The Common Approach to Impact Measurement: Four Community-Driven Flexible Standards for More Interoperable Impact Data

Abstract

Common Approach to Impact Measurement (Common Approach) is a set of four flexible impact measurement standards designed to empower charities, nonprofits, coops, social purpose businesses (collectively referred to as social purpose organizations or SPOs), and those they serve to identify which impacts are most meaningful. These standards are not designed to make measurement more rigorous or more accurate; rather, they make measurement more useful and interoperable, and, eventually, more attuned to the priorities of those impacted.