A world where everyone has the means to succeed, and the joy of having done it.
Flourishing communities, thriving organisations, and governments that reach the last mile.
1 billionpeople by 2047
Mission
Give everyone working for social good the shared technology and the team to make it work.
So their money and energy go into impact, not into rebuilding the same systems again and again.
Values
Enable success, find joy
Solve problems that matter, with compassion
Bring deep expertise, stay humble
Own it the right way
Data belongs to the people it describes
Be a partner to our partners
Enabling people to feel the joy of success.
Comfort fades. Possessions age. Applause quiets. One joy endures: having set out to do something, and done it.
That joy should not be the privilege of a few. Our vision is a world where the means to succeed are within everyone's reach.
A harvest she priced herself, in a season she planned for.A health worker and a patient who both know the treatment worked.The first book he could read on his own.A collective that runs its own operation now.First job, first salary, first month of choices.
Our values, in practice.
Enable success, find joy
We succeed when the people and organisations we work with succeed. Their wins are not a means to our goal; they are the goal, and the joy of seeing them is why we do this work.
Solve problems that matter, with compassion
We start with the people a problem touches, not the technology. We pick problems worth solving and stay with them until they are solved.
Bring deep expertise, stay humble
We bring domain knowledge from the field and strong technical skill. We listen more than we tell, and we know the people on the ground often know best.
Own it the right way
If it is built for a community, it becomes a commons that the community shares and keeps. If it gives a partner its edge, it stays theirs. If one person’s use takes nothing from another’s, it is a public good, open to all.
Data belongs to the people it describes
We believed this long before the law required it. A person’s data is theirs to see, to correct and to take back. We are only its keepers.
Be a partner to our partners
We don’t act like vendors who deliver and leave. We share the risk, tell hard truths early, and stay until the work is done.
The people building change.
From a founder with a first idea to a state mission reaching millions, we work with everyone who carries social impact forward.
Founders and leaders
The people who start and steer social change, and need a team that moves at their pace.
Nonprofits
Grassroots and national organisations doing the work on the ground.
CSR teams
Companies putting capital behind outcomes they can see.
Governments
State and central departments, missions and district administrations.
Foundations
Philanthropies funding programmes that must reach the last mile.
Multilaterals
Global agencies and development partners working in India.
The goals we work toward.
Fourteen domains, mapped to the Sustainable Development Goals they move. Hover a goal to see where we work on it.
1No poverty
2Zero hunger
3Good health and well-being
4Quality education
5Gender equality
6Clean water and sanitation
7Affordable and clean energy
8Decent work and economic growth
9Industry, innovation and infrastructure
10Reduced inequalities
11Sustainable cities and communities
12Responsible consumption and production
13Climate action
14Life below water
15Life on land
16Peace, justice and strong institutions
17Partnerships for the goals
What is commons, and why .inc?
commons.inc
The commons
Built once, shared by all.
The idea
A commons is something built once and used by everyone: roads, language, a public library. All progress stands on what others built before.
The gap
Social impact organisations rarely get to share. Each one pays to build the same donor database, field app and dashboard from scratch.
Our answer
We build these foundations once, as shared platforms, and bring the people who run them. You start ready, and spend on the work only you can do.
The .inc
A steward that answers for it.
Incorporated
Shared infrastructure needs someone accountable for keeping it alive and safe. So we set up a company to do exactly that.
Sustainable
We do well only when the organisations on the platform do well, never by locking them in.
Inclusive
The “inc” also stands for inclusive: built for the last mile, in the languages people speak.
commons.inc is shared infrastructure for social impact, run as a responsible business.
The platforms are licensed to the commons.
Everything we build can be licensed under the Platform Commons License: a copyfair, source-available licence written so that the code stays with the community that depends on it and the data stays with the person it describes.
It is not charity and it is not copyleft. Sharing is encouraged so the work reaches people; commercialisation is encouraged so the work keeps going. Instances join a federation rather than walling each other off, and anything built with public money is published back under Creative Commons.
