Evaluating Social ReturnGray Ghost recognizes that the definition and measurement of social return is an inexact science. A great deal of work is underway to develop conventions and standards that can be used to consistently evaluate social return. We anticipate incorporating such conventions into our analysis as they become available.Although no current approach to measuring social return is accepted across the microfinance industry, Gray Ghost believes that the benefit of applying a consistent approach to comparing the social return generated by different investment opportunities outweighs the disadvantages. For Gray Ghost's purposes, social return is defined as a function of four broad dimensions, each of which is evaluated with reference to a number of subsidiary indicators that Gray Ghost uses to arrive at a composite score. In most cases, the focus is the microfinance institution (MFI) and some basic data on its clients. We do not currently attempt to include indicators that look to client-level impact, although they can be accommodated by the framework in the future to the extent that standardized and widely used measures become available. Click here to learn more about Gray Ghost's indicators for calculating social return. |
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