What are Pledges?
Pledges are statements of intent surrounding creating better social outcomes in Salford. Our outcomes are based on 10 areas which focus on people, planet and prosperity – they can be found on our website here. Pledges can be made around the overall targets of the campaign and can be tailored to the activity of your organisation.
How do I Pledge?
Pledges made around these targets can be made to tailor the aspirations of your organisation. Examples of these pledges could be:
- Committing to paying staff a living wage
- Introducing more volunteering opportunities for staff members
- Introducing a recycling scheme and cutting down waste
- Create a digital skills workshop to improve digital literacy
- Sourcing materials and procuring services from Salford-based companies
It may be useful to look at any overlaps between operations and social value outcomes in the campaign. If any areas interlink (e.g. your organisation’s spend and capacity to spend from Salford-based companies) then this is usually a good start in creating pledges which increase your organisation’s social value.
We recommend that you read the material surrounding our pledges on our website. These provide context as to why we picked specific outcomes and some ideas as to how your organisation can create pledges which align with these goals.
Getting the most out of your pledge – SMART framework
In order for your pledges to make a real difference, they need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Relevant, and Timely. Making pledges which can be realistically achieved and measured is key to achieving better social outcomes for your organisation. Making your pledges SMART means that your pledges can be tracked to evaluate their progress and make any adjustments that are necessary. If you apply the SMART framework you are more likely to achieve your pledges.
SMART pledge
- I pledge to reduce carbon emissions by increasing car sharing by 20% over two years and by introducing a cycle-to-work scheme.
- I pledge to introduce an employee volunteering scheme, by which employees are allocated time to volunteer for a charitable organisation of their choice.
non-SMART pledge
- I pledge to reduce carbon emissions in my organisation.
- I pledge to increase volunteering in the company.
Monitoring and Benchmarking
Whilst we champion current practices that create social value, the 10% better campaign aims to deliver an increase in social value through behaviour change. By making pledges which have clear intent to improve current outcomes, then you objectively make a positive change for those around you.
Benchmarking and monitoring are key to making sure your pledges have a real social value impact. Ideally, you should be able to benchmark your current performance and then monitor your progress in line with your proposals. Examples of this may include quantifying the number of resources your organisation purchases from Salford-based companies (benchmarking), and then looking to increase it by 10%. Over the annual year, you would then quantify how much you spend on resources from Salford-based companies (monitoring) and track the difference.
We recommend regular monitoring and progress reports in order to see the impact of your pledges. If you need any assistance with benchmarking and monitoring then please email socialvalue@salfordcvs.co.uk.
Where do I Submit My Pledge?
When you have decided on what you want to pledge, please submit the pledge on our website here. Once we approved the pledge we will be in contact to notify you of its acceptance.
Moving Forward with Your Pledge
We aim to check in on your progress regularly and offer to provide any assistance where necessary. If you would like to amend your pledge or go further with social value in your organisation then please email socialvalue@salfordcvs.co.uk.