About
Independent records, connected organizations
TierSphere is the infrastructure for community impact. Educational institutions, community organizations and funders each manage their own stakeholders, work, resources, evidence and impact on it, and work together through the same network without handing over their records.
Educational institutions
Districts, schools and colleges keep their own programs, requirements and student records, and see the verified work their students do with the partners they connect.
Community organizations
Nonprofits, civic and service groups, membership organizations and associations keep their own members, volunteers, programs and evidence of impact, and share it with the partners they choose.
Funders and resource providers
Companies, foundations and grantmakers keep their own grants and giving, and see the verified activity of the organizations they support, as far as each relationship allows.
Each organization keeps its own record
An educational institution, a nonprofit or association, a company or foundation manages its own stakeholders (the people it serves and works with), its programs and work, the resources it gives or receives, and the evidence and impact of that work on TierSphere. That record belongs to the organization, not to whoever it partners with.
One network connects them, on their terms
Organizations connect to do the work together: a college with the community partners it works with, a nonprofit with the funders who back it. Connecting shares only what that relationship allows: totals by default, and named people only for a specific purpose, like a placement or a program run together.
Evidence says how it was confirmed
Every hour is Reported, Recorded or Verified, and it says which. Verified means a person confirmed it at the time, or reviewed its evidence.
Consent governs young people
What is shared about a minor follows the family’s consent and the institution’s policy, and a partner sees only what its part of the work needs.
Impact says where it comes from
Impact on TierSphere is counted from what the connected organizations record on TierSphere. Work that never reaches the platform is not in it, and no figure pretends otherwise.
How verification works
Every hour on TierSphere carries one of three states, and it always says which. The state comes from how the hour reached the record, not from a setting anyone can flip.
Reported: someone says it happened
A person submits hours after the fact, or signs up and has not been confirmed yet. Reported hours are visible as pending and count nowhere until the organization reviews them.
Recorded: an organization put it on its record
The organization approved the hours, but nobody confirmed them at the time: attendance entered after the session ended, or history imported from earlier records. Recorded hours show on the record, labeled Recorded, and do not count toward a requirement unless the institution’s policy says they should.
Verified: a person confirmed it
The person was checked in on site while the session was happening, by staff or with the session’s own code, or a reviewer approved hours submitted with their evidence, or a named outside verifier confirmed them. Requirements count Verified hours by default.
Nothing is called verified unless a person confirmed it. That is the claim, and it is the only one we make. People do submit their own hours, and organizations do add records afterwards. Both stay on the record, and both say what they are.