Problem and Possibility in SROI Evaluation: Case Study on SROI Trial Evaluation at Saitama Prefecture

Abstract

Social Return on Investment (SROI) has received great attention in recent years in Japan. SROI is a framework for measuring and accounting for social business, which was created in the US and developed in the UK. Involving stakeholders is a characteristic of SROI and mapping outcomes makes the structure of a project clear. However, the SROI method has some difficulties and lacks reliability. In this paper, we attempt to identify some problems from experiences of using SROI in the Saitama Prefecture. As a result, participants estimated communication highly which brought by SROI, but reliability of SROI lower. In order to improve the reliability of SROI, the non-profit sector has to try to make the Japanese standard Financial Proxies. Moreover, it is also necessary to consider using SROI as a communication tool.