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Standards

Common Form

Essential accompaniments to an impact report.

The Common Form represents the organizational information of a social purpose organization (SPO). This makes it possible to contextualize the data collected for impact measurement and answer the question, ““who created this impact?” It does this while keeping the SPO in the driver’s seat, managing and controlling access to their organization’s information.

The organizational information collected includes both financial measures and descriptive measures. This data does not change very much or very often, but organizations are constantly re-typing and sharing it. The Common Form removes that repetitive step.

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Organizational information in the Common Form

How do you use the Common Form?

The easiest way to use this profile is through tools aligned with the Common Impact Data Standard. The Common Form organizes the standard set of organizational information into a profile. These organizational profiles are incorporated into aligned software and utilities, presenting the information in a standard, accessible and interoperable format.

By including context about the organization behind the impact recorded using the Common Impact Data Standard, assessors are able to “compare fair,” so that factors such as geography, size, age, legal form, mission and program design could be considered when comparing impact data.

Stay tuned as we work towards finalizing the Common Form and its incorporation in Data Standard-aligned tools!

Learn more about the Common Impact Data Standard

Benefits of the Common Form

More autonomy

Donors, investors, and government agencies are increasingly aware that old funding application techniques have been a burden to grantees and investees. The Common Form provides funders with the standard formats they need to understand the organizations they are assessing, while leaving SPOs the autonomy to store, manage and share their data in ways that best fit their own needs.

Less paperwork

The Common Form allows organization data to be represented in ways that can accommodate the reporting needs of diverse funders. Organizations using the Common Form will need to do less data entry across multiple funders’ systems.

Greater visibility

The Common Form can enable the tagging of an organization’s content on the internet, making it easier for search engine users to find organizational profiles on the web.

Better impact analysis

The Common Form is an essential complement to the flexibility and interoperability of data enabled by the Common Impact Data Standard.

More on the Common Form

Looking to explore further? Find other Common Form information and materials on the Resources page.
Common Form, Impact measurement   Articles

Organizational information and financial indicators

3 min