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Using "benchmark" data
A good strategy to use when measurements are hard to find is to reference benchmark or comparison data.
When a business is entering a new market, launching a new product or planning a marketing campaign, there are metrics used but also a lot of assumptions. For example, market growth rates from previous launches, standard response rates for direct mail campaigns and so on. You can find benchmarks and reference data for almost and type of metric
Non-profits can benefit from the same techniques (making sure to highlight assumptions made and sources of data) especially when trying to measure broad impacts.
-steve