Celebrating the success of the Pathfinder Pilot: Our final report

The Pathfinder Pilot was designed to test the Common Approach standards (Common Foundations, Common Impact Data Standard, and Common Framework) in practice across three core objectives:

• Generate evidence about the changes and benefits that come from implementing the standards.
• Build a community of engaged organizations and networks committed to refining the standards over time.
• Inform refinement of the standards and supporting resources.

The pilot saw 33 SPOs across three Canadian networks adopt the Standards: the Network for Optimizing Food Impact (anchored by 10C Shared Space), the Newfoundland and Labrador Social Enterprise and Innovation Coalition (anchored by the Centre for Social Enterprise at Memorial University), and the Community Lending Network (anchored by Community Impact Division of Alterna Savings).

The pilot generated strong evidence that the implementation of Common Approach standards works!

• Improved measurement practices: SPOs found that aligning with the Common Foundations improved their practices without creating an overwhelming burden (17 of 21 survey respondents agreed).
• Flexible low-cost data utilities: SPOs preferred using low-cost tools they were already using for impact measurement. In response, Common Approach developed three data utilities—an Airtable extension, an Excel Add-in, and an Impact Data Converter—to bridge existing data management tools with the Data Standard.
• Dashboards: Generating data capsules enabled eight participating SPOs to build public-facing impact dashboards to communicate their results on their own terms.
• Flexible portfolio aggregation: Across the three networks, seven Common Frameworks were created to aggregate 1,027 diverse, bottom-up metrics into portfolio-level insights without prescribing indicators.
• Engaged community: 20 of 21 survey respondents expressed interest in joining future pilots, with many planning to volunteer for governance roles within Common Approach.

The pilot surfaced critical insights that refine our understanding of impact measurement challenges faced by SPOs. The six key learnings include:

• Learning 1: What SPOs call a “reporting burden” is mostly an ETL burden
• Learning 2: Making impact measurement relevant to SPOs is a greater challenge than expected
• Learning 3: Software adoption is trickier than we thought
• Learning 4: Organizations only save time when they can share their impact data capsule with more than one funder
• Learning 5: The Common Framework’s internal use may be as valuable as its external use
• Learning 6: Qualitative data usability is the most consistent unmet need

Looking forward, Common Approach is focusing future explorations on four key areas:

• Exploring the internal usefulness of the Common Framework: Testing how multi-program SPOs can use the Common Framework to aggregate impact data across multiple internal programs.
• Multi-funder reporting time savings: Further measuring time-saving benefits as more funders and SPOs adopt the Common Impact Data Standard.
• Improving how SPOs manage and use qualitative data: Developing methods, storage tools, and analytical pathways to make qualitative evidence more usable within Data Standard-aligned systems.
• Evolving data utilities: Expanding and refining data utilities to support additional software tools commonly used by social purpose organizations.