We’ve been doing a lot of work on our business plan for 2017 – 2020 (with NPS, thanks to Norfolk ProHelp), and our annual report for 2016 – 2017 (with Future Coders).
In the process we calculated the social value of our projects over the last financial year, using the HACT Social Value Bank calculator.
The housing-based measure isn’t sensitive enough to capture the nuance of our approach, and rather depressingly the only heading where heritage, art and culture might fit is under ‘hobbies’. So we have mostly used a comparatively low value heading at £1,773 called ‘regular attendance at a voluntary or local organisation’, downplaying sessions at Stonehenge, Norfolk Record Office, Norwich Arts Centre, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Burgh Castle, to name but a few!
Much higher value headings include for example ‘relief from depression/anxiety’ at £36,766, but we will wait for our research reports before we apply that measure. If we did use it, the impact ratio would be 1:40, with net benefit to the order of £2.39 million.
Even so, we still get great results.
The overall budget for our projects was £61,256
The overall social impact was £135,652
The ratio of budget to impact was 1:2.21
The net benefit was £74,396
Restoration Trust 