Academy / Measurement & reporting
Course progress and additional readings
Measurement & reporting
You will learn: how a funder and a funded partner turn one onboarding call into an agreement, a shared data dictionary and reports that match it, and which of the 13 chapters to open first.
Where this course fits: it is the third step at Sopact Academy. Foundations shows how to keep every record connected to one ID, and your workflow course sets up what you collect. This course starts where those end: at the agreement between a funder and the organization it funds, and the report that follows.
Why are so many reports hard to compare?
In short: because the funder and the funded partner never agreed, in writing, on what gets reported and what each number means. The report is only as good as the agreement behind it.
A portfolio manager at a foundation or impact fund receives PDFs, spreadsheets, survey exports and emails. Each uses its own definitions, so "placed in a job" means within 90 days for one partner and within six months for another. Turning them into one portfolio report takes weeks.
The funded partner has the opposite problem. It reports to several funders, each with its own template, so the same evidence gets rebuilt again and again. Both problems have the same root, and both are fixed at the same moment: the first conversation.
Are you the funder or the funded partner?
In short: both start with the same three chapters. Then the funder checks, rolls up and reports on a portfolio, and the funded partner turns one evidence base into every funder's report.
If you do both, as many intermediaries do, read both roads. Whichever road you are on, start with chapter 1: the agreement is shared.
How does the course fit together?
In short: one agreement, two roads, one toolkit. Three chapters you do together, three for each road, and four toolkit chapters anyone can open at any time.
Agree together
- Turn the onboarding call into a reporting agreementRecord the first call, then turn the transcript into a theory of change and a signed reporting agreement.
- How to build a theory of change, then show it as a logic model, logframe or results frameworkBuild one change model, then re-lay it as a logic model, logframe or results framework.
- How to build a shared data dictionary for funders and funded partnersDefine each metric once, with its dimension, standard and roll-up, so every partner's number means the same.
Funder road
- Check each partner report against the agreementMatches, different, missing, not split: check each report row by row and ask one question per gap.
- Roll up and benchmark portfolio resultsAdd up only what shares a definition, show what is held, and benchmark like with like.
- Write the portfolio report for your board or donorsA short portfolio report your board can trust, drafted with AI and checked number by number.
Funded partner road
- Map every funder's ask to one evidence baseCollect once, report to every funder: map each ask to a metric you already hold.
- Capture each funder's taste, and your ownTwo short files that make every funder report read right, without changing a number.
- Write each funder's report with AI, then check itDraft from declared sources, flag what is missing, and open every number before you send.
Toolkit, any time
- Compare your results with outside data: live queries and public datasetsQuery your CRM live or load BLS, DOL and IRS 990 data once, and compare on matching definitions.
- Make every number in your report match its sourceOne definition, one source and a numbered source note for every figure, so anyone can check it.
- How to put a credible dollar value on your resultsDecide when a dollar value is worth it, and build one your evidence can carry. · optional
- How to calculate the SROI ratio, step by step: value map, financial proxies and adjustmentsBuild the value map, pick proxies, adjust, discount and calculate an SROI ratio a colleague can check. · optional
Why does the course start with the agreement, not with measurement?
In short: what you collect is designed when you set up your workflow. Measurement is not a separate project; the agreement decides which of those numbers get reported, and what each one means.
Earlier courses set up the forms, the unique ID for every person and the follow-ups that feed your records. By the time a funder asks for a report, the evidence already exists or it does not. What is usually missing is a shared definition of each number and a written list of what is due when.
So the course follows the path a portfolio manager already walks. An onboarding call about goals and the theory of change is recorded and transcribed. The transcript becomes a draft theory of change and a reporting agreement. Reports arrive, get compared with the agreement, and every gap becomes one clarifying question. The same pattern holds for a partner reporting to many funders.
01 · CALL
Goals, the change you expect, how reports are read
02 · AGREEMENT
Metric, plain definition, due date, source
03 · DICTIONARY
Metric, dimension, standard, roll-up
04 · REPORT
Compared with the agreement, gaps become questions
Frameworks are interchangeable: a theory of change, logic model, logframe and results framework are four layouts of the same change model.
What example runs through the course?
In short: a fictional regional workforce fund and its four job-training partners. The funder road follows the fund; the funded partner road follows one of its partners, Partner C, from the other side of the same report.
Workforce fund example · fictional
The fund and its partners agree to report participants enrolled (unique people, not visits), completed training, placement in a job within 90 days of exit, retention in the same job at 12 months, and starting wage by track. When reports arrive, Partners A, B and D report placements within 90 days: 42, 31 and 27, a portfolio total of 100. Partner C reports 55 placed within six months, a different definition, so its number is held until it can count the 90-day rule.
From Partner C's side, the same number was written for a different funder who asked for six months. That is the whole course in one example: an agreement per funder, one evidence base, and a report that says which definition it uses.
Real organizations appear where they show the method at work. AHA Ventures, the investment arm of the American Heart Association, is growing its portfolio from 19 to more than 40 companies, and its head of impact drafts each company's logic model and data dictionary during the onboarding call. Auroville International USA channels more than $1M a year to about 80 project partners, each reporting every quarter against shared definitions.
ASK ANY TOOL, INCLUDING OURS
Bring one real agreement and one partner report to any demo. Ask the tool to list every metric in the report that does not match the agreement, and to show the record behind each number it does report. A good answer names the gaps without guessing values, and every figure opens to its source. In Sopact Sense today, each person or partner keeps one ID from the first form, the AI Assistant only reads the surveys you select, and every line of an answer links to a record you can open.
What will this course not do for you?
It will not make a weak program look strong, or prove that a program caused a result. An agreement makes numbers comparable; it does not make them true. People still decide what a number means, check what AI drafts against the source, and say plainly when a result is missing, self-reported or not comparable.
Where to start
- Record your next onboarding call, with consent, and follow chapter 1 to turn it into a draft agreement.
- Turn the agreement into a shared data dictionary and send it to the other side.
- When the first report arrives, compare it with the agreement row by row, on the funder road or the funded partner road.
New to connected records? Take Foundations first; its lesson on reviewed reports covers the same idea in brief.
Questions teams ask
What is impact measurement and reporting?
It is how an organization and its funders agree what change a program is meant to produce, which numbers show it, and how those numbers are reported. In this course, measurement is designed when you set up your data collection workflow; reporting starts with a written agreement on each metric's definition, source and due date, and ends with a report whose every number traces to a record.
What is the difference between a theory of change and a logic model?
They describe the same change model in different layouts. A theory of change explains how and why change happens, including the assumptions between steps. A logic model lays the same steps out as inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact. Logframes and results frameworks are two more layouts. Build the model once and re-lay it in the format each funder asks for.
How do funders compare reports from different grantees or investees?
By agreeing each metric's definition before reports arrive, sharing one data dictionary with every partner, and checking each report against it. Only numbers that share a definition are added up; a number counted differently is held and clarified, not added in silently. Optional benchmarks compare a partner with an outside number that uses the same definition.
How can we report to several funders without collecting everything twice?
Keep one evidence base with one ID per person, and map each funder's request to a metric you already hold. When a funder defines a metric differently, report their number and say how it differs, rather than changing your data. Each report takes that funder's format and words; the numbers underneath stay the same.
What is funder taste?
It is how a particular funder reads: the words they use, the proof that moves them, what loses their trust, and the format and rhythm they expect. Capturing it in a short file, next to the agreement and dictionary, helps every report read right. Taste changes the wording and format of a report, never its numbers.
Do we need IRIS+ codes or an SROI ratio?
No. IRIS+ codes are an optional standard that helps when funders compare across portfolios; add them where a code fits your metric. SROI and other dollar values are optional toolkit chapters, worth the effort only when a reader will use the number and your evidence can carry it.