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Metrical analysis is often characterized by a drive to find a common measurement or set of measurements by which organizations can be compared. The assumption is that the metric(s) acting as a proxy can effectively normalize the different results being measured, and thus provide insight into the value of the work, regardless of what the work is. Unfortunately it is not so simple. This speaks to a confusion between data and value—the former being empirical, the latter subjective. While this discrepancy has been recognized within the SROI methodology, it is important to delve deeper in the interest of clarification for emerging SROI practitioners.

For some the word ‘valuation’ carries with it a sense of profit, equity or financial returns. From this perspective, a critique of SROI might be that reducing social efforts to financial is simply feeding the fire that cases social problem to begin with—a desensitized number that gives little insight into the behind-the-scenes complexity. The value measured here, however, is contextual. The goal is not this desensitized representation using agreed upon terminology, but quite the opposite. SROI provides an opportunity to define value within a given situation, based on the unique qualities of a project.

Social return on investment allows valuation parameters to be defined for each project. Value is determined by the stakeholders and measured accordingly. That is not to say stakeholders only measure what is considered positive or successful, but what is directly relevant to their goals and project-specific characteristics. As such, value becomes a means of description for ground-level work rather than a means of creating a single metric for comparison across disparate projects.