Guidance on applying
Principle 8: Be Responsive

The eighth Principle of Social Value ‘Be Responsive’ is a management principle. It represents the imperative for organisations to respond to impact measurement or ‘Social Value accounts’ with action.

Two guidance documents are available to support the application of Principle 8: Be responsive.

Together, these documents form a complete framework for applying Principle 8 in practice. When used alongside the other Principles of Social Value and SVI Standards, they can help you strengthen your approach to managing and reporting social value, ultimately contributing to more responsive, sustainable, and equitable outcomes for people and communities.

Guidance for organisations
This document explains how
senior leaders and decision makers can embed responsiveness within their impact management approach, ensuring that social value data informs decisions at strategic, tactical, and operational levels.

Guidance for organisations

Guidance for practitioners
This document provides complementary advice for those who investigate, analyse, and report on social value. It sets out how practitioners can apply and evidence Principle 8 in their reporting and prepare for assurance.

Guidance for practitioners

Further reading:

  • SDG Impact Standards

    The SDG Impact Standards (the Standards) have been developed by SDG Impact – a flagship initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – to help investors and enterprises operate more sustainably and contribute positively to sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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  • The Maximise Your Impact Guide

    This guide is written for social entrepreneurs who want to maximise their positive impact and want a practical approach to help them do that. The key to this approach is ‘Impact Thinking’ and at its heart this means involving and being accountable to stakeholders, primarily those that the social enterprise aims to support.

    This guide does not tell you how to produce an impact report. We hope that users of this guide will focus on producing recommendations: to change, stop or scale their activities.

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  • Impact Mangement Principles

    EVPA’s guidance for impact management and Social Value International’s (SVI) Principles are in many ways interlinked. This document shows EVPA and SVI’s position on impact measurement and management.

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