The SROI Network Intl.

About The SROI Network

The SROI Network promotes the use and development of the Social Return on Investment methodology internationally, encouraging a community of practice along the way. The SROI Network is a membership organisation and a company limited by guarantee. The objectives of the SROI Network are:

• To ensure the principles and standards of SROI are adhered to
• To develop the methodology
• To disseminate information on indicators and proxies for use in SROI analyses
• To train SROI practitioners and provide peer support.

Staff

There is a small staff team to support these objectives

Chief Executive

Jeremy Nicholls became the chief executive of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Network in 2008. Starting his working life as an accountant, his work has increasingly focused on understanding and managing the value of the impact of organisation’s activities. He set up the Cat’s Pyjamas running events to promote the value of social enterprise and shortly after started working on the development of SROI. He wrote’ There is no business like Social Business’ with Liam Black and co-wrote the UK Government supported ‘Guide to SROI’ He is the chair of FairPensions, a director of the FRC Group - a social business based in Liverpool and a director of Social Evaluator - an online platform for the analysis of social returns. As an occasional lecturer he has lectured at several Universities including Said Business School at Oxford University. Cambridge University and the University of Western Australia.

Training Manager

Tim Goodspeed has been the Training Manager since 2008. He has a background in economic development and social enterprise. He is an experienced trainer and an Accredited Practitioner. Tim is one of the authors of the Guide to SROI and has written and been involved in many SROIs. He is also a member of the Methodology subcommittee and is actively involved in developing and applying SROI.

Assurance Manager

Karl Leathem has previously worked as a lecturer in social education, in community development/community relations and social policy settings in Northern Ireland followed by work on employability of excluded people. He has latterly worked as a freelance consultant largely with social economy projects. Karl is an experienced SROI practitioner who has been involved in SROI in the early days of its introduction to the UK including early work with the European SROI Network and collaboration with others, which led to him being part of the initial group that formed the Board of Trustees that launched The SROI Network. Karl has been an SROI Accredited Practitioner for some years, his current practitioner work involves projects with excluded inner-city young people, the impact of training for women in community settings, SROI analysis of services in support of people involved in substance misuse and a project looking at the impact of conflict resolution initiatives in Belfast. Taking an interest in the promotion and development of SROI, Karl has been involved in the early work on SROI Network Assurance and Accreditation. His immediate plans for the Assurance Manager post are to look at the development and improvement of member assurance services which will include a rationalisation and strategic review of current processes while retaining a hands on perspective through continuation of work as a freelance SROI practitioner.

Communications and Membership Manager

Emily Crawford spent the first three years after graduation as Communications Assistant for two of the UK’s most prolific regional theatres and followed this for a year as a Marketing Executive with an international technology company. She is now responsible for both communications and membership at the Network.

WikiVOIS Database Officer

Emma Weston joined the SROI Network in September 2012 from the Directory of Social Change where she carried out research into Corporate Social Responsibility. Emma holds a BA (Hons) in History from Queen Mary College, University of London with particular interest in social history and social movements.

Office Administrator

Guy Cole joined the SROI Network after graduating from the University of Edinburgh in Ecological Sciences. Guy is interested in the accounting for ecosystem services and environmental impacts of organisations.

Intern

Philipp Kenel is currently completing an M.A. in Social Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London which includes a core module on SROI. After attending school in Germany and Peru, he spent one year working in an environmental social enterprise in Japan. Philipp did his undergraduate degree in Politics with Economics and Geography at three different universities in Mainz, Valencia and London. Philipp has gained work experience in the Representation of the European Commission in Bonn and in a CSR consulting firm in Germany.

Chief Scientific Advisor

Daniel Fujiwara is a consultant on social impact measurement and researcher at the London School of Economics. He specialises in microeconomic theory, philosophy of social impact measurement, micro-econometrics for causal inference, non-market valuation, behavioural economics and neuroscience as applied to social impact measurement and is a leading researcher on the Wellbeing Valuation method. He has worked with and advised a large number of high-profile organisations on social impact measurement, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis and SROI, including the the UK Government, the Obama Administration, the Government of Poland, the World Bank, the United Nations and various charities and private sector organisations. His current advisory roles include being senior advisor on policy evaluation to the Polish Government and European Union, technical advisor on assessment of social impact bonds to the Cabinet Office, head of quantitative methods for Danone and lecturer on social impact and policy evaluation to the UK Government.

In his previous posts Daniel was head of the cost-benefit analysis division at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and was senior economist in the policy evaluation team in the Ministry of Finance, Tanzania. He developed the cost-benefit analysis framework for employment programmes used in the UK and in Poland and was a lead adviser on valuation techniques for non-market goods in the UK Government, where he developed guidance for the HM Treasury Green Book. Most recently he was senior economist in the Cabinet Office. In total Daniel has overseen evaluations for public sector investments of over £4 billion. In 2012 he was awarded the John Hoy Memorial Prize in Economics for his contribution to policy evaluation in the UK Government. Daniel has a BA and Msc in Economics and is currently near-completing a PhD in policy evaluation at the London School of Economics.

The Board

Chair

Richard Kennedy operates in the field of social venture support and social investment and he leads the Ventures team at The Young Foundation.  His team provides business support and finance to social ventures, advises large organisations on social venturing and investment and delivers training on how to survive and thrive in a changing funding environment.  Richard’s previous role was Head of Social Investment at CAN where he was for six years.  Richard has an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Cape Town University and London Business School specialising in social enterprise. For more information on The Young Foundation please visit http://youngfoundation.org

Director

Jenni Inglis is consultant on social value in public service markets. Current work includes support to social enterprises selling to the public sector in the West Midlands and training and bespoke projects for Local Authorities on commissioning for Social Value. Recent work includes a supplement for commissioners to the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Guide published by the Cabinet Office, contribution to a study of social value created by social enterprises supplying mainstream health and social care for the Department of Health and major research into social enterprises in an English Region. Previously at Social Enterprise East Midlands, she initiated and contributed to “Social Enterprise and the Public Sector, a practical guide to law and policy” and was a Board member for the Office of the Third Sector Social Clauses Project. She has an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice from the University of Bath (2007).

Director

Sheila Durie operates in the fields of social enterprise development, mental health and employment policy and organisational development. She has completed a large pilot programme on SROI, working with Forth Sector and supported by the Scottish Government and the European Equal programme. This helped 8 organisations implement SROI, resulting in 10 SROI reports across a spectrum of activities in the social enterprise and social economy sectors. During this pilot, building on her academic background in psychology, she developed new methods for measuring and financialising ‘soft outcomes’ such as employability, social capital and health improvement. She is the chair of ‘Social Enterprise in East Lothian’, a Board member of Social Firms Scotland and is chair of Re-Union Canal Boats Ltd.

Director

Nick Temple currently works at Social Enterprise UK, prior to this Nick was working as an independent consultant with a whole host of organisations, including UnLtd, Skills Third Sector, the Guardian, Venture Partnership Foundation, Stepping Out, British Council and the London School of Economics. Nick also co-founded and helped run POPse!, the world’s first pop-up social enterprise think-tank.
Nick was previously the Director of Policy and Communications at the School for Social Entrepreneurs, with responsibility for all communications, policy work with government, and overseeing evaluation and research. He also designed and delivered learning programmes on social franchising and for leaders of NHS Right to Request social enterprises. Before that, he was director of the Global Ideas Bank and the Natural Death Centre, and co-edited Poem for the Day Two and the Time Out Book of Country Walks vol.2, books whose royalties go back into charitable work.

Director

Pieter is the managing partner of shærpa. His professional background is in accountancy and finance. In that field, he has had various top-level functions, including the position of CFO, for international organisations. Eight years ago, he switched to the philanthropy sector. As a director of Noaber Foundation he managed the service organisation which ultimately was the foundation for shærpa. The decision to switch resulted from his ambition to make societal impact and value creation (in addition to creating shareholder value) a significant part of his professional activities. The objective of these professionally structured activities is to realise positive changes for the wicked problems in society. He often states that his ambition is to “merry a venture capital approach to societal goals”, and his work with shærpa is dedicated to doing exactly that on a daily basis. Furthermore, as a board member of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA), he actively works to further professionalise venture philanthropy on the European stage. He is also a member of the board of directors of Social Alpha Investment Fund of Alpha Mundi.

Director

Before joining ICAEW Richard worked as a strategy consultant in the Natural Resources division of Accenture. Prior to that he held a number of roles at N M Rothschild & Sons Ltd in the bank's treasury and natural resources project finance teams as well as spending a year at Rothschild Australia, a sister organisation. Richard began his career at the Bank of England in banking supervision.
Richard holds degrees from the universities of Leeds and London. He is a Visiting Fellow of the Cass Business School, Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Hull Business School and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a member of the FTSE4Good Policy Committee, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board Technical Working Group and the Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens (FEE) Sustainability Working Group.

Our Sub Committees

Methodology Sub-Committee

The methodology sub-committee is responsible for developing the SROI methodology. It is made up of members who have expressed interest method. This sub-committee is co-chaired by Jenni Inglis and Sara Olsen.

Assurance Sub-Committee

The assurance sub-committee oversees the assurance process making recommendation to the Board for any changes, approves decisions from the assurance process and deals with any appeals. The committee is headed by Helen Fitzhugh.

UK Council

The UK Council advises on UK strategy and provides advice and guidance on issues as requested by the Board. This is currently made up of 11 members and is currently chaired by Jeremy Wyatt.

WikiVOIS

The WikiVOIS sub-committee supports the development of the SROI wiki platform. Currently this is made up of small number of members with experience in developing data systems.

International Governance

Following meetings with international members and representatives of national networks, the SROI Network Board has asked Richard Kennedy and Peter Scholten to develop proposals for the development of the international network.

Address & Contact

Office Address:

The SROI Network,
(14) 7th Floor,
Silkhouse Court,
Tithebarne Street,
Liverpool,
L2 2LZ.

Tel: 0151 703 9229

Email: info@thesroinetwork.org