Case Demonstration

Hypothetical Case

Opened in January 2016, Listen With Heart is a social enterprise restaurant with a view to empowering the hearing impaired by providing them job opportunities and training.

As at the end of December 2019, a total sum of $2,000,000 had been invested into the operation. Sources of the investment include initial capital provided by founders, government grants, and donations.

Within the funding period, the restaurant hired 8 hearing-impaired individuals as line employees at an hourly rate of $60. A hearing-impaired manager was hired at an hourly rate of $200. For each line employee and the manager, the working hours totalled 9,360 (9 hours per day x 1040 days).

The restaurant had also distributed 500 boxed meals to the underprivileged older adults. Each boxed meal was worth $25.

Step 1

Type in the investment’s basic information.

Step 2

There are two questions need to be answered before proceeding to “Social Return”:

1. What are the social outcome(s) created by the restaurant?

2. Who are the target beneficiaries?

Three outcomes are identified in this hypothetical case, with hearing-impaired individuals and the older adults being the two primary target beneficiary groups.

1. Job opportunities for the hearing-impaired line employees

2. Job opportunity for the hearing-impaired manager

3. Living expense reduction for the older adults

Step 3

As soon as the required information for each social return is ready (please see below), the user can proceed to “Social Return”.

Step 4

Social Return 1

Job opportunities for the line employees

Select “People with disabilities” as the target beneficiary.

Type “8” as the number of beneficiaries reached (number of line employees hired).

Select “Job Opportunities” as the social outcome.

Select “Income at the rate of service and sales workers (Median Wage)” as the financial proxy.

Amount provided in the calculator should be considered as reference. It is recommended users to consider whether the amount fit with their study context. In this hypothetical case, the reference amount is “60” (hourly rate).

Type “9,360” as the number of units provided to each target beneficiary (number of working hours for each employee).

To account for the second social return, click on the “+” button.

Step 5

Social Return 2

Job opportunity for the manager

Select “People with disabilities” as the target beneficiary.

Type “1” as the number of beneficiaries reached (number of manager).

Select “Job Opportunities” as the social outcome.

Select “Income at the rate of managers and administrators, professionals and associate professionals” as the financial proxy, with the reference amount being “$200” (hourly rate).

Type “9,360” as the number of unit provided to each target beneficiary (total number of working hours of the manager).

Step 6

Social Return 3

Living expense reduction for the older adults

Select “Elderly” as the target beneficiary.

Type “500” as the number of target beneficiaries reached (number of elderly people reached).

Select “Living Expense Reduction” as the type of social outcome.

Select “Average monthly expenditure on food” as the financial proxy, with the reference amount being “$25” (market price of each meal).

Change the unit to “per person”

Type “1” as the number of unit provided to each target beneficiary (number of meal enjoyed by each older adult).

Step 7

Additionality

By ticking “Advanced Options”, the user can account for different forms of additionality. These include deadweight, attribution, discount rate, and drop-off.

Deadweight: The default value is 0%. It assumes that all social return would not have happened without the project.

Attribution: The default value is 0%. It assumes that all social return is attributable to the project.

Discount rate: The default value is 1.87%, which is the average inflation rate in Hong Kong between 2018 and 2020 (Source: Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR).

Drop-off: The default value is 33.3%. This value assumes the social return of the project in the post-funding period would drop to nil by three years. The drop-off is assumed to occur in a linear fashion.

The additionality calculation shall be left as default should the user finds it fit with the study context.

Step 8

Results

Click on “Calculate”

The total social return generated by the investment and the SROI as at the end of the investment will be shown

In “options”, the users can choose to display the results breakdown or forecast as they see appropriate in their study context