What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance

Alnoor  Ebrahim; V. Kasturi  Rangan

Article | California Management Review | Spring 2014

What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance

Abstract

Organizations with social missions, such as nonprofits and social enterprises, are under growing pressure to demonstrate their impacts on pressing societal problems such as global poverty. This article draws on several cases to build a performance assessment framework premised on an organization's operational mission, scale, and scope. Not all organizations should measure their long-term impact, defined as lasting changes in the lives of people and their societies. Rather, some organizations would be better off measuring shorter-term outputs or individual outcomes. Funders such as foundations and impact investors are better positioned to measure systemic impacts.

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Performance Evaluation;

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Ebrahim, Alnoor, and V. Kasturi Rangan. "What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance." California Management Review 56, no. 3 (Spring 2014): 118–141.

This teaching plan is designed to be used in conjunction with the case "Health Leads: Reaching for Impact (A)," HBS No. 517-022, and its related products, "Health Leads: Reaching for Impact (B)," HBS No. 517-023, and "Health Leads: Reaching for Impact (Abridged)," HBS No. 517-024, to help faculty deepen students' comprehension of business issues and energize classroom discussion.

Gilead had come up with an innovative drug for Hepatitis C, which affected 180 million people worldwide. The drug was priced at $1,000 a pill for the US market. Gilead had to decide how to price and market the pill in developing countries that bore the brunt of the disease. The company had earned accolades for its work in HIV/AIDS, where its innovative medicines now accounted for 60% of all patients on Anti-Retroviral (ARV) medicines. Much of this was accomplished through generic licensing, which brought a $10,000/year treatment regimen down to $100! Should the company replicate that strategy for Hepatitis C? If so, how would its US Healthcare customers, who were paying $84,000 per patient, react? On the other hand, Gilead had to balance the interests of its shareholders, who paid $11 billion for an acquisition that led to the new Hepatitis C drug.

Jai Vakeel, a nonprofit organization in India, serves individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID), those with an IQ below 70. The organization was founded by the parents of a child with Down Syndrome, and they (and their next generation) steadily built the organization over 60 years to the become the largest such organization in India. Yet the organization served only some 1,000 children annually when there were millions more needing the healthcare, education, and skills to lead a decent life with ID. This case describes the evolution of the organization from the founder’s family (six decades) to the first CEO from outside. As Archana Chandra appointed in 2013 brings about several changes to the organization, she wonders how to scale the organization from the current 1,000 people it serves annually to at least 10,000 and then to the many millions who are in need.

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What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance

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