The social return on investment is the beneficial impact that some donation, grant, loan, or other form of investment has on the health, education, economic vitality, or overall social well-being of a community.   In healthcare, the social return is lives saved and disease averted. Moreover, a good free health care can also lead to better school attendance, increased food security, and less impoverishment due to illnesses.

 

When you donate to a cause, you should expect results.  When you invest in a company or mutual fund, you conduct research or seek expert advice to achieve financial returns.  Similarly, when you donate to a non-profit, you need to perform your own due diligence to ensure that your noble goals can be achieved.

 

You worked hard for your money.  You want to put that money to good use to save lives, educate your fellow citizens, improve social justice, and create a healthier world.  The best way to ensure that your money is achieving those goals is to invest in organizations you trust-- and who are evaluating their results.

 

We measure social returns through our rigorous attention to data.  We track patient and community outcomes, and make them publicly available, so that we can evaluate in the short- and long-term, our impact.  These evaluations help you to understand how your donations change lives, and they help us to continue to improve our services.

 

We follow four key strategies to maximize the social return on investment.  These strategies ensure that your investment can continue to have an impact several decades later: 

1.  We empower local community members to take ownership over services.  

This means that infrastructure that we build, and staff that we hire, will continue to serve the district for a long time.

2.  We partner with local governments to build sustainable, accountable healthcare systems

The local governments ultimately have the right and the obligation to serve their citizens.  By partnering with local governments, we help build the capacity of the public sector.

3.  We have minimal overhead with our all-volunteer staff in the US and Kathmandu.  

This means that your investment translates into direct services to the people who need it most.

4.  We publish transparently online our line-by-line expenditures and program evaluations.

This ensures that the data you need are always available to you.  This strategy also helps ensure that we continue to operate in the honest and open manner that are so central to our organization's values and mission. 

5.  Our clinic is run by an all-Nepali staff.

This ensures that your money leads to both local healthcare and to job creation.