Swissocial Methodology for profit and non-profit enterprises:

The Social Enterprise Maturity Index - SEMI

For both profit and non-profit organizations, Swissocial has developed and copyrighted the Social Enterprise Maturity Index (SEMI) methodology. This is applied to institutional development projects, where the primary beneficiaries are the organizations themselves.

The indicators chosen cover the four elements of the Swissocial’s matrix and, depending on the circumstances, can be adapted to the different local conditions/circumstances where the impact evaluation is being carried out.

The SEMI Indicators

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The SEMI uses eight indicators and 18 sub-indicators, according to the following scheme:
SEMI index swissocial september 2023

For what is it usefull?

More information about SEM-Index
To quantify each of the SEMI indicators, it uses a scale from 0 to 100, whereby “0” represents absolute lack, and “100” the perfect situation or behavior. Scores received by the beneficiary organizations in each of the evaluations (baseline and ex-post) places them at a point on this scale.
By evaluating the beneficiary organizations before the initiation of the project (baseline) and at subsequent intervals (ex post), it is possible to quantify the changes in the eight variables and, therefore, the impact of the project on the institutions.
By evaluating the beneficiary organizations before the start of the project (baseline) and at subsequent times (ex post), it is possible to quantify the changes in the eight variables and, therefore, the impact of the project on the institutions.
To be able to attribute the changes observed by the beneficiaries to the project, it is essential to have a control group, i.e., a group of organizations with the same characteristics as the beneficiaries of the project, but who have not been influenced by it. The variations in the values of the indicators between the group of beneficiaries and the control group measures the impact attributable to the project.
The data is collected by means of surveys and interviews with the organizations’ collaborators, selecting a statistically representative sample from them. A questionnaire prepared for this purpose is used.