Do you know how to measure your impact beyond profits?

At IMD, we have spent years studying family philanthropy, interviewing 70 philanthropic families across 30 continents to publish our report, Navigating your family’s philanthropic future across generations. Our study shows how philanthropy can be a powerful and positive force for the wider family enterprise system. But the report doesn’t just hold information for families; many lessons can be applied to private and public organizations across the globe. One of these key lessons is how corporate philanthropy creates value, and how that value can be measured.

Ask yourself the following questions to see if you are using optimal methods to measure your impact:

What non-financial measures do we have in place to measure profitability?

This can trip people up from the beginning, but it is an important mindset to realize numbers aren’t the only way to measure profitability. I recently had a chance to sit down with Ariane Spandow, Co-owner and Chair of Spabogruppen and Amesto Group, and Arild Spandow, Founder and CEO of Amesto Group. They have some keen insight into how to measure success beyond simply looking at numbers. They have made the triple bottom line of planet, people, and profit their north star in assessing their companies’ performance. While you have probably heard of this term, many organizations struggle with how to measure profitability beyond the numbers.

How many jobs are we creating?  

This is a key measure of value you are adding to the social sphere. When the Amesto Group evaluates their bank, they consider the loans that are made to small- and medium-sized businesses, and how many jobs have been created or saved by lending the money.

Are we considering our employees and customers in our KPIs?

There are indicators you can use to quantify the satisfaction of various stakeholders. Leaders in the Amesto group are evaluated on internal monthly employee surveys as well as customer satisfaction surveys. These scores are known as “Net Promoter Scores” and one must meet a minimum score to be eligible for a bonus.

How are we accounting for our impact on the planet?

This is increasingly important to customers, employees and more and more, it is looked at by regulators. If you don’t have a plant to consider the planet, you should formulate one now. The Amesto Group requires every business unit to have an integrated initiative that positively impacts the planet. These impacts can be measured in a traditional sense, like accounting for reductions in carbon to the atmosphere, but giving each unit the ability to come up with ideas of their own has fuelled some creative ideas. For instance, the company’s AI business has started a project to understand the language of bees so people can ascertain the optimal place to position beehives.

Every business unit in the Amesto Group must deliver on each aspect of people, profit, and planet each year. The Spandows emphasize that measuring performance in this way requires a long-term view, but this is the key to sustainability.