Launching a collective social impact assessment initiative: the Nexem case study
Supporting advocacy with public authorities: a major challenge for a network head
Nexem is the leading professional organisation representing employers in the private non-profit social, medico-social and healthcare sectors It supports and trials innovative initiatives to help its affiliated organisations develop within their five areas of expertise: disability, child protection, independent living for older people, legal protection for adults and the fight against social exclusion.
The LCEP (Fight against Exclusion and Poverty) sector comprises in France:
- 1 300 member organisations
- 24 000employees
- 130,000 people receiving support
However, these member organisations are facing major social challenges and significant financial pressures against a backdrop of changes to the services provided to beneficiaries.
In this context, Nexem aims to highlight the sector’s value in order to support advocacy efforts with public authorities, whilst also seeking to assist stakeholders in implementing a system of continuous improvement.
Developing and implementing a collective approach to social impact measurement to support the social exclusion sector
Nexem has therefore decided to launch a strategic impact measurement project to assess the sector’s impact and provide stakeholders with the tools to undertake this process. This network umbrella organisation has commissioned Impact Track to roll out a common approach to measuring social impact for the sector working to combat social exclusion (LCEP).
This pilot project is taking place in two main phases. The first spanned the whole of 2023 and aimed to:
- Conduct a social impact assessment on a sample of five organisations from the LCEP sector to measure their impact in the field of combating exclusion and poverty
- Define a sector-specific framework: A common framework was developed to standardise impact measurement within the LCEP sector.
Co-creation with stakeholders on the ground: The organisations actively participated in co-creation workshops with Nexem’s teams and with support from Impact Track to define indicators common to all organisations. They also received individual support to define their own customised framework so that this impact measurement would be equally useful at their level.
The second phase is underway throughout 2024 and aims to:
- Roll out the LCEP sectoral framework more widely
- Consolidate data for sectoral analysis and to support advocacy work
A common tool for measuring social impact within the sector to ensure organisations’ needs
Nexem and Impact Track have unveiled the first promising results of their social impact measurement project dedicated to the sector combating social exclusion (LCEP).
The five pilot organisations – EMERGENCE, Rhéso, The Salvation Army, Espérer 95 and AIS 35 – received support and training to implement a shared social impact measurement tool tailored to their needs.
See the impact pages below:
Aurélie Lazzaroni, a social engineering project manager for the Rhéso association, says:
“It was a real learning experience to have to agree on certain indicators. The discussion was very flexible, with a supportive group. Everyone has their own reality, but the idea was to find common ground. We found moments of consensus very interesting. It also forces us to adopt a synthesising mindset, to make choices and to define together what is non-negotiable in social support.”
The pilot project has thus resulted in the production of:
The pilot project has thus resulted in the production of:
- an evaluation framework comprising a theory of change, 15 sector-specific indicators, and data collection tools.
- 2 action-learning programmes for stakeholders in the sector:
👉 An Introduction to Measuring and Managing Social Impact
👉 Measuring and managing social impact
- An initial collation of members’ results, enabling us to carry out a preliminary analysis, which is not representative of the sector’s overall impact, and to refine the organisations’ data requirements.
We will build on this work to roll out this pilot scheme to other organisations in the anti-exclusion sector, whether or not they are Nexem members.
Further reading
👉A video presenting the collective initiative that has been set up(french)