Choosing the right social investment approach
This case study explores three distinct social investment approaches – Broad, Balanced, and Deep Impact – each delivering social value at varying scales and costs.
.jpg)
The Broad Impact Approach
The Broad Impact Approach reflects larger scale, lower cost programmes that deliver modest social value to many people. These programmes tend to be less targeted to specific populations and are mostly single type interventions.
Through the 'Charitable Sector Insights' report, we found that this investment approach made up of 34% of the total investment and covered 89% of all programme participants in the analysis.
A key example of this approach, is Auckland Philharmonia's Experience: Education Concerts
Providing tailored concert experiences for students aged 5-18, Auckland Philharmonia offers schools in the Auckland region the opportunity to connect with music, providing access to high-quality performances, interactive experiences, and educational resources.
- Social Value created per person: $150
- Scale: 2,651 people meaningfully engaged
- Total cost to deliver the programme: $182,101
- Social return on investment: $2.20
A key factor for creating successful broad impact programmes, is a high level of communication, as programme's will likely impact a large scale of individuals. Therefore a comprehensive understanding of what your message is and the ability to reach a mass audience with that message is increasingly important.
Additionally, successful broad impact programme's must ensure a clear focus on what they do and don't do, as well as facilitate cost efficiencies at scale.
The Balanced Impact Approach
The Balanced Impact Approach reflects moderate cost programmes of a varying scale, that deliver varied social value depending on the comprehensiveness of the support, and the complexity of the population served.
Through the 'Charitable Sector Insights' report, we found that these programmes reflected 57% worth of the investment and 10% of all participants in the analysis.
A real-life example of the balanced approach is Spirit of Adventure Trust and their 10-day development programme.
The programme consists of a 10-day sailing voyage, typically in and around the Hauraki Gulf, Coromandel and Great Barrier Island, where youth participate in various outdoor activities, take part in leadership and development activities, learn to sail and maintain and run the ship, have downtime, journal and cook and clean.
Forty young people are organised into four watches of 10 and participate in activities structured in such a way as to push youth out of their comfort zone, develop the skills to overcome challenges and have fun with a diverse group of peers.
Through coming together as a community running a tall ship in combination with adventure activities, youth are empowered to push beyond their limits, connect deeply with others their age, develop friendships, become disciplined and believe in themselves and their abilities.
- Social value created per person: $7,953
- Scale: 583 people meaningfully engaged
- Total cost to deliver the programme: $2,061,500
- Social return on investment: $2.30
A key factor for creating successful balanced impact programmes is having a clear and intentional vision. We have found that the balanced impact approach is the easiest programme feature to get stuck in by default, rather than design.
The Deep Impact Approach
The Deep Impact Approach reflects typically higher-cost programmes that deliver intensive support to a small group of people with high complexity to achieve significant social change.
Through the 'Charitable Sector Insights' report, deep impact programmes reflected 9% of investment and only 1% of participants.
It’s important to note that for deep impact programmes, while impact tends to be deep and comprehensive, providing targeted, support for people with complex needs can require significant investment.
However, this does not mean the programme is less valuable, but rather that the nature of their task may take a higher cost to create such high social value for each person involved.
An example of the deep impact approach is the The Champion Centre's Early Intervention Programme.
This early intervention programme provides multi-disciplinary services for infants and children with significant disabilities across their first six years of life. Centered around families, this involves weekly group and individual sessions aimed towards unlocking the full potential of each child, and providing practical and emotional support for their caregivers.
- Social value created per person: $36,276
- Scale: 70 people meaningfully engaged.
- Total cost to deliver the programme: $2,277,118
- Social return on investment: $1.10
A key component of a successful deep impact programmes are for frontline staff to build long-lasting and trusted relationships with programme participants.
This is because these services provide support to people living very complex lives, so building trust is fundamental in ensuring that the interventions being delivered are accessible for participants.
The three distinct investment approaches: Broad Impact, Balanced Impact and Deep Impact.
For the policymakers:
Each investment approach can deliver the same SROI, but through different pathways and with different trade-offs. This investment approach framework could be used to assess the tools and programmes on offer, to identify any gaps or opportunities.
For example, consider housing security in an area. Are there any gaps in the impact approaches of the programmes delivered in that area? Can this gap be filled?
For the analysts:
One important thing to consider is data and technology are scalable, but people aren’t. With that in mind, if a programme reflects a broad impact approach, how can we better leverage data and technology to scale?
Additionally, when assessing the impact of each programme, does the data reflect a healthy relationship between scale and cost?
For the frontline workers:
As a baseline, is it clear which investment approach your programme adopts and why?
From here, there’s a need to further assess whether that is the right approach for your goals, and whether your staff and organisation have the right capabilities to achieve these approaches.
For example, trusted relationship skills are fundamental, especially for deep impact programmes. Do your staff feel equipped to build trusted relationships, or is more training in this area needed to have maximum impact through your programme?
The Broad Impact Approach
The Broad Impact Approach reflects larger scale, lower cost programmes that deliver modest social value to many people. These programmes tend to be less targeted to specific populations and are mostly single type interventions.
Through the 'Charitable Sector Insights' report, we found that this investment approach made up of 34% of the total investment and covered 89% of all programme participants in the analysis.
A key example of this approach, is Auckland Philharmonia's Experience: Education Concerts
Providing tailored concert experiences for students aged 5-18, Auckland Philharmonia offers schools in the Auckland region the opportunity to connect with music, providing access to high-quality performances, interactive experiences, and educational resources.
- Social Value created per person: $150
- Scale: 2,651 people meaningfully engaged
- Total cost to deliver the programme: $182,101
- Social return on investment: $2.20
A key factor for creating successful broad impact programmes, is a high level of communication, as programme's will likely impact a large scale of individuals. Therefore a comprehensive understanding of what your message is and the ability to reach a mass audience with that message is increasingly important.
Additionally, successful broad impact programme's must ensure a clear focus on what they do and don't do, as well as facilitate cost efficiencies at scale.
The Balanced Impact Approach
The Balanced Impact Approach reflects moderate cost programmes of a varying scale, that deliver varied social value depending on the comprehensiveness of the support, and the complexity of the population served.
Through the 'Charitable Sector Insights' report, we found that these programmes reflected 57% worth of the investment and 10% of all participants in the analysis.
A real-life example of the balanced approach is Spirit of Adventure Trust and their 10-day development programme.
The programme consists of a 10-day sailing voyage, typically in and around the Hauraki Gulf, Coromandel and Great Barrier Island, where youth participate in various outdoor activities, take part in leadership and development activities, learn to sail and maintain and run the ship, have downtime, journal and cook and clean.
Forty young people are organised into four watches of 10 and participate in activities structured in such a way as to push youth out of their comfort zone, develop the skills to overcome challenges and have fun with a diverse group of peers.
Through coming together as a community running a tall ship in combination with adventure activities, youth are empowered to push beyond their limits, connect deeply with others their age, develop friendships, become disciplined and believe in themselves and their abilities.
- Social value created per person: $7,953
- Scale: 583 people meaningfully engaged
- Total cost to deliver the programme: $2,061,500
- Social return on investment: $2.30
A key factor for creating successful balanced impact programmes is having a clear and intentional vision. We have found that the balanced impact approach is the easiest programme feature to get stuck in by default, rather than design.
The Deep Impact Approach
The Deep Impact Approach reflects typically higher-cost programmes that deliver intensive support to a small group of people with high complexity to achieve significant social change.
Through the 'Charitable Sector Insights' report, deep impact programmes reflected 9% of investment and only 1% of participants.
It’s important to note that for deep impact programmes, while impact tends to be deep and comprehensive, providing targeted, support for people with complex needs can require significant investment.
However, this does not mean the programme is less valuable, but rather that the nature of their task may take a higher cost to create such high social value for each person involved.
An example of the deep impact approach is the The Champion Centre's Early Intervention Programme.
This early intervention programme provides multi-disciplinary services for infants and children with significant disabilities across their first six years of life. Centered around families, this involves weekly group and individual sessions aimed towards unlocking the full potential of each child, and providing practical and emotional support for their caregivers.
- Social value created per person: $36,276
- Scale: 70 people meaningfully engaged.
- Total cost to deliver the programme: $2,277,118
- Social return on investment: $1.10
A key component of a successful deep impact programmes are for frontline staff to build long-lasting and trusted relationships with programme participants.
This is because these services provide support to people living very complex lives, so building trust is fundamental in ensuring that the interventions being delivered are accessible for participants.
The three distinct investment approaches: Broad Impact, Balanced Impact and Deep Impact.
For the policymakers:
Each investment approach can deliver the same SROI, but through different pathways and with different trade-offs. This investment approach framework could be used to assess the tools and programmes on offer, to identify any gaps or opportunities.
For example, consider housing security in an area. Are there any gaps in the impact approaches of the programmes delivered in that area? Can this gap be filled?
For the analysts:
One important thing to consider is data and technology are scalable, but people aren’t. With that in mind, if a programme reflects a broad impact approach, how can we better leverage data and technology to scale?
Additionally, when assessing the impact of each programme, does the data reflect a healthy relationship between scale and cost?
For the frontline workers:
As a baseline, is it clear which investment approach your programme adopts and why?
From here, there’s a need to further assess whether that is the right approach for your goals, and whether your staff and organisation have the right capabilities to achieve these approaches.
For example, trusted relationship skills are fundamental, especially for deep impact programmes. Do your staff feel equipped to build trusted relationships, or is more training in this area needed to have maximum impact through your programme?
How social investment can transform lives and communities
Moving individuals into tailored, long-term housing with a specialised Community Housing Provider helped dramatically decrease the number of average hospital night visits in one social investment study.
Cultured conversations
In discussion with Maria, Auckland art Gallery’s ‘Cultured Conversations’ series shares her perspective on the future of data in social services, and how a similar approach could be applied to the cultural sector.
Beyond Consultation
Maria joins Beyond Consultation to explore how data-driven insights can transform social investment. Listen now to how measuring impact helps organisations and funders make smarter decisions that drive real change for communities.
Impact Lab and Kuhu Mai collab
$2.6M in social value delivered through simple, human-centred support. By meeting people where they are—with a coffee and a conversation—Downtown Community Ministry is transforming lives and proving the power of connection in social impact.
Get in touch
We help impact organisations know, show and grow their social impact. Let’s work together to do good, better!
