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Common Foundations Standards

Take the Common Foundations self-assessment

Curious about whether your organization’s impact measurement practices align with industry best practices? The Common Foundations self-assessment is a quick and easy tool designed to help you determine just that.

Take the self-assessment
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What the self-assessment does

Our self-assessment tool uses a series of straightforward “yes” or “no” questions to evaluate your organization’s adherence to the essential practices outlined in the Common Foundations. The survey typically takes 10-12 minutes to complete. It’s designed to confirm whether you are already meeting the basic standards of impact measurement or to help you pinpoint areas where further development might be beneficial.

Essentially, the assessment asks: “Does your organization perform all the essential practices of the Common Foundations?”

  • If your answer is “yes” to all questions: Congratulations! Your organization meets the minimum standard for impact measurement.
  • If your answer is “no” to any question: The assessment will clearly identify specific areas where improvements could make your impact measurement practices more robust and useful.

Before

You can view and reflect on all questions before starting the assessment using this worksheet.

We also recommend reading the brief article The self-assessment: getting to 100% for examples of what it takes to answer “yes”—it’s probably less than you think!

After

If your assessment shows that you meet the standard, you’ll hear from us soon! An email with resources, including Common Approach logos and sample text, will be sent within 5-10 business days after completing the self-assessment.

If 10 business days have passed and you haven’t heard from us, please email info@commonapproach.org.

Take the self-assessment now →

For previous Version 1.0 adopters

If you completed the self-assessment for Version 1.0 and achieved a 100% score, you continue to meet the minimum standard for Version 2.0. We invite you to officially adopt the updated standard and continue your journey with the Common Approach.