Download the report here

From its inception, Spirit has adopted the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) subjective wellbeing questions (ONS4) across its grants. This approach has helped us to build the evidence base for how sporting, cultural and community events across the UK can increase wellbeing.

Using HM Treasury’s wellbeing valuation approach, PBE economists found that:

  • EmpowHER delivered around £5 in wellbeing benefits for every £1 spent
  • Get Out Get Active (GOGA) delivered around £3.80 in wellbeing benefits per £1 spent
  • City to Sea delivered an improvement in wellbeing and that only a small proportion would need to be due to the programme for the benefits to outweigh its cost.

The report argues:

  1. Funders can help to grantees to overcome barriers to wellbeing evaluation: Getting buy-in and agreement from grant holders for using any measurement framework is vital, and wellbeing measures are no exception.
  2. There are significant benefits to identifying matched comparison groups: Changes in wellbeing need to be understood in the wider context. The COVID-19 pandemic took place in the middle of many of the Spirit of 2012 funded projects, when subjective wellbeing dropped, especially around specific lockdown events. In these cases, ‘maintaining’ a starting level of wellbeing for participants could well be a positive impact.
  3. Funders should facilitate access to the right expertise to support charities with impact measurement: While one of the benefits of using the ONS4 subjective wellbeing measure its simplicity and accessibility, there are some elements of impact measurement that require specific technical expertise.
  4. We need to develop standardised measures to capture subjective wellbeing data from people with learning disabilities and neurodivergence: The ONS4 questions are not accessible for some people, including those with severe learning disabilities and neurodivergence. At the same time, these people may be some of the target group(s) of a particular intervention, for whom it is of particular importance to hear their views and understand the potential impact.

Ruth Hollis OBE, Chief Executive, Spirit of 2012, said:
“We wanted to measure what really matters to the people we support. Using simple wellbeing tools helped us build a deeper understanding of impact while staying focused on people, not process. This report shares the lessons we’ve learned so that others can do the same.”

Jon Franklin, Chief Economist at PBE, said:
“Funders can use wellbeing measurement for robust, insightful and proportionate impact measurement. PBE’s report adds to a growing credible evaluation movement whereby more and more funders and social sector organisations are applying monetary value to increases in wellbeing to assess policies and interventions. With practical tools, considered support, and a focus on measuring people’s lived experience, funders and policymakers can make smarter investment decisions that are evidence-based and impact-focused.”

Amy Finch, Director of Policy & Impact at Spirit of 2012 said: “It matters what you measure. We should measure what matters to people, assessed by themselves. The validated and consistent personal wellbeing questions from the ONS provide a straightforward, simple way of doing this across a wide range of different programmes.”