the DEMOS report - "Measuring Social Value"

The Demos report "measuring social value: the gap between policy and practice" asks a very important question 'is there a standard method of measuring SROI?'.
The answer is: that depends.
There are many ways to measure social impact, and the social value generated; some are comprehensive, and at the same time resource intensive and complicated; whereas others are more toe in the water, relatively simplistic, but at the same time easy to implement.  Some focus entirely on qualitative approaches such as case studies and stories, whereas others make an attempt to quantify, and to give an indication of what the fund or commission is going to get for their money. Figure 1 is from the report:
 
Within the UK, the approach favoured by the SROI Network (and the New Economics Foundation, and the Scottish Government, and the Office of Civil Society) is the Social Return on Investment methodology (SROI) which, by its place in the bottom right-hand corner, this creates the most standardised and 'accurate' results, and requires the most resource to implement.
The Demos report points out that a few charity sector organisations have the resources, the culture or the skills to report on their activities to SROI standards. And yet, the SROI methodology is robust, accepted, and standardised across the UK.