Audience & Community: how Culture Compass scores Core Code 2

Audience & Community is Core Code 2 of the Seven Core Codes that Culture Compass scores. Definition of the people served, the on-ramps that bring newcomers in, independent evidence that the audience responds, and reach that is proportional to the organization's stage. In plain terms, it measures whether an organization knows who it serves, gives newcomers an obvious way in, and reaches an audience proportionate to its stage. The score runs from 0 to 100 and is the weighted mean of 4 subdimensions, each scored only from cited evidence in the public record, then checked by an independent critic pass before you see it.

What is measured

Subdimension	Weight	Strong signal	Weak signal
Audience definition	25%	Public surfaces make clear who this is for and who it is not for.	'everyone' or no discernible audience.
On-ramps for newcomers	25%	A newcomer sees an obvious, low-friction next step (plan a visit, book a call, subscribe, join, start here).	many competing asks or none.
Evidence the audience responds	25%	Independent people describe being served in the way the organization intends.	only self-reported claims.
Reach relative to stage	25%	Audience size and spread are proportionate to the organization's stage, geography, and category. Judged relative to peers of similar scale, not by raw follower counts.	Judged relative to peers; no single weak pattern.

For audience definition and on-ramps for newcomers, absence is itself the signal: if the engine searches and finds nothing, that subdimension scores low rather than being left out. For every other subdimension, missing evidence means insufficient, and it is excluded from the weighting instead of being guessed.

What counts as evidence

Audience definition. Homepage and about copy, program descriptions, service pages, ad-style language, social bios, event descriptions.
On-ramps for newcomers. Calls to action, 'new here' or 'start here' pages, forms, booking flows, newsletter capture, event registration paths.
Evidence the audience responds. Third-party reviews, testimonials on independent sites, community threads, press quotes from members or customers, attendance or membership references.
Reach relative to stage. Follower and subscriber counts where public, email list references, event sizes, service attendance references, customer counts, web traffic signals, peer comparison.

Every claim the score rests on carries a numbered id that links to its source excerpt, so any number in the report can be traced back to where it came from. The engine reads the public web as a logged-out visitor; nothing behind a login is measured, and the report says so.

How well-known organizations score

From the public sample reports, produced from the public record with nothing removed. Each score links to the full report, where the subdimensions and the evidence behind this code are shown.

Organization	Kind	Audience & Community	Priority
Brené Brown	Personal brand	75 / 100	Yellow
charity: water	Nonprofit	65 / 100	Yellow
Patagonia	Company	62 / 100	Red: start here
Elevation Church	Church	61 / 100	Red: start here

What the score means

Score	Reads as	Meaning
90 to 100	Exceptional	independently corroborated strength; the top two codes turn green only above this line
75 to 89	Strong	clear strength with minor gaps
55 to 74	Solid foundation	the basics are in place and the gaps are specific and fixable
35 to 54	Weak or inconsistent	present in places, missing or contradictory in others
Below 35	Largely absent	not there, or working against the organization

Scores are absolute. Colors rank priority across the seven codes: the two lowest are red, the middle three yellow, and the top two green only when they clear 90.

How to raise Audience & Community

The rubric's weak signals point at the fixes. In a full report each of these becomes a specific move with an owner and a KPI; these are the general shapes.

Say who this is for, and who it is not for. 'Everyone' reads as no audience. Program pages, service pages, and social bios should name the people you serve.
Give a newcomer one obvious next step. Plan a visit, book a call, subscribe, join, start here: one low-friction path beats five competing asks. For churches this is the single most common gap.
Collect independent proof that the audience responds. Reviews on third-party sites, testimonials people published themselves, and press quotes from members or customers count. Self-reported claims alone do not.
Grow reach in proportion to your stage. Follower counts are judged against peers of similar scale, so a small organization with a real, responsive audience outscores a large one with a silent list.

Questions about Audience & Community

What is the Audience & Community score?

Audience & Community is Core Code 2 of 7 in Culture Compass. It answers one question: Does it know who it serves, and can those people find their way in? It is scored from 0 to 100 as the weighted mean of 4 subdimensions, each scored only from cited public evidence.

How is Audience & Community scored?

From 4 weighted subdimensions: Audience definition (25%), On-ramps for newcomers (25%), Evidence the audience responds (25%), Reach relative to stage (25%). The scoring engine reads the evidence set and the rubric, scores each subdimension from cited claims, and explains its reasoning; the weighted code score is computed from those subdimension scores. For audience definition and on-ramps for newcomers, "we searched and it is not there" is a legitimate low score. An independent critic pass checks the result before you see it.

What evidence does Culture Compass read for Audience & Community?

Audience definition: Homepage and about copy, program descriptions, service pages, ad-style language, social bios, event descriptions. On-ramps for newcomers: Calls to action, 'new here' or 'start here' pages, forms, booking flows, newsletter capture, event registration paths. Evidence the audience responds: Third-party reviews, testimonials on independent sites, community threads, press quotes from members or customers, attendance or membership references. Reach relative to stage: Follower and subscriber counts where public, email list references, event sizes, service attendance references, customer counts, web traffic signals, peer comparison.

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See this code scored on a real organization in the sample reports, read the methodology, or start your own assessment.

Audience & Community