Why Social Capital
Social scientists disagree on the particulars, yet they generally agree that social capital involves “social relations that have productive benefits.” In other words, when the relations fostered in families, neighborhoods, churches, voluntary associations and other community-serving organizations are strong and healthy, it helps create a fertile environment for economic mobility and human flourishing.
Historically, Americans were quite adept at creating social capital to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, this tendency is far less prevalent today. In fact, New York Times columnist, David Brooks, has gone so far as to describe social isolation as the “central challenge facing our era,” leading to increases in depression, alienation, drug addiction and suicide, widening inequality and political polarization.
This is why at Social Capital Valuations (SCV) we passionately champion the work of community-serving nonprofit organizations. We want to see more of them spring to life and help the ones already existing to thrive, effectively serving those in need.
What about Valuations?
We challenge providers, funders and policy makers to view each nonprofit organization’s mission with an investment mindset. The best investments help to transform recipients’ lives so that they require less taxpayer support, and become net contributors to their communities and the tax base. This investment mindset helps organizations better serve their clients by focusing interventions on those things that help produce transformative outcomes. Moreover, at SCV we take the investment concept a step further by creating a predictive model that combines a commonly accepted probability theory in statistics (Expected Value) with a common approach used by businesses to make informed financial decisions (Return On Investment – ROI). We call this “Expected Value-Return on Investment (EV-ROI).” EV-ROI is a predictive model that incorporates a “bottom line” mentality into the management of public and non-profit programs, desiring meaningful performance data accessible in real time.