India’s Companies Act 2013 mandated CSR spending for qualifying companies, creating a pool of over INR 25,000 crore annually for social impact. But spending is not impact. The question is: how do you know if your CSR investment is actually making a difference?
Social impact measurement has matured significantly. Frameworks like the Theory of Change, Social Return on Investment (SROI), and the Impact Management Project provide structured approaches to defining outcomes, measuring progress, and attributing change.
The key challenge is counterfactual: what would have happened without the intervention? Rigorous impact evaluation uses techniques like randomised controlled trials, difference-in-differences analysis, and propensity score matching to isolate programme effects from background trends.
RSustain’s CSR advisory practice helps clients move from output reporting (“we spent X on Y”) to outcome measurement (“Z lives improved by W%”). This requires clear programme logic, baseline data, and longitudinal tracking.
Companies that invest in impact measurement gain three benefits: evidence to guide programme design improvements, credible stories for stakeholder communication, and defence against allegations of “CSR-washing” that increasingly attract regulatory and media scrutiny.