in blood-donation activities that can promote positive values and a sense of pride.
Third, local businesses showed an increase in sales from higher foot traffic, while the fourth point was blood centres that were happy about the increased blood supply.
Fifth, Fraser Property Thailand found through internal surveys that organising blood drives promoted their employees’ pride and loyalty towards the organisation as well as increasing brand awareness.
