Giving Compass' Take:

• A study released by CECP explores a new way that companies can calculate their social and philanthropic metrics called the "Total Social Investment."

• Will a new measurement tool encourage more businesses to actually make social investments? 

• Read about reasons why you should engage with social impact investments. 

In a groundbreaking study released by CECP: The CEO Force for Good, the way companies calculate and report on their various programs and initiatives to improve society will fundamentally shift. In its report “What Counts: The ‘S’ in ESG, New Conclusions,” CECP, with support from Cisco, introduces an aggregated calculation called “Total Social Investment (TSI).”

The calculation is a forward-looking reflection of the innovative ways companies invest in society. TSI offers a high-level and comparable snapshot for use by investors and other stakeholders to determine the value created by the “S” efforts in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) measures.

“Leading companies have innovated in their social programs beyond what the traditional corporate social responsibility and philanthropy metrics measure,” said Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP. “Today, companies view social investment as a competitive advantage.

TSI captures innovative initiatives that would have previously gone unmeasured: for example, new practices such as impact investing, the employment of individuals whose job it is to provide social services directly or collaborating with partners that aren’t formally organized non-profit organizations.

TSI helps companies capture social investments beyond the donation of products or cash and takes into account the types of partners involved in social investment, the types of financial transactions companies undertake, and “shared strategies” that create both business value and social value.

To calculate a company’s TSI, CECP summarizes seven categories of social efforts: Communities, Human Rights, Diversity (internal and external), Training, Health and Safety, and Labor Relations. The investments made in these seven business areas are then aggregated to determine company’s total investment of resources.

Once the TSI measure is implemented on a broad scale, companies will be able to capture initiatives that currently aren’t reflected in many Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics.

Read the full article about total social investment from CECP at TriplePundit