The Social Value Exchange

The Social Value Exchange is an online platform that borrows ‘sharing economy’ principles from platforms like AirBnB. We match up government suppliers trying to win government contracts with local community projects. The platform allows suppliers to offer resources - often digital devices, but also other capacity building resources - to community projects during government contract tenders. We use an auction to match suppliers with community projects. The supplier that makes the best and most reasonable offer of resources wins the auction, and secures extra tender points. The more resources suppliers offer, the more contracts they win. We mentioned AirBnB above. Community projects are the equivalent to the spare rooms in people’s houses - while we are 'commodifying' community projects for the purposes of matching them with supplier resources, the projects themselves are as unique as the different rooms you’ll stay in if you use AirBnB. And the platform is designed so that the community projects that are delivering the most social impact in their particular area stand to receive the most resources. It's a win-win-win for government, private sector and, most importantly, the local community. According to independent evaluation, for every £ that has gone through the Social Value Exchange, we’ve generated £222 in additional Social Value for local communities.