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Common Approach 101Welcome Webinar

July 11, 2019

This project is funded by:

The Government of Canada’s Social Development and Partnerships Program1

What we will cover today

1. Why a common approach?2. What is the common

approach?3. How you can stay involved?

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Why a common approach

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The Common Approach is the outcome of a consultative process

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It’s too hard! Make it simple!

We need to be able to state the impact

of our sector!

There are too many methods

and tools!

Measurement takes too much

time !

Every new funder requests new

measures!

Simple is hard!

Uniformity kills a standard.

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Standards are communities, not documents.

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Meet people where they are. Ratchet up rigor later.

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We need a *flexible* standard, that is “owned” by a community of not-for-profit and for profit businesses. This community can continuously

develop and refine the standard.

What is the Common Approach ?

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The Common Approach has five components

Community owned

Data standard and data platforms

Common foundations

Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

Common set of organizational indicators

Enabling infrastructure

Essential practices

Basic info

A flexible standard

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(Side bar: The 5 elements have evolved slightly from the ones recommended by The Ontario Action Plan)

Centres of excellence

Data centre

Common process

Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

Common set of organizational indicators

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Community owned

Data standard and data platforms

Common foundations

Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

Common set of organizational indicators

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We have an all-star team of partners, and it’s growing

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Common Foundations

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The Common Approach has five elements

1. Community owned

2. Data standard and data platforms

3. Common foundations

4. Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

5. Common set of organizational indicators

Enabling infrastructure

Essential practices

Basic info

A flexible standard

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Plan your change(e.g. logic model)

Use performance measures(i.e. use indicators that make sense for your organization)

Collect useful information

Gauge performance and impact

Report on results

Common Foundations

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Common Foundations

• At their foundations, all impact measurement approaches are very similar.

• Common Foundations highlight that similarity.

• You are probably already using the Common Foundations

• To learn more, you can: • Download the document (free)• Attend in-person training ($)• Enroll in on-line training ($)• Attend the Common Foundations webinar

(free)

• Also, please provide critical feedback on the Common Foundations using online survey

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Common Set of Organizational Indicators

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The Common Approach has five elements

1. Community owned

2. Data standard and data platforms

3. Common foundations

4. Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

5. Common set of organizational indicators

Enabling infrastructure

Essential practices

Basic info

A flexible standard

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Common set of organizational indicators

• Includes things like:• Identifying info:

• Name of org, address, charity or business number, etc.• Info that rarely change:

• mission/vision statement, description of work.• Financial data:

• A few key financial metrics that have been shown to be predictive of financial health.

• To learn more, you can• Download the document (free)• Attend the Organization Indicators webinar (free)

• Also, please• Provide critical feedback on the Organizational Indicators using online survey• Tell your grant makers and investors about this.

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Common Framework for Social and Environmental Indicators

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The Common Approach has five elements

1. Community owned

2. Data standard and data platforms

3. Common foundations

4. Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

5. Common set of organizational indicators

Enabling infrastructure

Essential practices

Basic info

A flexible standard

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A flexible standard has many allowable indicators of common outcomes.

There are parameters within which there are lots of choices.

It is a roomy box. Lots of latitude, but still somewhat constrained.

The middle ground between one-right-way and anything-goes

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An example of indicator mapping

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# of people with improved employment conditions

progressing on a path to employment

Acquire skillsAttend training

Exhibit behaviorsAcquire experience

acquiring good employment

“good” is a flexible construct bound by research-informed

parameters

retaining or improving employment

Retention and improvement are flexible constructs

bound by research-informed parameters

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An example of how indicators can “roll up”

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Example based on 114 social enterprises

• Using SDG indicators: only 25% of the enterprise indicators fit or somewhat fit with the proposed uniform indicator framework.

• Using a flexible approach: 100% of the enterprise indicators fit within the headline indicators.

• Points of caution• 114 organizations is still a very small sample.• This first test was not co-created. We are now moving to co-creation.

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This is going to take years……

• You should know• The standard will not tell you what indicators to use• Any (reasonable) indicator you choose will be okay• The data platforms will (one day, we hope) map them to the common

framework

• To learn more, you can• Participate in the co-construction of mappings (free)• Attend the Common Framework webinar (free)

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Data standard and data platforms

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The Common Approach has five elements

1. Community owned

2. Data standard and data platforms

3. Common foundations

4. Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

5. Common set of organizational indicators

Enabling infrastructure

Essential practices

Basic info

A flexible standard

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Data ontology- Creates semantic interoperability

Data platforms- Cloud based tools for social purpose businesses so that managers don’t

need to learn data ontologies!

You can:- Start using impact dashboard (free, create your own login)- Start using Sametrica ($, email info@commonapproach.org for access)- Attend the data standard and data platform webinars (free)

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www.impactdashboard.org

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Snapshot Impact Enterprise Resilience

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Overview of your organization or

project

Track your activities, impact,

build a logic model, monitor

KPIs

Demonstrate your stage of

development and business model

Your team, governance

structure, awards, and more

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https://www.sametri.ca/

For demo see: https://vimeo.com/14802916633

Community owned

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The Common Approach has five elements

1. Community owned

2. Data standard and data platforms

3. Common foundations

4. Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

5. Common set of organizational indicators

Enabling infrastructure

Essential practices

Basic info

A flexible standard

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We’re working on it….• We want all users of the Common Approach to have a voice in

shaping the Common Approach• There will be some sort of legal form with a governance model (constellation

governance).• We are getting there….

• That legal form will also be responsible for training and communicating the Common Approach.

• You can:• Keep reading emails, stay informed• Provide feedback when drafts are available• Get involved when there is a way to do so

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Recap

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The Common Approach has five components

Community owned

Data standard and data platforms

Common foundations

Common framework for social and environmental indicators (SDGs)

Common set of organizational indicators

Enabling infrastructure

Essential practices

Basic info

A flexible standard

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Plan your change(e.g. logic model)

Use performance measures(i.e. use indicators that make sense for your organization)

Collect useful information

Gauge performance and impact

Report on results

Common Foundations

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Questions?

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