The social benefit of a social project (also called social impact) can be defined as that improvement in the life of a beneficiary that can be directly ascribed to the project. The various kinds of improvement can in turn be organized into the following four categories of goods, which here are identified as components of the social benefit.

• Individual material economic goods such as income, living conditions, health

• Individual immaterial goods such as general development, profession, self-respect, values

• Communal material socio-cultural goods such as environmental quality, hygiene, waste-removal

• Communal immaterial socio-cultural goods such as family relationships, community spirit, peace, security.

These components also constitute the inner dimension of the social benefit envisioned by a project. Any project proposal and subsequent realization must include all the relevant parts of the social benefit.