Step-by-step guide

MeasureUp is a comprehensive, open-source valuation framework designed for Social Value and Impact practitioners, offering transparent tools to measure economic, social, fiscal, and environmental outcomes. It helps organisations develop their practices, from beginner to advanced levels, by incorporating feedback from beneficiaries and aligning with UK government standards. Unlike other frameworks, MeasureUp is free to everyone and continually updated, ensuring robust, defensible reporting that evolves with emerging trends in impact measurement and avoids issues like ‘social value washing.’

How to get started

Step 1: Understand outcomes and activities

Outcomes: Outcomes are the results stemming from an activity or intervention, ranging from enhancements in well-being to reductions in carbon emissions. MeasureUp categorises outcomes with clear definitions as “Master Outcomes”.
Activities: Activities are the actions undertaken to achieve specific outcomes for stakeholders. It’s crucial to verify each value to avoid double-counting impact.

Step 2: Apply the values and grades

Not all measurements and valuations are created equal. MeasureUp offers various levels of accuracy, robustness, and rigour, helping you choose the right balance between ease of application and accuracy.

Value and grades

Not all impact measurements are created equal. At MeasureUp, we understand the importance of accuracy, robustness, and rigour in assessing social and environmental impact. That’s why we offer a range of valuation levels—Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Gold+—each providing different levels of confidence for users.

These levels enable you to strike the right balance between ease of application and accuracy, ensuring transparent communication of your valuation method’s accuracy level. We believe in recognising not only the value of the activity or outcome but also the effort invested in ensuring its accuracy and your confidence in it.

Explore our valuation levels below to discover how MeasureUp can elevate your impact measurement efforts:

Bronze: Proxies for planning and estimating

Sometimes, direct measurement of the social or environmental impact isn’t feasible. In such cases, you can use a “Bronze” value to estimate the social value of your activities. This typically involves applying a simple number, called a “proxy,” which you can multiply to obtain your valuation. For instance, you could estimate the social value of reducing loneliness by multiplying it by the number of individuals supported or expected to be supported.

Bronze values are useful for planning projects or bidding for projects where direct impact measurement isn’t yet possible.

Silver: Differentials for getting more specific

If you’ve observed some impact from your intervention, you can use a “Silver” level value to create a more accurate estimation. Silver values list proxies based on known factors about your intervention or the targeted group.

For instance, demographic information about the people participating in an exercise club, the strength of an outcome you predict you might have, or the fuel type of the car an electric vehicle is replacing. The major difference between Bronze and Silver is Silver tends to have more precise estimations compared to applying a single average proxy.

Gold: Surveys and measurements of actual results

After implementing an intervention, you can achieve a high level of valuation accuracy by directly observing or measuring its impact, rather than relying on proxies.

Learn more

If your intervention involves people, this is typically accomplished through surveys. MeasureUp provides guidance on the specific questions to ask to obtain a reliable and robust measurement of impact. Additionally, it outlines any proxy values required to convert survey results into meaningful monetary values. For instance, it could involve translating a self-reported scale of loneliness into a monetary figure representing the social value created.

For interventions not involving people, measurement methods vary. For example, calculating the actual number of miles travelled by an electric vehicle to determine carbon emission savings, rather than relying on an average estimation.

If resources are limited and surveying every participant or measuring every intervention instance isn’t feasible, you may opt to take a sample and measure these instead. The key is to select a representative sample, considering a mix of demographics and needs across the group. It’s about ensuring balance in your sample group; for instance, if a certain type of individual is twice as common, your sample should reflect this by including a similar balance.

See something missing?

MeasureUp is constantly evolving and improving, and we welcome your suggestions. So if you can’t find a specific outcome or activity you’re looking for, send us a message. This helps us build the most useful, free, and open set of valuation methods for social and environmental impact measurement.