There are plenty of internal uses for social value data. It helps your housing association ensure you use your resources in the best way, which guarantees you’re investing in services with less risk and greater SROI. It also allows you to refine your long-term strategy to better serve your tenants and local communities. But that’s not all social value data is about.
The data you collect isn’t for your team’s eyes only. Social housing is a notoriously underfunded sector. And it’s your social value data that can be the difference between securing lucrative funding or not. You need to show that your daily efforts result in tangible, meaningful social returns. That investing in your organisation is a worthy investment in the local community, wider society, and planet.
All this comes down to trust. Funding bodies need to know that you mean what you say and can be counted on to deliver. So today, we’re looking at a few simple ways you can establish this trust through your social value reporting.
Show cause and effect
You could tell funding bodies that tenants are 30% happier since moving into their new home. But how do you know that there aren’t other factors at play? Such as the frequent coffee mornings taking place, the local library you’ve just built, or the sessions you’re hosting to help your tenants navigate the cost-of-living crisis? Any one of these could also be contributing to their wellbeing.
The wider outcomes of your efforts are important. But funding bodies will want to draw direct lines from the actions you take and the real-world outcomes they produce.
To achieve this, speak to your tenants directly. Alongside numerical data, include qualitative responses from surveys in your reporting and give your tenants a voice. Let funding bodies hear directly from your beneficiaries about the outcomes of your interventions and what specifically has had the greatest impact.
Stay aligned with your strategy
When it comes to allocating money, funding bodies won’t want any surprises. They’ll want to know exactly what to expect, where their money will be going, and to what end. One way to provide this peace of mind is by demonstrating an ongoing commitment to your social value strategy.
Your social value strategy or statement is a brilliant way to lay out your priorities and goals, and to keep yourself accountable for achieving them. And wherever possible, we recommend referring back to your progress towards these goals in your external reports.
You leave fewer ‘what ifs’ for funding bodies to reckon with. If they want to know what’s coming in the future, they can simply check.
If they can see that in the past you’ve been true to your word and stuck to your commitments, then there’s no reason you won’t do the same moving forward.
Compile a wide variety of data
To make the best decisions, funding bodies will want a large range of data. It’s not just about how you help the planet, people, or the economy. It’s a combination of all of these things. Your response to climate change, resident satisfaction, placemaking, security, and anything else matters. So the more data you can collect for each aspect of your social value, the easier it is for funding bodies to make their decision.
Similarly, you don’t want to only share the overwhelmingly positive results, but also the areas and initiatives that aren’t quite performing as expected.
Total transparency builds trust. Reporting on services where you’re still making improvements or are yet to see your desired outcomes tells funding bodies that you’re realistic and aware of all the work that’s still to be done.
In a sector where budgets are tight, your association’s impact heavily relies on your relationship with funding bodies. In this sense, it’s your social value reports that hold the keys to a longer-lasting legacy. By focusing on building trust and transparency first, you’ll be in a much better position to secure critical funding.
Impact is a framework-independent platform that streamlines and simplifies your entire social value process. Decentralised data capture, automated conversions, and intelligent survey functionality make it easy to prove your impact, capture feedback from tenants, make better decisions, and continue to change lives. To find out more, schedule a demo or get in touch with the team on 0161 532 4752.