Demonstrating Value

What Is the Demonstrating Value Project?

The Demonstrating Value Project is a collaborative research project to develop a framework for assessing the impact and performance of social enterprises in Canada. The project engages both social enterprise investors and operators in a process to develop and pilot a framework that will assist a social enterprise and their stakeholders to understand, communicate and assess financial performance, organizational sustainability, and mission-related impacts.


The project is coordinated by Vancity, with additional financial and technical support from the following organizations:

  • Coast Capital Savings
  • Community Economic Development Technical Assistance Program (CEDTAP)
  • Enterprising Non-Profits (enp)
  • Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)
  • Renewal Partners
  • SAP Business Objects

 

Why is it Important?

Those who operate and invest in social enterprise seek to demonstrate their value as an innovative means to meet community needs, and to bring about desirable social and environmental change. They also want to understand if, and how, they are meeting the objectives for which there were created, and to use that information to improve performance. But assessing performance and impact of is challenging - while tools that specifically relate to social enterprise are emerging, they have different applications, resource requirements, and were developed to meet particular needs. It is not easy for diverse social enterprises and their investors to navigate the developments and relate them to their own assessment needs. Faced with this challenge, a group of social enterprises and investors initiated the Demonstrating Value Project to define a shared assessment framework to relate and extend the emerging tools in performance measurement and impact assessment, and to encourage common reporting formats.

 

Additional Information

For more information about the Demonstrating Value, go to www.demonstratingvalue.org

The following documents can also be downloaded (in pdf). 

Framework Summary Download PDF

Developing the Demonstrating Value Framework

Investor Lens Workshop, October 2008 Download PDF

Framework Development Workshop, May 2007: Download PDF 

Concept Paper: Download PDF

Survey of Related Research Projects: Download PDF

Project Development (2006) Needs Assessment 

Stakeholder interviews  Summary | Full Report
Literature review  Summary | Full Report

Other Resources

Sample Social Enterprise Snapshot

Social Enterprises can use the Demonstrating Value framework to develop  a 'Social Enterprise Snapshot' which provides an at-a-glance summary report of the enterprise's performance and value. For more information about this reporting solution and a sample, click here.

Articles:

"The Demonstrating Value Initiative: Performance Assessment that Puts Practioners in the Driver's Seat," Making Waves, Vol. 7, No. 4: 11-14.  Download PDF

Presentations:

Bryn Sadownik and Steve Williams
Demonstrating Value: Building Resilient Social Enterprises
Vancouver, BC, March 12, 2009

Presentation with Interactive Features  Download Powerpoint  (8 MB)

Presentation without Interactive Features Download Powerpoint (1.9 MB)

Note: to see the interactive features (enterprise snapshot) you will need the most recent version of Flash Player  (Download)

Irene Gannitsos and Joanne Norris
Is It Working: Social Enterprise Performance Measurement
2nd Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise
Vancouver, BC, January 30, 2007

Presentation | Accompanying Handouts

Recommended sites with performance and impact tools and examples: