Social Audit Standards (SAS) 900
Supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building
(SAS 900 should be read in conjunction with the “Preface to the Social Audit Standards” and “Framework
for the Social Audit Standards”, issued by the ICAI)
SECTION I – INTRODUCTION
Objective and Scope
1.10 This Social Audit Standard relates to the thematic area of “Supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building”. The Standard aims to provide the Social Auditor with the necessary guidance about independent impact assessment engagement of Social Enterprises engaged in supporting other platforms that strengthen the nonprofit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building and the audit steps and procedures that should be applied while conducting the social impact assessment. The standard sets out the minimum requirements to be followed while conducting impact assessment. Laws or Regulations may establish additional requirements which should be followed as applicable.
SECTION II – PROCESS OF SOCIAL AUDIT
Data Collection
1.20 The stakeholders that may be approached for obtaining data include:
- Direct stakeholders e.g. Social enterprises carrying on the work of strengthening non-profit ecosystem in fund raising and capacity building
- Target population/ beneficiaries of the direct stakeholders
- Indirect stakeholders e.g., Funding entities, Government and related institutions, media agencies, academic institutions, professional groups (legal, accounting, compliance, etc.)
- Monitoring Agency
- Staff (full time/part time employees, consultants, etc.)
- Board of advisors/trustees/directors
- Key officials of the reporting entity
The overall activity of conducting a survey and collecting sample data should be reviewed in terms of the following factors to assess relevance and reliability:
- designed by an in-house team or external specialized agency
- conducted by an in-house team or external specialized agency
- coverage: number and types of non-profit entities served
Desk Review
1.30 The Social Auditor should conduct a desk review of existing documents to gain further insight into the evaluation procedure and impact assessment. Such documents, about supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building, may include the following:
- Memorandum of Understanding/Contract between the reporting entity and the social enterprises
- Knowledge materials (reports, articles, videos, case studies, caselets, etc.) shared with social enterprises
- Feedback (testimonials, ratings, recommendations, etc.) provided by social enterprises
- Enrolment data for training/workshops and/or convening programmes designed for social enterprises
- Advertisement – leaflets/newspaper/social media
- Photographs of trainings/workshops and/or convenings
Social Audit Standards
- Curriculum Vitae /Resume of faculty/trainers/researchers/professionals curated to conduct trainings/ workshops and/or convenings and build knowledge materials (reports, articles, videos, case studies, caselets, etc.)
Inspection & Personal Interviews
1.40 Besides desk review, the social auditor should also consider conducting physical inspection and personal interviews to get first hand assessment of impact.
Evaluation Questions
1.50 The social auditor should review the evaluation questions addressed through Questionnaires, In-depth interviews and Focused Group Discussions to assess the responses received from various stakeholders and to understand what has changed. This would help the Social Auditor in forming his views on the following aspects:
- Did the non-profit entities attend the training/workshops/convenings, have access to knowledge materials, and receive advisory services on strategy, fundraising, programmes?
- Do they think differently after the training/workshops/convenings, knowledge?
- Did they learn something they did not know?
- Did they use/apply the knowledge and gain from it?
- Did they share it with others?
Such questions, in relation to supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building, may cover the following aspects:
(a) Needs of the social enterprise:
- Whether the support services (trainings/workshops/convenings, knowledge materials, advisory services. etc.) were found to be consistent with the needs/challenges of the social enterprise?
(b) Quality of support services
- How was the quality of training/workshops/convenings, knowledge materials, advisory services imparted to non-profit entities?
- Were the social enterprises satisfied with the support services that they received?
(c) Effectiveness
- Have the support services improved their knowledge, programme delivery, decision-making ability, and governance of the social enterprises?
(d) Suggestions / Feedback
- What were the constraints or challenges faced in providing support services to social enterprises?
Key Metrics for Evaluation of Project / Program
1.60 The Social Auditor should review the project/program documents to frame the evaluation criteria for assessing impact. Such key metrics may be collated from base-line, mid-line (monthly/quarterly) and end-line assessment (if applicable), respectively at the beginning, middle and end of the reporting period/project/program to effectively understand and evaluate the impact.
The evaluation of the project/program information would facilitate the Social Auditor to assess:
- What would have happened to non-profit entities and the ecosystem in the absence of the support services (workshops/trainings/convenings, knowledge materials, advisory services, etc.)?
- How much have the support services from ecosystem entities contributed to the changes that are evidenced?
- Is there any unintended negative impact that happened due to the offerings made by ecosystem entities?
Such information, about supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building, may include the following points in respect of the beneficiaries covered under the survey:
(a) Composition
- Geography (location covered), thematic areas and beneficiaries served by the supported nonprofit entities including beneficiary organizations led by and/or serving marginalized communities/groups
- Range and nature of support provided by indirect stakeholders viz., funding entities, government and related institutions, media agencies, academia, corporates, etc.
- Process by which capacity building needs and/or participants in training/workshops were identified
- Selection process of social enterprises for the trainings/workshops including steps taken to ensure inclusion of organizations led by and/or serving marginalized communities/groups
(b) Training/Workshops/Convening aspects
- Relevance & usefulness of capacity building and information dissemination services
- Nature of capacity building and information dissemination services imparted
- Duration of trainings/workshops/convenings and its sufficiency
- Accessibility of capacity building services
- Subject matter of the capacity building services
- Certification for workshops/trainings/convenings
- Assessments for workshops/traini ngs
- Trainers/Facilitators competencies
- Quality of the content/information delivery mechanism
(c) Other factors
- Status of non-profit entities before receiving capacity building services
- Improvement in
> Organisation and Programme Strategy
> Organisation Development and leadership building
> Resource mobilization
> Leveraging technology
> Attracting, retaining, and nurturing talent
> Service delivery
> Communications
> Forming partnerships
> Financial and impact reporting practices
Assessment of Evaluation Criteria (Illustrative Key Performance Indicators)
1.70 The Social Auditor should identify the combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria against which the impact has to be assessed.
Such criteria for supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building may broadly include the following aspects:
| S. No | Evaluation Criteria |
| (A) | Quantitative Criteria |
| (1) | Fundraising |
| 1 | Financial and non-financial resources mobilised / catalysed / influenced |
| 2 | Government resources catalysed / influenced |
| 3 | Numbers of givers/volunteers mobilised / catalysed / influenced |
| 4 | Membership of giving networks and collectives created or strengthened |
| 5 | Government policies / schemes influenced in programme impact areas |
| 6 | Quantum of grants disbursed |
| 7 | Access to funding for social enterprises serving or led by marginalised groups and communities |
| (2) | Capacity Building |
| 1 | Number of non-profit entities incubated |
| 2 | Survival rate of supported start-ups |
| 3 | Increase in rate of growth of supported start-ups (in funds raised, impact delivered) |
| 4 | Number of social enterprise whose programme or institutional capacity strengthened
|
| 5 | Access to capacity building support for social enterprise serving or led by marginalised groups and communities |
| 6 | Number of social enterprise with defined strategic plans |
| 7 | Number of social enterprise with defined governance norms, human resource policies and practices |
| 8 | Enhanced representation of marginalised groups/communities in governance structures, leadership and decision-making processes |
| 9 | Number of non-profit entities with defined succession plans and/or well-defined second-line leadership |
| 10 | Increase in organisation financial resilience measured by
|
| 11 | Number of organisations fully compliant with statutory and legal requirements across functions as certified by audit |
| (3) | Contribution to building new knowledge on the non-profit sector and philanthropy |
| 1 | Number of initiatives facilitated to enhance discovery, dissemination, deployment of knowledge and skills; access to such initiatives especially for organisations serving or led by marginalised groups/communities; participant rating of the effectiveness of the initiatives |
| (B) | Qualitative Criteria |
| (1) | Capacity Building |
| 1 | Evidence of increased organisational capacity: changes in People, Process and Tools over baseline in a functional area (Product, Technology, Machine & Equipment and impact, Finance, People, Learning & Development, Fundraising, Advocacy etc); |
| 2 | Evidence of operational excellence: Improvements in making and meeting commitments, Improved cost per unit impact, Maturity of internal practices such as management of data, financial auditing, employee engagement and retention (possibly measured by CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) or other maturity assessment framework) |
| (2) | Contribution to building new knowledge on the non-profit sector and philanthropy |
| 1 | New, enhanced data availability on the social enterprise and/or its composition, distribution, resourcing and impact |
| 2 | Curriculum design and/or delivery across functional areas of social enterprise management |
| 3 | Initiatives facilitated for use of technology for enhanced organisation performance and / or impact; access to such initiatives especially for organisations serving or led by marginalised groups/communities; participant rating of the effectiveness of the initiatives |
| 4 | Initiatives to enhance trust, credibility and influence of social enterprise organisations, social enterprise networks, and the social enterprise sector as a whole; access to such initiatives especially for organisations serving or led by marginalised groups/communities; participant rating of the effectiveness of the initiatives |
SECTION III – ASSESSMENT OF CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS
Challenges/ Areas for improvement
1.80 The Social Auditor should identify the challenges faced by the stakeholders and the areas for improvement based on the suggestions and feedback received from them, which might influence the impact assessment. Some of the examples of commonly faced issues about supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building may include the following:
- Attribution of impact between the platform/service provider and the social enterprise benefiting from their services
- Unavailability of adequate funds among non-profit entities for availing support services from ecosystem entities
- Absence of norms on fees that can be charged for facilitating fundraising opportunities
- Limited connected and organized networks of social enterprise
- Limited availability of well-documented data from social enterprise
Any significant issues observed during the assessment, that may influence the user of the impact assessment in decision making, should be highlighted by the social Auditor in the social audit report.
Social Audit Standards
Limitations of the assessment
1.90 The Social Auditor should identify the inherent limitations of the evaluation process which might influence the impact assessment. Some of the examples of supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building may include the following:
- Indirect nature of the services provided e.g., research and other knowledge products widely disseminated, policy changes impacting wider population groups
- Cases of no-response in case the questionnaire is not administered in person
- Some of the questions being skipped by the respondents and remaining unanswered
- Non-availability of respondents after completion of the workshops/trainings/ convenings, advisory services, etc.
- Change in contact details of respondents due to which they could not be contacted
Any significant limitations observed during the assessment, that may influence the user of the Impact assessment in decision making, should be highlighted by the Social Auditor in the social audit report.
SECTION IV – APPENDIX
Taxonomic classification of areas and sub-areas for social objectives
(relating to Supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building)
| Sr. No. | Areas | Sub-areas |
| 9 | Supporting other platforms that strengthen the non-profit ecosystem in fundraising and capacity building | Provisioning of support to platforms that help non-profit entities mitigate institutional risks, adapt existing programs and pivot their focus towards developmental works. The support shall include (but not limited to) designing strategy, strengthen the institutional resilience of organization, capacity building (through trainings, workshops, mentorship, advisory support), exploring fund-raising strategies, and related activities |
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