Assessment Resource
| ID | INDIGO-ARES-0001 |
|---|---|
| Assessment Resource - Status | PUBLIC |
| Assessment Resource - Name | Best Available Charitable Option (BACO) |
| Assessment Resource - Who? - Public Sector | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Who? - Private Sector | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Who? - Third Sector | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Output Format - Agnostic | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Output Format - Monetary Valuation | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Output Format - Non-monetary quant index | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Output Format - Ordinal | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Output Format - Qualitative only | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Output Format - Quant but no index | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Time frame? - Ongoing | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Time frame? - Prospective | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Time frame? - Retrospective | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Scale? - Agnostic | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Scale? - Micro | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Scale? - Meso | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Scale? - Macro | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Agnostic | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Defence | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Democracy | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Development/ Poverty Reduction | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Education | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Employment/ Financial well-being | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Health | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Housing | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Local rejuvenation | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - SDG oriented | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Social impact | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Sustainability/ Eco | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Impact Goal - Well-being | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Case Study | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Classification | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Consultancy | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Framework | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Guide | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Dataset | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Principles | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Reporting Standards | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Resource Repository or Summary | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Tool | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Type - Training Programme | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Sourcing? - Agnostic | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Sourcing? - Outsource to Vendor | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Sourcing? - Paid tool | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Sourcing? - Proprietary in-house | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Sourcing? - Self-driven | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Attribution | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Diff-in-Diff statistical analysis | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Ex-ante projections | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Focus Groups | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Framework agnostic | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Interviews | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Mission Alignment | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Observation | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Operational Data | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - RCTs | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Surveys | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Theory of Change | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Method? - Before and After | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Charity | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - CSR | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Development | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Governance/ Policy | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Green Book | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Healthcare | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Housing | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - IGOs | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Impact investing | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Microfinance | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - SIBs | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Social Enterprises | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Sustainability/ Eco | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Developed Countries | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Used in sectors? - Developing Countries | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Internal / External? - Internal | NO |
| Assessment Resource - Internal / External? - External | YES |
| Assessment Resource - Leader | Acumen fund, 2004 |
| Assessment Resource - Purpose | The Acumen Fund uses the Best Alternative Charitable Option (BACO) model to quantify an investment’s social impact and compare it to the universe of existing charitable options that address that social issue. The BACO calculation conveys the net cost per unit of social impact and helps an investor to compare the tradeoff between grants and investments. |
| Assessment Resource - Content | Rather than seek an absolute standard for social return across an extremely diverse portfolio, it is aimed to quantify an investment’s social impact and compare it to the universe of existing charitable options for that explicit social issue. Specifically, this tool helps inform investors where their philanthropic capital will be most effective—answering the question “For each dollar invested, how much social output will this generate over the life of the investment relative to the best available charitable option?” |
| Assessment Resource - Link | https://acumen.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/BACO-Concept-Paper-final.pdf |