Social Impact

SIMI

Social Impact Management Guidelines

Ver.2

management Initiative

Highlights and Key Points

October 2021
Social Impact Management Initiative (SIMI), Japan© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

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Chapter１

Chapter 4

Why of Social Impact

Working with Impact
Management Cycle

Outline of the
Guidelines

Chapter 2

Chapter 5

What is Social Impact

Culture and GovernanceManagement?

Chapter 6

Chapter 3
Practicing Social Impact

Steps in Social Impact
Management

Management

Basics© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

Practice2

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Principles for Social Impact Intention
Regardless of our differences in positions and roles in society, we collectively aim to create a better
society by engaging in projects and activities with the following social impact intention.

Develop and improve businesses with an emphasis on social impact
We commit to actively working with or supporting businesses that prioritize social impact. We articulate
logical path, time horizon, and resources required for problem-solving and value creation from a long-term
perspective. We also evaluate the social impact and implement the PDCA cycle.
Work in collaboration with diverse entities
We commit to facilitating collaborations across industries and fields among non-profit organizations,
corporations, funders, intermediaries, individual citizens and governments to bring together knowledge,
experience, technology and other assets for problem-solving and value creation.
Disseminate business models for scale
We commit to creating business models that can be replicated in other locations and sectors through active
communication and sharing the knowledge gained from individual initiatives. We will scale good practices
and increase social impact.
© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

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Why of Social Impact Management
Conducting social impact management fulfills the following purposes:

1

Better decision-making
and improvement

To generate better decision making and business improvement (decision
making and improvement) by learning from the changes and values createdby projects and initiatives.

2

Promoting participationand collaboration

To enable stakeholders to obtain information on the progress and social impact
of projects and initiatives, and to participate in decision-making andimprovement processes.

3

Contribution to problem
solving and value creation

To advance social problem-solving and value creation, and to contribute toknowledge building for these purposes.

© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

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3-1 Practicing Social Impact Management
Practicing Social Impact Management is to work on the Impact Management Cycle, which consists of 4
stages and 1 element that supports all stages.

Stage 1

Plan

Stage 2

Do

Stage 3

AssessStage 4

Report ＆ Utilize

One element that supports all stages: Culture ＆ Governance© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

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3-2

Practicing Social Impact Management
Three characteristics of the
Impact Management Cycle

1. Applying evaluation
It is essential to have a clear intention and practice to make decisions
based on solid impact information and to utilize them to theimprovement of projects and initiatives.
2. From cycle to spiral
In some cases, it is important to think of multiple projects as a unit, or to
expand the number of organizations and people involved, in order todevelop projects and initiatives that address root cause of the issue athand. The impact management cycle is not one project cycle, but rather a
progression of cycles (i.e., spiral) for problem-solving and value creation
with a comprehensive approach.
3. Importance of corporate culture and governanceIn order to expand the spiral, organizations’ capacity needs to beenhanced. Specifically, fostering a corporate culture and improving
governance with impact at the center are two important components.
© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

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3-3

Evaluation for Social Impact

Any projects or initiatives, stand-alone or collective efforts, that aim to solve problems or create value need to answer
the questions related to design logic and validity of the implementation process. These evaluation questions areembedded in the impact management cycle.
Does the project objective
meet societal needs?

Are the findings being utilized
effectively for improving the work?

Is the project plan
appropriate to achieve theproject objective?

Are the invested resources
utilized effectively?
Is the project being carriedout adequately?

Is the project producing the
expected results?
© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

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Alternating between the two perspectives
In the Social Impact Management process, you will need to incorporate the two distinct perspectives,
work on an iterative process to hop from one perspective to the other and repeat the process, so thatdecision-making at each step is informed by evaluative judgment.
Evaluation Perspective
Decision-Making Perspective
Setting Objectives

Are the objectives going to address issues
that matter?

Setting strategy andplans

Does the strategy have a sound logic?

Implementation

Is the plan implemented adequately?
Are you observing signs of outcome ?

Is the plan feasible?

：：© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

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5-1

Going through the Steps for STAGE 1: Plan
Decision-Making Perspective

Evaluation Perspective

Setting goals ofsocial impact management

Clarify the organizational mission andobjectives of the organization

Determine if the organization's
objective is socially meaningful

Problemanalysis and identifying
issuesIdentify the issues you need to solve
and the value you want to create

Determine the importance of the issues
and value identified

Strategy setting
and vetting

Define and verify strategy for problemsolving and value creation

Develop a theory of change or logic
model and test if the strategy is soundand adequate

Develop projectplan and evaluation plan

Determine the best way to evaluate theoutcome and process of the project

Develop the evaluation design andverify its appropriateness5-2

Going through the Steps for STAGES 2, 3, 4
Decision-Making Perspective

Evaluation Perspective

STAGE 2: Do
Implementation Assess the project progress, and review
the strategy and plan as needed.
and monitoring

Monitor and evaluate the status of the
project (process and outcome) andverify progress

STAGE 3: Assess
Data analysis

Identify the final outcome of the project
or initiative

Validate the final outcome of the
project or initiative

STAGE 4: Report & Utilize
Reporting andutilization

Prepare a clear and easy-to-understandreport© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

Prepare a report that fully discloses thebasis of factual identification and value
judgment

SIMI

The Guidelines (in English) in full will be available to download from the SIMI website (https://simi.or.jp/en).
We hope that the English version will be useful for enterprises and businesses outside Japan who are seeking
to optimize impact of their work.

For inquiries, please write to:
SIMI (Social Impact Management Initiative), Japan
info@simi.or.jp
The Guidelines were created by SIMI, with the support from Social Innovation and Investment Foundation (SIIF).

© Social Impact Management Initiative（SIMI）

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