What do hundreds of tools, frameworks, guides, templates and other resources on impact measurement have in common?
A limited number of fundamental practices!
This is what The Common Approach to Impact Measurement, an initiative led by the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, discovered in examining 500+ impact measurement resources, international standards and in consulting directly with social enterprise and social finance organizations. They have synthesized and defined these essential practices as The Common Foundations of Impact Measurement.
The Common Foundations of Impact Measurement practices are:
I described this amazing, bold project in a blog last summer, and since then I have become much more actively involved in this community of non-profits, social purpose organizations (SPOs), grant makers, investors and academics. The Common Approach to Impact Measurement seeks to improve the tools and practices of impact measurement on a number of different fronts that also include defining flexible indicator standards, a common set of organizational indicators, and a community-owned enabling infrastructure that would make it easier for social purpose organizations to manage data and learn from each other.
The Common Foundations are found within the Demonstrating Value Framework and the tools and resources that are available on our website. We are currently updating these resources to include icons that reference the Common Foundations, starting with our newly updated Demonstrating Value Workbook that has now expanded into the 2 complementary Activity Guides in the Getting Started Toolkit
In a series of blogs I will examine and reflect on each of the Common Foundations. Stay tuned! In the meantime, you can learn more about the Common Approach to Impact Measurement at:
carleton.ca/commonapproach/
