Our Story

Business for Societal Impact (B4SI) was established in 1994 by six companies seeking to create a common standard for measuring social impact.

Over a quarter century later, the B4SI Frameworks are recognised globally and embedded into global indices such as DJSI. The B4SI Network has grown from the original six companies to over 150 globally operated businesses.

How we have evolved

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The Beginning

In the early 1990’s, B4SI changed the way that businesses thought about corporate charitable giving, moving away from purely philanthropic activity and towards more strategic investment in the community. Today, businesses are looking at how they can be more ambitious and courageous in their approach to social impact and continue to diversify the ways that they can maximise their value to society alongside meeting commercial objectives.

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The Framework

The B4SI Framework has traditionally centred on the measurement of social impact activities, as companies shifted their focus from simply donating money to strategically investing in their community. Increasingly however, many businesses are looking for ways to diversify their impact.

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Expansion

In response to this, the B4SI Framework expanded to include ‘Business Innovation for Social Impact’ and ‘Procurement for Social Impact’. This expansion, developed in conjunction with over 20 leading and global businesses, enables companies to measure and report new and sustainable ways of driving strong social impact whilst also delivering significant business returns.

The comprehensive B4SI Framework allows companies to measure, strategically analyse and enhance the impact and business benefits of activities that fall outside of its core business operations.

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Community

Today, the B4SI Framework is and will remains the de facto standard for measurement and management of business-led community activities and social impact. As a Network that is managed by businesses, for businesses, B4SI will continue to lead and shape the way businesses deliver impact in the future.

I’m passionate about the B4SI Framework’s use as a tool when starting new partnerships with charities. This tool can be used not only in a retrospective way but also proactively when developing achievable outcomes and strategies with new partnerships.”

Steve Grimmett, Head of Zurich Community Trust