Fixed fee
Social Value Diagnostic
When you need clarity before committing budget: needs, stakeholders, priorities and options.
Social Value Studio · For organisations
From good intentions to measurable benefit.
We help companies, foundations, public institutions and development organisations design, deliver and evidence social value programmes that communities can feel and that you can defend in front of a board, a regulator or a community meeting.
01 The gap we close
Goodwill is not a strategy.
Many well-meant programmes treat a visible symptom without changing the conditions that reproduce it. We design against three common failure modes from the first conversation.
The riskWhat we design instead
Awareness without behaviour changeProgrammes with practice built in, and measures that look for changed behaviour, not just reach.
Training without applied experienceLearning connected to real community, school or organisational challenges, with supervised application.
Community activity without sustained ownershipCo-design with local people and institutions, and a continuity or exit plan agreed at the start.
Isolated CSR eventsAccountable programmes with governance, milestones and agreed evidence standards.
02 How an engagement works
Discover. Strategise. Design. Deliver. Measure. Improve.
Six stages, each with clear deliverables, decisions that stay yours, and an evidence standard agreed in advance. Improvement feeds the next cycle of discovery. Select a stage.
Stage 01 · Discover
Understand the need, with the people who live it.
Stakeholder mapping, materiality and needs assessment, listening with communities and local partners, and a review of existing evidence.
- Deliverables
- Stakeholder and needs map · Materiality assessment · Social Value Diagnostic
- Your decisions
- Which communities, geographies and issues matter most to your organisation.
- Evidence standard
- Sources and community voice documented; assumptions written down.
Our organisational profile describes the same pathway as Discover → Diagnose → Design → Deliver → Demonstrate → Improve.
03 Service lines
Six disciplines, commissioned together or alone.
Start with a single diagnostic or commission an end-to-end programme. Each service line produces deliverables you own.
- 01
Social value strategy
Know which outcomes your organisation should commit to, and why.
- Stakeholder mapping
- Materiality & needs assessment
- Priority outcomes
- Theory of change
- Implementation roadmap
- 02
Programme & project design
A programme that communities helped shape and finance teams can cost.
- Community co-design
- Feasibility
- Budgets & delivery plans
- Partnership structures
- Safeguarding & risk registers
- 03
Programme management
Delivery that keeps to plan, and says so when it doesn't.
- Project mobilisation
- Partner coordination
- Workplans & milestones
- Grant & contract reporting
- Quality assurance
- 04
Impact & evidence
Evidence that survives scrutiny, including findings you did not hope for.
- Baselines
- Indicator frameworks
- Dashboards
- Data collection protocols
- Evaluation, learning reports & case studies
- 05
People & partnerships
Turn your people and relationships into lasting local capability.
- Employee volunteering
- School & community partnerships
- Capacity building
- Community benefit
- Local leadership programmes
- 06
Research & advisory
Understand the culture behind the problem before you invest in a solution.
- Culture diagnostics
- Behavioural research
- Organisational learning
- Social innovation labs
- Policy-informed studies
04 Our evidence standard
We measure the change behind the numbers.
Each programme defines its baseline, target, data source, collection frequency, responsible owner and verification method before activity begins. Reach is reported separately from outcomes. Comparison groups or contribution analysis are used where feasible, and independent review is sought for major public claims.
We do not promise a social return ratio or claim community outcomes without a defensible method and data.
Five dimensions we apply, following the GIIN's IRIS+ framework
- Whatoutcome occurs, and how important is it to the people affected?
- Whoexperiences it, and how underserved are they?
- How muchchange, for how many, for how long?
- Contributionis ours, compared with what would have happened anyway?
- Riskthat the impact differs from what was expected?
Dimension wording summarised from the Global Impact Investing Network's impact measurement guidance (IRIS+).
No fabricated baselines · No outputs presented as outcomes · No unverified attribution
05 Ways to commission
Engagement models that match the decision in front of you.
Contracts can cover diagnostics, project fees, implementation retainers and independent evaluation. Fees are agreed per engagement.
Milestone-based
Design & delivery contract
When the direction is set and a programme must be designed and delivered against agreed milestones.
Retainer
Programme management
When you run a portfolio and need continuous coordination, quality assurance and reporting.
Fixed scope
Evaluation & reporting
When an existing programme needs a baseline, an evaluation or a credible social value report.
Earned income from client work is reinvested in research quality, local delivery capability and subsidised access for communities and schools that cannot pay.
06 Who commissions us
Organisations working with African communities.
- Corporates & SMEs
- Financial institutions
- Property & infrastructure developers
- Foundations
- Public agencies
- Universities
- Educational networks
- Faith-based & civic institutions
- Development partners
- International organisations
Our partnership standard
Every substantial engagement specifies, in writing:
- The public benefit
- Each partner's contribution
- Governance
- Safeguarding
- Brand use
- Data rights
- Financial arrangements
- Reporting cadence
- An exit or sustainability plan
Communities are stakeholders, not subjects. Sponsorship buys programme support and transparent reporting. It never buys access to children's personal data, editorial control over what young people believe, or advertising inside youth spaces.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you want to change.
Choose a starting point. Our team replies to every serious enquiry and will tell you plainly if we are not the right partner.