For years, nonprofits have faced a frustrating challenge: every time a funder asks for impact data, they have to create a new bespoke report. One funder, one report. Multiply that across dozens of donors, and the reporting burden becomes overwhelming—pulling time, talent, and attention away from delivering on mission.
What’s behind these custom requests? Often, the best of intentions. In the absence of shared, trusted ways to understand nonprofit outcomes, funders are left guessing at which success indicators to request. Nonprofits, in turn, are left re‑explaining the same work in slightly different ways, again and again.
The result is a system where impact data rarely travels beyond a single relationship. Even when high‑quality, expert‑reviewed reporting exists, it is typically used once and then siloed—limiting its value and reinforcing a one‑to‑one model that was never designed to scale. Too often, nonprofits have little control over how their results are reused, shared, or recognized beyond an individual funder.
At True Impact, we’ve long believed there’s a better way. The challenge is not a lack of commitment or effort across the sector—it is fragmentation. Impact data lives in too many places, locked into one‑off reports and disconnected systems.
The turning point came when that long‑held belief met real alignment. In a working session with our friends at Charity Navigator—whiteboards covered in diagrams, sticky notes moving from wall to wall—it became clear we shared compatible visions for the philanthropic sector—and complementary offerings.
Soon, the pieces fell into place to do something different. Not another reporting requirement. Not more bespoke forms for more platforms and donors. But shared infrastructure that lets impact data go further—while nonprofits do less to get it there.
Today, I’m excited to announce the launch of the Impact Reporting Network.
The Impact Reporting Network is a new, collaborative approach to impact reporting—one that allows nonprofits to report once and have their impact reach many audiences, while remaining firmly in control of how that information is shared—across funders, platforms, and decision-making environments.
At its core, the Impact Reporting Network works as a simple, step‑by‑step flow:
The Impact Reporting Network works because it brings together partners willing to do the hard work of aligning around a shared system—so nonprofits can focus on the even harder work of delivering impact.
We’re excited to launch the network alongside two such partners. Charity Navigator provides a trusted, public lens on nonprofit performance, helping ensure impact data is credible and comparable. YourCause from Blackbaud brings that same information into the corporate giving and employee engagement environments where real decisions get made. Together, this collaboration allows impact data to move across the sector—without forcing nonprofits or funders into yet another set of custom reporting formats.
We look forward to welcoming additional partners who want to help extend this shared approach—so credible impact data can reach more decision-makers, with less work required from nonprofits.
To see what this looks like in practice, imagine a nonprofit—let’s call it Community Health Alliance.
Under the old model, Community Health Alliance might be asked to create a custom impact report for a single funder—tailored to that funder’s specific questions or templates. The report would take real effort to produce, but once submitted, it would largely live in isolation. When the next funder came along, the process would start again.
In the Impact Reporting Network, that experience changes. Community Health Alliance creates a single, reusable social impact report through Charity Navigator’s nonprofit portal, which Charity Navigator uses to supplement its profile of Community Health Alliance, and to guide its ratings.
Now, when a funder requests an impact report, Community Health Alliance doesn’t start from scratch. A universal social impact report is already in the True Impact system—structured, reviewed, and ready to share, regardless of which platform a funder uses. With a few clicks, it’s available to the funder, with no re‑entry of data and no reshaping of the story.
Meanwhile, if Community Health Alliance chooses, it can set the visibility status of its report to “Public” which automatically makes it visible within platforms like YourCause from Blackbaud. A new corporate funder, looking to identify high‑performing organizations in their community, discovers Community Health Alliance and can immediately understand how its outcomes compare to similar nonprofits. A new relationship begins—again, without asking the nonprofit to do any additional reporting.
This moves us from a world of one‑to‑one reporting to one where impact data can be reused, discovered, and acted on at scale.
What excites me most about the Impact Reporting Network isn’t just the efficiency it creates—it’s the trust it makes possible. Trust that nonprofits’ time is respected. Trust that impact data is credible and comparable. Trust that decisions about funding and engagement can be grounded in real outcomes, not proxies.
I’m deeply grateful to Charity Navigator for their leadership and willingness to rethink how impact information is shared publicly, and to Blackbaud for stepping forward as a serious ecosystem partner that understands where impact data actually gets used.
This is only the beginning. As more partners join and more nonprofits opt in, the value of the network will continue to grow—not through mandates or lock-in, but because shared infrastructure makes impact data more useful for everyone involved.
I’m optimistic about what’s ahead, and excited to see what becomes possible when we build systems that finally match the values of the social sector.