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Calvert Giving Fund

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About the Social Return on Investment Tool

About the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Calculator

This tool allows you to better understand potential social return on investment based on data we've collected from numerous organizations in the field. The output quantifies the community improvements that can be accomplished using your investment. If you specify a sector, the output relates only the possibilities in that sector. If a sector is not specified, the output relates the possibilities for each sector. Please keep in mind that the tool calculates the impact of the entire investment on each sector. Thus the outputs are mutually exclusive. Each of the potential outputs is listed below along with the logic behind the calculation:

Your investment could build or improve (#) homes. An average is taken of the following calculation for all CDFIs that fall within the selection: Dollar amount of investment x [(Housing units financed + Housing units developed)/Dollars spent on Housing Lending and Development during the last fiscal year] x Investment Term.

Your investment could finance (#) microenterprises and create (#) jobs. An average is taken of the following calculations for all CDFIs that fall within the selection:

• Microenterprises = Dollar amount of investment x (Number of microenterprises financed/Dollars lent to microenterprises during the last fiscal year) x Investment Term.
• Jobs created = Dollar amount of investment / (Number of microenterprises jobs created/Dollars lent to microenterprises during the last fiscal year) x Investment Term.

Your investment could finance (#) small businesses and create (#) jobs. An average is taken of the following calculations for all CDFIs that fall within the selection:

• Small Businesses = Dollar amount of investment x (Number of small businesses financed/Dollars lent to small business development during the last fiscal year) x Investment Term.
• Jobs created = Dollar amount of investment x (Number of small business jobs created/Dollars lent to small business development during the last fiscal year) x Investment Term.

Your investment could finance (#) community developments/ cooperatives. An average is taken of the following calculation for all CDFIs that fall within the selection: Dollar amount of investment x (Number of facilities or cooperatives financed/ Dollars spent on nonprofit facilities and cooperatives during the last fiscal year) x Investment Term.

Some considerations to keep in mind when using this tool include:

• Most importantly, certain program orientations, regional/country differences and other factors make it difficult to compare results of SROI calculations from group to group, region to region or social impact sector to social impact sector. It's a classic "apples to oranges" situation in many cases. We must keep in mind that the relative cost of creating a living wage job in San Francisco is very different from the cost of creating one in Bolivia. Likewise, if programs in one area spend a lot of resources on counseling because it is deemed necessary for the success of clients, and another region does not find it as necessary for this provision of social service, it can present problems in comparing social returns based on the capital amount required to produce those returns. The basic version of this tool calculates among "bundles" of community development organizations working in sectors or regions, so as not to lend itself to comparing one group to another.

• Some combinations of investment sectors and geographic area may yield no results. This should not be taken to mean that there are no organizations working in these areas, but rather that there is no meaningful data available at this time that can be responsibly presented.

• Data comes from Calvert Foundation's annual Data-Point Survey of organizations that are part of the Community Investment Profiles initiative. This data is compiled and calculated with the greatest accuracy possible, but is dependent upon a number of variables beyond our control, including but not limited to the fact that Calvert Foundation is dependent upon each community development organization to provide timely and accurate data in a useful format.

• The actual social returns will likely vary from these calculated results, as past impact data is no indication of future social returns, and the data presented in the tool is meant for illustrative purposes only.