Your largest social value budget may not be your charity budget.
It may be your procurement budget.
Every time a company buys something, it decides where economic opportunity goes.
That creates some important questions:
→ Could more of our spending remain within the local economy?
→ Are smaller businesses able to compete for our contracts?
→ Could we purchase from a social enterprise?
→ Do we pay smaller suppliers promptly?
→ Are our procurement processes proportionate and accessible?
→ Do our suppliers share our social value commitments?
Charitable donations are important and highly visible.
Procurement decisions happen every day—and can affect employment, business survival, skills development and the resilience of entire communities.
This doesn’t mean choosing an unsuitable supplier simply because it is local or socially focused.
It means recognising that price and quality are not the only forms of value a purchasing decision can create.
Social value becomes much more powerful when it influences how a business operates—not simply how it distributes a charitable budget
