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Principles Into Practice: How charities and social enterprises communicate impact

The Principles of Good Impact Reporting provide a framework for how charities and social enterprises should communicate their impact and what they should communicate. These principles are intended to be flexible; charities can shape their communications and reporting around their own context, and should not view them as a compliance exercise. There is no single right way to report on impact.

These principles are also meant to be aspirational. Many charities and social enterprises will find they cannot at first answer all the questions they pose. Instead, they will have to work through a journey from their purpose to their strategy, taking in their approach to measuring impact along the way. Although many charities will not be able to apply these principles fully at first, asking these questions should help to define a path towards fuller answers. Many charities will improve their reporting significantly by reviewing it against these principles, and can also plot a course towards improving it in future.