Our Story
From Measurement Pioneers to
Impact Management Standard
In 1994, six forward-thinking companies came together to solve a challenge: how could business contributions to society be measured reliably and comparably? That collaboration sparked the creation of Business for Societal Impact (B4SI) — an initiative to bring discipline, rigour, and meaning to corporate giving.
Over the decades, B4SI has grown from six founding firms to a global network of more than 150 organisations. What began as a movement focused on community investment has matured into a full framework for impact management — one that helps businesses demonstrate social outcomes alongside financial performance.
How we have evolved
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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