Karl Leathem

Karl Leathem enables nonprofit organisations to understand, articulate and improve their social impact. An Advanced Practitioner in Social Value/Impact Measurement, Karl has produced impact studies across the breadth of the charity and social value sectors.

Karl has been involved with social return on investment from its inception in the UK. He was a founding director of what is now Social Value International and collaboratively created the assurance method that is the internationally accepted standard for impact reporting today.

Reporting on evidence of social good helps organisations attract investors and funders wishing to support services for those in need, especially in times of reduced resources. CEOs, department heads and trustees of these entities engage with Karl when they need to implement an impact framework to articulate their social value to key stakeholders.

His work ranges from small self-contained projects to wider assignments involving an entire organisation. Whether standard impact reporting – which follows a familiar path – or complex scenarios that need bespoke impact design, Karl can handle it, with support from his team.

In a particularly significant piece of work that involved many months of research, the impact team’s analysis revealed that, for every £1 invested in the client organisation, eight times that amount was created in social value for community-based groups. Hailed as ‘ground-breaking research’, it has had far-reaching consequences across the country for that sector.

Feedback from clients is that they find Karl’s genuine commitment to impact measurement immensely inspiring. They like that he gives practical examples when illustrating the process and that his deep knowledge is drawn from years of hands-on experience and method research.

Outside of work, his charity voluntary work includes being director of an employment scheme for young people and a regional branch of a volunteer-led parenting support scheme.