How can a funder measure the social value of the programmes they fund?

Short answer: have everything report the same two things, then add them up. If you’re a funder, grant-maker, sponsor or anchor institution, you can see the costed social value and the outcomes across your whole funded portfolio — aggregated by project, sector, region and over time — instead of a drawer full of incomparable reports. Here’s how, and why funders are asking for it now.

Why this is landing now

Funding is moving from “how many sessions did the grant pay for?” to “what changed, and what was it worth?”. Outcomes-based funding and value-for-money pressure mean you’re increasingly asked to show the impact of your spend — not just that the money went out the door. The problem: every funded project reports differently, the soft outcomes rarely get captured at all, and the everyday social value falls through the gap. So the number you can put in your own annual report understates what your funding actually achieved on the ground.

What you’d actually do

1. Have each funded project log its activity. Every project logs the staff hours behind its work, and Owl Impact converts them into a costed figure in pounds, using a recognised national proxy. Two minutes per session, no spreadsheet. See how logging works →
2. Capture the distance travelled too. Where there’s a session or programme, projects ask the group a simple before/after question on a 1–10 scale — confidence, skills, readiness. It’s anonymous and group-level: low GDPR risk. That’s your outcome data.
3. Aggregate across the portfolio. Everything rolls up — by project, by sector, by region and over time — into one costed total and the outcomes behind it. See aggregate insight →
4. Badge it under your name. The reports can be badged under the funder’s own name, so your portfolio’s impact is evidenced as one body of work — ready for your board, your annual report and your own funders. This is your funded portfolio, reported as what your money enabled; each delivery organisation keeps its own figure. See it for sponsors & funders →
5. Report one costed, outcomes-backed total. Instead of a stack of activity counts, you hand over a dated, costed figure — the social value generated across everything you funded, and the change it made.

Why it fits a funder especially well

You sit above the delivery, which makes you the natural aggregator. The work happens across your funded projects; Owl Impact lets each capture it in two minutes, and you see the whole picture in one place. Because the outcome data is anonymous and group-level, you get the evidence without the safeguarding and GDPR weight of holding data on individuals — and because the figure is professionally costed against a recognised proxy, it stands up in front of your board and your own funders.