Beyond metrics: Social impact, assessment frameworks, and alternative evaluation methods applied in organizations

In the growing discourse on social impact assessment, traditional evaluation frameworks have been widely adopted to measure the economic and social value generated by purpose-driven organizations. However, many of these methods are highly technical, resource-intensive, and often inaccessible to smaller enterprises or organizations with a limited capacity. Furthermore, the emphasis on quantifiable outcomes tends to oversimplify the complexities of social impact, failing to capture intangible, long-term, and systemic changes. This paper explores alternative and participatory approaches to social impact assessment that go beyond rigid metrics, focusing on more participatory and adaptive evaluation methodologies more inherent to social phenomena and social innovation, proposing a new evaluation framework that integrates insights from multiple participatory methods. By examining the limitations of the most used impact assessment frameworks and highlighting their challenges in capturing social value effectively, the authors discuss the need for more context-specific and inclusive methodologies that integrate qualitative narratives and a more creative and participatory perspective on evaluation. Approaches such as participatory evaluation and creative evaluation are some options that offer potential alternatives by engaging stakeholders in co-defining impact and creating more flexible, meaningful, and adaptive evaluation processes. These methods allow for a deeper understanding of impact and value in the social realm beyond purely economic indicators, fostering a learning-driven and context-sensitive approach to evaluation. Building on these methodologies, the paper presents an on-development step-by-step evaluation framework designed to offer small organizations a more flexible, meaningful, and social-driven approach to assessing their impact. The framework provides insights into how hybrid evaluation models, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, can be more effective in reflecting the true value of social innovation initiatives. This paper identifies the key gaps in conventional method-ologies and explores the ways how alternative models can enhance their applicability, particularly in organizations that prioritize social purpose but lack the infrastructure for complex impact assessment tools and aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on impact assessment by advocating for a shift towards participatory, adaptive, and contextually relevant evaluation methodologies, arguing that redefining impact as-sessment beyond rigid metrics is essential for organizations seeking to measure their contributions in a more holistic, inclusive, and sustainable manner.