Examples¶
Four complete examples are in the repository's
examples/
directory. Everything in them is fictional: the organizations, people,
numbers, and URLs (all under example.org) are invented for illustration.
Each is valid, is in canonical form, and is checked by the test suite, and the two reference impact models lint with no errors, so you can copy one as a starting point.
Membership network¶
examples/intermediary: Riverbend Nonprofit Network, a network of about 150
nonprofits and eight staff, with three program areas modelled as pathways:
Learning Exchange, Shared Services, and Civic Voice.
It shows two impact layers (member change and resident change) with the ceiling
of accountability between them; 23 outcomes across all five levels with
all, any, and at_least precondition logic; a metric library; measurement
design with weighted selection criteria and a collection budget; a problem tree,
with causes that feed one another and the effects of the core problem, and
target groups; audiences and a story codebook; a mission and vision, a North
Star with a guardrail for each program area, and headline lists that lead the
board, funders, and members with different numbers; and a spreadsheet import with
its column mapping. The folder holds the impact model, a quarter of observations with
stories and a learning review, and a monthly CSV with its mapping.yaml.
impact-model status examples/intermediary/impact-model.yaml \
-O examples/intermediary/observations-2026-q3.yaml
impact-model import observations --csv examples/intermediary/csv/monthly-q4.csv \
--map examples/intermediary/csv/mapping.yaml --model examples/intermediary/impact-model.yaml
Market adoption¶
examples/market-adoption: a fictional open standard driven to adoption in a
market with two competing approaches, a proprietary single-vendor scheme and an
extension of an older authorization framework. It shows an impact model about a market
rather than a program: adoption outcomes, the competition modelled as outcomes in
the interest sphere, and a shared actor registry. It uses the
Adopt-Adapt-Expand-Respond market-systems framing.
Competing futures¶
examples/competing-futures: three impact models that describe different futures of
one market and share one registry of actors. Validate them together:
impact-model validate examples/competing-futures/future-*.yaml \
--registry examples/competing-futures/actors.yaml --futures
Course catalog¶
examples/course-catalog: a fictional small nonprofit's free, on-demand
certificate courses for staff of other nonprofits. Its one program is marked
projections: [dmaic] and is measured weekly: completion rate, courses started,
hours to a first forum answer, and a post-course Net Promoter Score from a survey
large enough for weekly scores. Twenty-four weeks of observations give each of
those enough points for control limits. A monthly catalog count and a yearly
graduate survey are flagged by the DMAIC lint rules on purpose. Its problem tree
has two causes, a missing training budget that leaves staff no time, and two
effects, untrained leadership and weaker programs.
impact-model lint examples/course-catalog/impact-model.yaml
impact-model export dmaic examples/course-catalog/impact-model.yaml \
-O examples/course-catalog/observations-2026-h1.yaml
See the DMAIC guide.