A clear start­ing point is essen­tial for track­ing and demon­strat­ing your impact over time. This includes col­lect­ing both pri­ma­ry data (e.g., from sur­veys or tests) and sec­ondary data (e.g., stud­ies, sta­tis­tics, or reports).

Con­sid­er in advance what’s most rel­e­vant for mea­sur­ing progress toward your core goal and deter­mine how key data points will be mea­sured again lat­er to track change over time.

A struc­tured approach helps you set ref­er­ence val­ues and refine your indi­ca­tors. Exist­ing tem­plates or pub­licly avail­able datasets can serve as use­ful com­par­isons to keep your results real­is­tic and cred­i­ble.

If there are gaps in your data, there’s a plan in place to close them. A sol­id base­line is the foun­da­tion for prov­ing what kind of dif­fer­ence your work is mak­ing – for your tar­get group and your broad­er envi­ron­ment