$6.57B
OMERS member social value
A defined-benefit pension case connecting retirement security to member wellbeing and reduced reliance on public support.
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Individual clarity. Societal insights.
Social value evidence you can defend.
Social Value Trust measures how decisions change people's wellbeing, person by person and across hundreds of connected outcomes, then compares those results with what would likely have happened anyway.
Powered by CANCEA's ONEMODEL · More than 20 years of social-value modelling
Externally reviewedBottom-up agent-based methodology refined through more than 20 years of external review and application.
20+ yearsContinuous development of social-value measurement science.
400+CANCEA engagements across housing, pensions, infrastructure, health and policy.
ICPMFeatured Canadian case in the 2026 Social Infrastructure Blueprint.
The decision behind the number
A Number, or an Answer?
A single total rarely tells you enough to make a decision. By representing people and the systems around them, ONEMODEL can explain the five questions that matter.
Who
benefits, and who does not.
What
changes across connected outcomes.
Where
effects occur by place and region.
When
effects occur and how long they last.
Why
the pathways produce the result.
Evidence in action
Real Questions. Measured Consequences.
The same analytical lens can be applied across very different decisions because the model follows the people affected rather than relying on a fixed table of values.
$48.3B
The Public Housing Dividend
A GTHA scenario comparison showing how alternative housing pathways change outcomes across households and communities.
Read the case →National study
CIHR health research
A national evaluation connecting research investment to the social value experienced by Canadians.
Read the case →How we work
From Decision to Defensible Evidence
The work begins with the decision you need to support, not with a pre-selected metric.
Frame the decision
Define the people affected, the outcomes that matter, the relevant counterfactual and the evidence standard the decision requires.
Model the pathways
Use ONEMODEL to trace how outcomes interact over time for individual people, including distributional effects and uncertainty.
Explain the result
Deliver evidence that shows the headline result, who gains, who does not, why the result occurs, and how sensitive it is to assumptions.
Where it is used
Evidence for Decisions That Affect People
SVT is designed for organizations that need to explain social value credibly to boards, governments, investors, communities and the public.
Pension Funds & InvestorsUnderstand how financial security and investment decisions translate into wellbeing.
Government & PolicyCompare policy choices, who they affect and how outcomes change over time.
Real Estate & InfrastructureConnect projects and investment choices to households, communities and public outcomes.
Non-Profits & CommunityDemonstrate impact without reducing complex human outcomes to disconnected proxies.
Methodological assurance
Connected Evidence, With the Assumptions Exposed
SVT is powered by CANCEA's ONEMODEL: a person-level, agent-based platform designed to model connected outcomes together and compare them with a defined counterfactual.
- Person-level rather than average-person modelling
- Connected outcomes rather than isolated value tables
- Explicit counterfactual comparison
- Distributional results: who gains, who loses and by how much
- Declared assumptions, sensitivity and traceable pathways
Common questions
What Organizations Usually Ask First
What is Social Value Trust?
Social Value Trust measures how decisions change people's wellbeing across connected outcomes, person by person, and compares the result with what would likely have happened otherwise.
How is this different from a standard social-value calculation?
Standard approaches often apply average values to individual outcomes and add them together. SVT uses ONEMODEL to represent connected pathways across people, outcomes and time, which makes distributional effects, interactions and counterfactuals explicit.
What kinds of decisions can SVT evaluate?
Examples include pensions, housing, infrastructure, public policy, construction risk, health research and other decisions where the consequences for people extend beyond a single financial measure.
How do we know whether our data is sufficient?
Start with the decision and the evidence standard you need to meet. We can assess the available data, identify material gaps and recommend a proportionate level of analysis before a full engagement begins.
Your decision
Start with the Question You Need to Answer.
Tell us the decision, claim or investment you need to support. We will tell you what can be measured and what evidence is proportionate.