The Public Purpose Institute includes intialives focused on exploring the public purposes of higher education. Current initiatives include the Carnegie Foundation Elective Classification in Community Engagement; Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement; The National Assessment of Service and Community Engagement, the National Inventory of Institutional Infrastructure for Community Engagement; and other projects.

Carnegie Elective Classifications
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching sponsors Elective Classifications for those institutions that have made extraordinary commitments to their public purpose.

The National Assessment for Service and Community Engagement (NASCE)
NASCE is an institutional assessment tool for measuring how well participating colleges and universities fulfill their missions as they relate to service and community engagement.

National Inventory for Institutional Infrastructure on Community Engagement (NIIICE)
The National Inventory for Institutional Infrastructure on Community Engagement (NI3CE, NIIICE) is a free institutional assessment tool to map infrastructure of campuses and community engagement centers.