Social Purpose Organizations

For charities, nonprofits, and social businesses—the ones making change on the ground, who we call social purpose organizations (SPOs)—Common Approach is all about giving you the power to choose what to measure, because you know what’s most important for your mission!

Benefits for social purpose organizations

The Common Approach standards will ensure that reporting what you have decided to measure to your funders is straightforward. This reduces the pain of data submissions and ensures you spend less time collecting and reporting data you aren’t actually using yourself. All while ensuring your funders and other stakeholders are still getting the data they need!

Broad adoption of Common Approach Standards will mean measurement is not only being done to meet reporting requirements. Instead, SPOs can collect meaningful, relevant data aligned with your own strategy, goals, and activities, which can be used to strengthen their decision-making.

Common Approach is currently testing implementation, to ensure the processes are clear and manageable. This work is being done in our work with the Social Finance Fund, the Pathfinder Pilot, and additional programs that are still taking shape.

If you are interested in becoming part of a testing group, join our mailing list to learn about our work and opportunities to get involved. In the meantime, there are some actions you can get started with!

Not sure if your organization has a handle on basic impact measurement practice?

The Common Foundations outlines a minimum standard for the “how” of impact measurement.

Use our self-assessment tool to either confirm your impact measurement practice meets the minimum or help identify where you could improve.

What can social purpose organizations do today?

Tell your funders or investors you’d like them to use the Common Approach Standards to make impact reporting easier for you. You can direct them to this page to learn more.

If our vision resonates with you, we invite you to showcase your agreement! By adding your logo to our supporters page, you signal your belief in flexible, shareable impact measurement and to inspire others in the ecosystem to learn more about how the Common Approach Standards can improve impact measurement for everyone.

Common Approach is community-driven, guided by community-based governance groups. Interested in learning more about how you could participate? Get in touch or take a look at our opportunities page to see if there are any open roles or volunteer opportunities currently.