In recent weeks, the guidelines for assessing the Social Impact, issued with the Decree of 23 July 2019, were published in the Official Gazette of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies.
Despite the non-binding effectiveness of these, it is a tool for facilitating the concrete realization of the evaluation of the effects achieved and the results achieved with respect to the objectives programmed through the activities of general interest carried out by the Third Sector Entities on the basis of objective data; a tool that allows, among other things, to make systematic information available to stakeholders on the effects of the activities carried out.
The process to arrive at measuring the social impact must include the following phases: analysis of the context and needs; planning of impact objectives; analysis of the activities and choice of methodology, tool, timing of the measurement with respect to the objectives set and the characteristics of the intervention; qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the data collected, which must be carried out considering indexes and indicators, both monetary and non-monetary, coherent and appropriate to one's own sectors of general interest; and finally, communication of the results of the evaluation which will constitute the information basis for the reformulation of the strategies and the consequent objectives that the organization will set for the future development of its initiatives.
For the ETS who are required by law to prepare the social report and/or for those subjects who voluntarily choose to prepare the aforementioned document, the social impact assessment may become an integral part of this. Furthermore, it is envisaged that in order to ensure maximum knowledge of them and to encourage the development of evaluation practice, as well as the social balance sheet, the documents produced must be made available through the digital communication channels of the ETS and/or the related associative networks.
