SVT is an S-corp with a fee-for-service revenue model. We are also a certified B Corporation, a member of Green America, and a registered San Francisco Green Business.
As a company, we help increase demand for and lower the cost of information about impact.
Our two key performance objectives are:
- Build the capacity of impact-oriented companies, investors, and nonprofits measure, manage, and mobilize their social and environmental impact
- Raise awareness of the fact that all organizations have impact, and that it can be managed, should be managed, and is valuable to manage
To tell how well we’re getting there, we use our Manage to ImpactTM process on ourselves, and reach out to all clients to learn what works and what we can improve. We also have an internal 360 degree performance review system, and strive to minimize and zero out our carbon footprint.
Our Return on Investment
I. Resources Invested
We are a lean operation. Most of our projects involve the work of partners with the additional contributions of special domain experts, talented contractor associates, and bright interns, all supported by bookkeeping, legal, and office management support. The results below have been produced most often by one Full Time Equivalent (FTE) person or less per project for the duration of the project.
II. Advisory Services
Scope and Reach
Assets with impact assessed: From 2001-2011, we estimate that a cumulative total of $2.3 Billion dollars worth of assets are being or have been evaluated for net social or environmental impact using frameworks we either designed, co-designed, or have informed in a meaningful way.
For the significant majority of these assets it was the first time this kind of assessment/management had ever been done by the organization or its industry. Our work has broken new ground and engaged new players in attempting to get a handle on what their extra-financial impacts are.
Number of organizations: These system have been applied to roughly 2165 individual companies or organizations via our clients (each client works with an average of 35 other companies or organizations; some via lending or investment portfolios, others via networks). Some of these companies are using the skills and systems comprehensively, others in small areas of operations, and others are determining how to implement the concepts and systems.
Geography The client work we’ve done has involved work in 23 countries, with the slight majority of our time and clients’ resources having to do with US operations. Parties in other countries may have benefited by the work indirectly.
Quality of our Advisory Services
We surveyed our past advisory clients from 2001-2009 and received responses from 41%. The top two most cited results of our work are:
- Greater clarity around strategy and goals
- Improved communications
One hundred percent of those who responded said they would recommend working with us, 87% with no reservations of any kind. The others would do so with a caveat about bringing additional targeted expertise into the project team, such as biodiversity management, or with clearer expectation setting around project time management.
III. Workshops
Scope and Reach of our Workshops
Since inception we have trained (in person) approximately 2,580 workshop participants in the basic concepts and skills of impact management beyond our clients. We track these numbers for each event and tally them on an annual basis.
Quality of Our Workshops
We strive to obtain feedback on the quality and usefulness of these workshops to continuously improve. We are working to design solutions that allow us to keep in touch with workshop participants more easily so we can learn whether and how they use the content from the workshops.
IV. Impact of Our Writing, Speaking and Mentoring
To promote the idea that impact can be measured and of the benefits of doing so, we write and contribute to books, articles and blogs. We do not formally track nor do we publish the numbers of people reached and the way it has affected them.
We have also provided pro bono advice to numerous organizations though we do not systematically track the impact of most of this. We do this work to build awareness of the value of, and demand for, impact management as a standard practice for all organizations.
V. Other Aligned Work
Our founder Sara Olsen has also boosted awareness of and skills for impact management through her involvement as one of 5 co-founders of the Global Social Venture Competition, and as instigator along with co-founder Alison Lingane of the competition’s impact analysis requirement. Since 1999 the GSVC has raised awareness among some 15,000 entrants, judges, mentors and student organizers worldwide that social and environmental impact can and should be modeled alongside financial impact in business plan projections, and can be tracked along with other key performance indicators. Over 1,000 entrant teams have developed impact analyses in their submissions.
We welcome your inquiries and suggestions! Please contact us.